These key Android Auto icons could soon get an Android 16-flavored refresh

Source: Android Authority

TL;DR

• Google is testing new Android Auto icons to display cellular status, in line with Android 16’s icon design.
• A range of new icons shows the phone’s cellular connectivity strength on the car’s screen.
• The updates also hint at a light theme for Android Auto, a work in progress since last year.

New visual updates

Google has been narrowing the feature gap between phone navigation and Android Auto. Recently it tested a color‑changing menu for the vehicle right within Android Auto. The latest visual change brings Android Auto’s UI closer to the phone’s design language.

A new set of icons now indicates signal strength. Compared with the current sharp‑edged icons, these are rounder and include:

• Individual bars for signal strength instead of a shaded triangle.
• Updated typography that labels the cellular network type.

Alignment with Android 16

These icon changes mirror the status‑bar icon updates Google rolled out in Android 16. On the phone, the new design is already live, but Android Auto’s icons have lagged because they are bundled with the Android Auto app rather than pulled from the system UI. Consequently, users with Samsung devices may already see different icons, while most other Android devices—including Pixel phones—still show the older set.

Battery icons, however, remain unchanged, suggesting that the rollout will be incremental.

Beta version and rollout outlook

The new icons were spotted in version 16.3.160744 beta of the Android Auto app. No official release timeline has been announced. Observers hope for a preview at Google I/O 2026, though the update could arrive earlier.

⚠️ An APK teardown can predict future features based on work‑in‑progress code, but there’s no guarantee that these predictions will reach a public release.