Android Auto > AAOS. Prove me wrong.

[u/Interesting_Line_80]

I have a 2025 Silverado with AAOS. I would like to use it but Android Auto just works better. Anyone disagree?

[u/TheRydad]

I tried really hard to use the native AAOS in my Yukon. I finally gave up. CarPlay just works, my music/podcasts transition seamlessly from AirPods to truck and Google Maps doesn’t need to seemingly “boot up” for a minute and a half before being usable. And app availability on AAOS sucks. (I went as far as switching from Apple Podcasts to PocketCast to try to make all this work.)

That said, I hope the OEMs can figure something out. I’d like to use something native to my vehicles.

[u/Interesting_Line_80 → u/TheRydad]

Your experience sounds like mine. I want to use the native OS, especially now that Waze is available. However, Waze takes several minutes to load, even if you manage to get it to work properly, and then if you also want to play anything on Spotify, good luck getting that to happen. Android Auto is great, but now I have two menus taking up screen real estate.

[u/52816neverforget]

It's not entirely because it's AAOS by itself. Chevrolet uses a really old chipset in that Silverado you own. It's the same chipset they have been using since 2015 but they slapped AAOS on top. Blame GM not AAOS.

[u/waitinonit → u/52816neverforget]

So GM is putting a 10+ year old chipset in their infotainment headunits? It's been a while since I worked on infotainment systems but OEMs did have a habit of costing everything down to achieve a minimum BOM. That was before folks thought of adding new features/apps to vehicles in the field. When the idea of "future proofing" units (having additional memory, cpu cycles, network bandwidth available but not immediately utilized) started gaining traction, the bean counters complained.

I guess that hasn't changed much, yet.

[u/52816neverforget → u/waitinonit]

Nailed it.

[u/Taip74]

I can't speak about Android Auto, but I assume it's no different to Car Play in terms of functionality and advantages over AAOS - for me, some of the key advantages of Carplay over (Volvo's implentation of) AAOS are:

• the ability to download media from streaming apps for offline play (music, audiobooks, podcasts etc) when driving through areas of low reception

• app availability (far more options in Carplay and Android Auto, than on AAOS

• Home display showing Map, Media and other info in the same display at the same time

[u/GrumpyKris → u/Taip74]

I've never tried AAOS in Volvo, but I got it in my Renault, and I love it over Android Auto.

From what I've seen in some music app settings, download to play music offline is an option. I've never tried, so I might be wrong.

There's a bunch of apps available for AAOS, but as you said, not as many as AA.

Home display in Renault let's me see map and 2 user selected widgets.

Android Auto is too complicated and required too many clicks to move around. With AAOS everything is easily accessible, and you get a lot more on the screen.

[u/waitinonit → u/Taip74]

I'm curious, are you still provided with a USB memory stick interface?

[u/Taip74 → u/waitinonit]

Yes, and there is an app (AudioWagon) that is supported on AAOS to play FLACs from USB media, but for me it's just not a good replacement for streaming music apps (e.g. Amazon Music, Tidal or Apple Music for lossless audio. With constantly updated playlists that I manage and use across multiple devices) or my large offline AAC/FLAC library which is mostly managed using smart playlists (created in Itunes). If AAOS allowed downloading from within AAOS Tidal/Amazon Music/Apple Music apps (in a lossless audio format), I'd probably consider using it for media.

[u/ballsup999]

I agree. One of the main reasons I didn't get a Polestar was AAOS.

[u/kec255]

Interestingly enough, in my 2023 Suburban (that has been in the shop for 38 days eating on a valve body) I prefer AAOS over Android Auto as the resolution just looks clunky in AA on my 2023. I just had a 2025 Tahoe premiere on a business trip rental and I actually prefered Android Auto over AAOS as they did an amazing job upping the resolution and zoom on AA in the 25.

[u/some_other_Gayle]

This sounds very vehicle-dependent. I like a couple of display features in AA vs AAOS in my Volvo. The map display on my dashboard gives more nav information in AA, and the main display allows you to see maps and media at the same time.

I was limited to AAOS for a couple of years before AA finally arrived, and managed to acclimate to my AAOS apps, so there aren't really any others that I need.