(5 III) Android Auto misbehaving after Android 13 update

[Citizen_Crazed]

Really pleased with the Android 13 so far - particularly with the phone being noticeably snappier in pretty much all its responses, especially to voice command. However...

When getting in the car (2021 BMW 3-series with iDrive 7 inc latest (July) update) I've found a problem. Android Auto is now behaving strangely after hearing the Hey Google trigger phrase.

When I say it, the green lozenge/dot 'microphone active' icon on the phone display pops up for about a second before disappearing, the media being played mutes as expected, but the "media' section of the car's display, plus the Android Auto icon/widget bar all completely black out, before briefly showing the clock in the 'media' section of the display, and then returning to normal - and unmuting the media - but without prompting for, or accepting, a voice command.

Also, if I pause media playback, and then say Hey Google, after the black screen/clock sequence, media starts playing back again spontaneously without being unpaused. This makes me think that the Android Auto app is actually either crashing and restarting, or disconnecting/reconnecting after hearing the trigger phrase:

If I hold down the assistant button on the steering wheel, or hit the microphone icon on the car's touchscreen, Android Auto continues to behave normally - requesting and properly processing voice commands:

...so at least it's a problem I can work around, but it's annoying and clearly some sort of bug nevertheless.

I've done all the obvious, including checking the app's permissions and have also tried restarting the phone, unpairing both car and phone from each other before re-pairing. The behaviour hasn't changed. Voice command works perfectly everywhere else - including on my other car, which connects via an RM-X7BT Bluetooth remote control/media interface (and so Android Auto displays on the phone rather than on the car). 

I'm guessing from the fact that the steering wheel assistant button and the touchscreen microphone button still work, that there's no issue within the car's OS/display. Nothing has changed there and everything worked fine on Android 12. 

Anyone else noticed this issue, or have a fix? Will go report the issue on the Google support forums too.

Edited to add: Further to the above, been looking on the Google Android Auto support community and this is already a known issue affecting multiple devices and cars. Link to thread here: Hey Google causing issues / not responding - Android Auto Community

[EMS_MO72]

Hi @Citizen_Crazed

Yes, I hear a lot of people complaining about android auto after Android 13, suspected it might be related to Google more than the device itself as, it's affecting several models.

Have you tried to clear cache and date, force stop for android auto and test again , it sometimes help?

[Citizen_Crazed]

Hi @EMS_MO72, thanks for the suggestion. And yes it is definitely a Google rather than an Xperia or device-specific issue.

Unfortunately I tried clearing the cache as one of the first diagnostic steps, it doesn't help. There are a couple of "workarounds" that will temporarily (i.e. for a single activation) clear the fault, but the amount of hassle necessary isn't worth the reward when the hardware button on the steering wheel and virtual button on the screen still work to summon the Assistant.

The Android Auto dev team reached out to me via the thread in the Google communities and I sent them both a video and a bug report before Christmas - as have a few others there, so they are hopefully getting a clue on it.

The problem looks to be rooted in the Google app (rather than Android Auto itself) - as some have been able to get a permanent workaround going by removing updates on their Google apps (and hence reverting to an older build that isn't prone to the bug). Unfortunately that isn't as easily possible with the Xperia 5 III given that the version of the Google app in the December system update that installs Android 13 suffers from the bug and thus rolling back to an older build isn't straightforward.

Fingers crossed it'll be fixed in a further update soonish.

[Citizen_Crazed · Accepted solution]

Further update, and good news for anyone else dealing with this bug: Phone updated its Google app (to build 14.1.1.26.arm64) last night, and first trip in the car today, Android Auto appears to be working 100% - and much more snappy and responsive than my old Android 12 setup too, so color me pleased.