These are my 6 favorite underrated Android Auto apps

Android Auto is one of Google’s more underrated products. It provides a quick and distraction-free portal to your Android smartphone while on the road, allowing you to play music, access pertinent information, and navigate your surroundings. Naturally, I take full advantage of it with a list of apps I rely on daily. But what about those apps that aren’t as obvious as Spotify, Google Maps, Waze, or WhatsApp? Below is my list of underrated Android Auto apps that are well worth trying.

I’ve long used Musicolet as my offline music player of choice on Android, but it’s equally useful on Android Auto.

I always keep a stash of downloaded podcasts, audiobooks, and other longer audio tracks in case I run out of data and can’t access any content from any other app. I play all this through Musicolet. It’s not made explicitly for audiobooks, but it does a fairly decent job at playing tracks in order, provided you name their files sequentially.

Beyond that, the Android app offers a host of nifty customization options, a clean UI, and an equally attractive layout on Android Auto.

Knowing weather conditions along a route is convenient and vital for safety. I’ve been caught in many winter storms, and it’s always comforting to know how heavy the rain may get, how blustery the wind will become, and whether I’ll get some sunshine when I make it home. This makes Weather & Radar a great real-time information and planning tool.

It provides live radar data detailing rain intensity, wind strength and direction, and temperature on a broader map view. Sure, you can and probably should use other apps for a simpler forecast, but Weather & Radar thrives on giving you the larger picture.

My preferred daily navigation app is Google Maps, but it misses plenty of data when you venture off the beaten track. When I’m adventuring through the heart of my province, I need an app to highlight alternative routes that Maps may not have too much information on.

OsmAnd fills the gap in these instances. It utilizes OpenStreetMap data, which is far richer beyond towns and built-up areas. Its real utility shines through in its customization options, which you can adjust to suit your purpose. For instance, the Touring map style includes data on the surface of a given road in addition to its quality. Considering I drive a little SUV, I must know this information beforehand. OsmAnd is also excellent for scoping out hiking trails, cycling routes, peak names, river crossings, and railway lines.

I keep a few other mapping apps for Android Auto, just in case. Maps.me has become a solid alternative if all else fails, while Waze gets me out of stubborn jams. Organic Maps is a viable and free OpenStreetMap alternative, too.

Notably, only the premium version of OsmAnd supports Android Auto. You can unlock it with a one-time payment or a modest annual subscription fee. Before you do, give the app a whirl on your phone before investing in it.

If I’m craving something other than a book read, Spotify playlist, or recorded set, and nothing’s on the local radio, I’ll turn to RadioTime. It gives me access to a wealth of global radio stations, letting me keep up to date with live sports, current events, and good ol’ radio.

The Android Auto layout offers easy access to stations you last accessed, making it simple to jump right back into what you were listening to before. I quite like that. It also provides a favorite option, which I use religiously.

Beyond Android Auto, RadioTime’s real attraction is its simple smartphone layout. It includes ads, but you can get rid of them by paying a small fee.

There are a few other good global radio apps for Android Auto. I recently reviewed Non Stop Radio, but other classics like TuneIn Radio still exist.

Fuelio is my vehicle logbook app. Its principal purpose is to help me find fuel stations along a route in an unfamiliar area, which makes it invaluable on a road trip. It also provides fuel pricing per liter, so I can gauge whether it’s worth filling up sooner or later.

However, I also use it to keep track of those refuelings, my vehicle’s mileage and consumption, service intervals, and overall spending.

Fuelio can also initiate guidance via Google Maps to a fuel station of my choosing, saving me the hassle of searching within Maps itself. At the same time, it has a built-in trip recording feature if your car’s internal system gives you trouble.

Finally, what would a road trip be without a good horror podcast? Podcast Republic is my podcast app of choice for Android and Android Auto. The latter’s interface allows me to browse downloaded podcasts on my phone, while the phone app makes it easy to find new podcasts and grab content on the fly.

Listening to music can grow tiresome, so putting on a languid retelling of a disaster or a deep dive into a historic event makes for a welcome change.

Is there an Android Auto app you can’t live without? Let me know in the comments below.