Android Auto users have eagerly awaited a long-promised visual redesign, and it finally started rolling out this month after loads of beta testing. Codenamed Coolwalk, the visual refresh was a big talking point for Google at CES 2023. That's not the only quality-of-life improvement coming to Android Auto, though. As first spotted all the way back in summer 2022, Google's infotainment system is finally making its new scrubbing bar more widely available.

If you love listening to audiobooks or podcasts on longer drives, it is nigh impossible to resume listening when you paused and lost your position—not to mention if you just want to scrub back to that great part of a song you love to listen to over and over. The current workaround—using your connected phone to access the progress bar—is dangerous for obvious reasons.

Android Auto fixes that with the addition of a playback progress bar you can access on your car’s infotainment screen, as spotted by a Redditor (via 9to5Google) and corroborated by one of our tipsters. It is a big step up from the dated controls which only allowed restarting a track or skipping to the next one, and it's been long in the works. Google was first spotted experimenting with it back in summer 2022.

The new linear progress bar replaces the circular one outlining the play/pause button, and is seen in all music playback apps compatible with Android Auto. However, the rollout appears to be a gradual one, with only a handful of reports from users at the time of writing. It's possible that the Coolwalk design upgrade is what triggers the new scrubbing bar for many people, even those these features are introduced separately from each other.

This feature addition could give Android Auto the leg up over Apple CarPlay on the customizability front, although they are beginning to look rather similar in practice. The latter still lacks widespread support for a seek bar. Hopefully, Google rolls out this essential change to people stuck using older versions of Android Auto, too.

UPDATE: 2023/01/16 11:55 EST BY MANUEL VONAU

In testing since summer 2022

We've updated the article to include that the new scrubbing bar has been in testing since summer 2022.