Android Auto is about to cut off Android 9 and 10 phones

What drivers are seeing

Android Auto users have started seeing a message on their car displays warning that their phone will no longer be supported. Android Police reports that the notice points to Google raising the app's minimum requirement to Android 11, a jump that would cut off phones still running Android 9 Pie or Android 10.

Google has not published the change yet. Its Android Auto help page still lists Android 9.0 Pie or higher as the requirement for a wired connection, and wireless projection already asks for Android 11 or newer. The warnings appear to be the usual advance notice that goes out before an older software floor is raised.

Which phones are affected

The phones at risk are the ones that stopped receiving major Android updates years ago. Android Police names the Samsung Galaxy S9 and Note 9 and the Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact among the devices stuck on Android 10, which means anyone still using one of them as their in-car phone is looking at a replacement rather than a software patch.

This is a familiar cycle. Google raised the floor once before, dropping support for anything older than Android 9, and the company treats Android Auto as a product tied to the current Android release rather than an anything-goes accessory.

Our opinion

Android Auto is one of the few Google products where an old phone is genuinely useful, because a handset in a glovebox does not need a fast chip or a good camera to run maps and music. Cutting Android 10 off in 2026 turns working hardware into e-waste for no consumer benefit.

The counter-argument is security: an unpatched Android 10 phone is a liability the moment it talks to a car head unit over USB. That is a fair point, but the honest fix is to keep the projection protocol compatible and tell people their phone is a risk, not to brick the accessory they already paid for.