YouTube for Android is rolling out support for Android Auto, but before you get too excited, keep in mind that what you can actually do with it is quite limited.
Android Auto will always stream any audio playing on your phone, but it doesn’t always give you additional controls for that. We’ve noticed in recent months that more apps have shown functionality through Android Auto’s media controls, and now it looks like YouTube has been added to the list.
Through recent updates, YouTube appears to have added support for Android Auto, which is now widely available. We’re seeing functionality across multiple devices, accounts, and app versions, both beta and stable, and on Reddit users. report the same.
This is No a YouTube app on Android Auto. You can’t play videos, you can’t even see a full screen of media controls. YouTube appears solely in the dashboard media widget with the ability to play/pause content and also skip to the next video; that’s a full video jump, not a jump forward. inside the video, and the same action applies to the steering wheel controls as well as we have tested.
This will surely be useful to some: there are many podcasts, clips, and even full YouTube videos that allow you to listen to only audio while driving. But this is certainly not the full version of “YouTube for Android Auto” that many expected. However, according to Google, that’s not out of the question.
You’ll also need a YouTube Premium subscription for this to work, otherwise background playback won’t be available. As of February 2026However, background playback is included in the $7.99/month Premium Lite plan, which is a much more affordable option.
More about Android Auto:
Follow Ben: Twitter/X, Rags, blue skyand instagram
FTC: We use automatic affiliate links that generate income. Further.
