CES 2023 Android announcements: New Android Auto is here for all, more

CES 2023 officially started today. Although we’ve heard about many product announcements over the past few days, the show floor is now open.

On that show floor is Android’s booth, which you can check out at a special site. To coincide with the opening of Google’s giant Android CES 2023 home, the company made a bunch of announcements related to Android. These announcements include new features and some interesting milestones Google’s recently achieved.

Here is all the major news.

Android CES 2023 announcements

• New Android Auto is here for all: In late 2022, Google rolled out the new Android Auto layout (first shown at I/O 2022). However, this public beta was only available for select users. Starting today, this new layout exits the beta phase and becomes available to all.
• Spotify Connect: In Android 13, you can easily select the output for your music, whether that’s a Bluetooth speaker, a speaker with Chromecast built-in, or even the phone itself. Google announced today that it is working with Spotify to allow for similar simplicity when switching to any Spotify Connect device from Android’s media player.
• Tap to move: If you’re listening to music on your earbuds while on the subway, you might want to continue that playback on your speakers when you get home. Doing this requires a lot of tapping. However, Google is working on a way to make this simpler through intelligent notifications. These alerts will pop up as you move into the general proximity of the various listening devices you own. At first, this will work with YouTube Music and Spotify.
• Digital car keys: You can already share your digital car key on Pixel phones and iPhones. This capability is coming to both Samsung and Xiaomi phones this year.

Milestones: 6 things Google wants to highlight

Google didn’t just announce new rollouts and features at CES. It also announced some notable milestones the company has seen recently.

• In 2022 alone, over 320 million Fast Pair connections were made.
• Nearby Share now works across three billion different devices.
• Casting is one of the most-used Android features, and it is now possible to use it with over 3,000 audio and video apps.
• Since 2021, the number of Wear OS watches has increased by a factor of three.
• There are over 150 million monthly active Google TV devices around the world.
• There are now seven automobile brands that create vehicles built on Android Automotive.

Stay tuned for more Android news from CES 2023, and don’t forget to check out our Best of CES 2023 Awards!