Google is adding support for games to Android Auto, so games like Candy Crush Soda Saga and Angry Birds 2 can be played from the touchscreens of compatible cars. The new feature is included in the beta version of Android 14.1, which is already available to testers.
Currently, only four games are supported: Farm Heroes Saga and Beach Buggy Racing have been added to Candy Crush and Angry Birds. To play them on the car display, you need to first install the games on your phone, and for obvious reasons, they are only available when the car is parked. 9to5Google tested this and found that when you pull out of the parking lot, “the game immediately closes and turns gray in the app drawer and app switcher.”
This addition also marks the first time that full-screen apps have been made available in Android Auto, although it’s unclear if this option will be extended to other types of apps. The support for games and full-screen mode brings Android Auto closer to the software on Google-embedded cars, which already support a wider range of games that can be played while parked.
Support for games in Android Auto was announced by Google earlier this month as part of the March feature update, but the company did not say when the option would be released from beta. These are not the first games to be available in Android Auto: a small number of basic HTML5 games were added in 2021 as part of the Google GameSnacks service.
