Okay - so I don’t have a newer vehicle with Android Auto built-in, nor do I have a 3rd party head unit with it. Back in November, Google removed the (poor) replacement for Android Auto on the phone. So now - the only way I can have a driving experience in Android is to use Maps to navigate to a specific destination.
I mostly drive to familiar places and have no need to for directions. I used Android Auto for music and a general map of my location as I drove.
Long story short: Can I either can back Android Auto on my phone or is there a good 3rd party app for free/reasonable price that can replicate the functionality. I don’t want one with its own maps or whatever.
None of the cars I drive have Android or CarPlay either, I found the version on the phone useful, and I’ve actually started to use Siri in the car, since I switched to iPhone this year.
It sounds like what you are looking for is driving mode in Google maps. It shows you your current road position and allows you to use assistant to play music etc.
Yes, Google Maps driving mode should still work. The only downside I’ve found is you need to enter a destination and start navigation to get to it, even with a homescreen shortcut. But you can then cancel the route and it stays.
For me, it does go into driving mode (bigger fonts), but asks for a destination. You have to enter that and hit navigate to see the menu bar that gives you access to calls, messages + media.
I’ve tried a few, AutoZen was the best I could find, but I went back to Google Maps in the end and none of them are great IMO. With AutoZen you could either pick their inbuilt mapping (for a fee) or it would switch to Google Maps anyway - leaving you to switch between 2 apps in the car.
Not sure how they’ve stopped Android Auto from running, guess you’d either need to downgrade your OS, Google Play or run an old version of the app. Neither of the versions on apkmirror work. Might stop you from getting security updates if you did that.