Get ready for Android Auto weather apps

For safety reasons, Google restricts the types of applications developers can distribute for Android Auto and Android Automotive, both of which are used exclusively in vehicles. Rather than individual approvals, Google created a set of categories apps must fall under to be supported. As of this month, weather apps have been added to that list, opening the door to new apps that let you see weather info relevant to your current location or route.

Android Auto apps can be one of the following categories: Media (audio), Messaging, Navigation, Point of Interest (POI), and Internet of Things (IoT). These apps can be used while driving or parked. Android Automotive supports the same categories, except there’s no Messaging, and it adds support Video, Games, and Browsers, which are only available when the vehicle is parked.

At Google I/O earlier this year, Google announced that it would bring messaging and VoIP apps to cars running Android Automotive. It also teased that the Video, Games, and Browsers categories would be expanded to Android Auto and that a new Weather category would soon open up in beta access for developers. Google didn’t say when exactly it would welcome these categories, but earlier this week I noticed that the company had updated its list of supported app categories for Android Auto and Android Automotive to include the new Weather option.

Here’s the list of supported app categories for Android Auto and Android Automotive as of today:

General App Categories

Parked App Categories

Google expects weather apps to help you see relevant weather information related to your current location or along your route. Weather apps can optionally provide navigation capabilities to help you get from point A to point B. While developers can distribute weather apps for both Android Auto and Android Automotive via the Google Play Store, the category is currently in beta, limiting distribution to internal, closed, and open testing tracks. Developers will be able to distribute weather apps through production (i.e. open to anyone) tracks “at a later date.”

Developers creating weather apps for Android Auto and Android Automotive are encouraged to use the Android for Cars App Library, which provides helpful templates. These apps must adhere to Google’s car app quality guidelines, including specific requirements for the Weather category. For example, weather information on map tiles must use simple legends (no more than three), forecast information must use easily readable icons and symbols, forecast intervals cannot be customized using templates, and a maximum of five unique weather map annotations can be shown per view.

Although the official Weather category is only now in beta, some weather apps have already been available on the Google Play Store for Android Auto and Android Automotive. A weather app called “Weather & Radar” has been available since early last year, whereas another weather app named “MyRadar Weather Radar” launched earlier this year. These two apps are currently available for download, but if you prefer other options, then you will need to wait for more apps to be released under the new Weather category.