Anyone using it? What does it do that the existing features of my truck won't ?

 

I don't have factory navigation so use Android Auto with Google maps. Works great. Also use it for music and podcasts apps.

 

Android Auto can be useful to use some of the apps on your phone with voice commands similar to using Sync. An alternate to built in Navigation or adding Navigation to a vehicle that does not have Nav is also a benefit. There are limited functions of what is provided from the factory, Android Auto lets you add new functionality to your vehicle and there will be voice commands to do so. Some that I find useful are Stitcher for podcasts, Waze for traffic and road updates for certain routes (and I use built in Nav other times), Weather apps, the list can go on. Every app is not Android Auto enabled.

 

Thanks. I'll skip it. I have full navigation. I thought it was more than that.

 

I don't use it because I don't really have a use for my phone while driving. If I was a phone while driving user, I'd probably use it. It's meant to make the dash controls control your phone so you don't have to fiddle with it.
I have navigation, but I don't go anywhere. haha I've used navigation a few times though for some of the trips I've made. I don't use bluetooth phone since I don't make calls while driving. I don't use my phone's music either since I have XM and again, I'm not in the truck long enough to use my own jukebox. A friend has used the iphone connected features on a couple trips. Mostly just because she had a new album and we listed to it on a road trip. Plus she can't get in a vehicle without automatically plugging it in to charge.

 

people still use (and pay for) XM?

its not just a "control your phone while driving" app

 

It is much better than factory nav. I have full navigation as well but will go to Android Auto almost everytime. I use the navigation app called Waze. The benefit over factory nav is that it stays updated all the time. No need to upgrade the maps. On top of that other users of it can report things such as construction, cars on the shoulder, obstacles on the road, speed traps to name a few. It shows the speed limit on the road and a GPS speed of what you are actually traveling. There is also Google maps if you want but Google actually owns Waze and Waze has a lot more. The only time I prefer factory nav over Waze is if I am somewhere remote with no cell coverage, you can't set up a new route. Same goes for Google Maps last I tried it. You can download offline maps in Google Maps but it needs access to their servers to set up a route. It is rare that this happens but it has happened and that is where factory nav comes in.

I also listen to podcasts a lot so those are through an app there. In addition to that I pay for Youtube Music or Youtube Premium, I forget which but by buying one you get the other bundled. That is all my music if I want to listen to that. Cheaper than Sirius and no ads when I watch Youtube and unlimited music for me and the family makes it worth it. You can also download your playlists to your phone for when there is no internet.

Android Auto was one of the requirements when we bought the F150. Along with Adaptive Cruise Control.

 

I use Sirius XM mainly to listen to the cable TV news and business channels while driving - all of them - to get a rounded view on the world. Yes, the commercials drive me crazy, but that's how I get to sample the different channels - changing stations when a commercial comes on. For music purposes, I rip CD's in either the Microsoft Windows Media Lossless format (For Sync 2) or FLAC lossless for the F-150 to an USB drive (16 GB holds about 500 songs and they are played in song title order to get some variety between genres and artists) as the lossy audio codec used in satellite radios or via Spotify is unlistenable after about 20 minutes for music, even in a truck (which I will admit, is really quiet). The play lists for the popular music (Chill and Watercolors channels are also too short so they only get short samples - during commercials!).

If you have the space on your phone, you can also play the music stored there via Android Auto. I don't know how audio is sent to the truck audio system via USB - whether it uses the DACs in the phone or the truck DACS in the audio system - or whether an analog audio signal is sent to the truck via USB for playback through the truck analog audio amplifiers. When using Bluetooth, the analog or lossless files stored on the phone are digitized in a lossy data reduction format to be transmitted via Bluetooth, which reduced the sound quality that one went through so many steps to preserve.

 

Google Maps set to satellite is really cool.

 

It'll make you want to kill yourself. Have you ever read, "The Emperor Has No Clothes"?