I've always preferred CarPlay over Android Auto, but Google's in-car platform beats Apple's offering in a lot of ways, including customization options and third-party apps and app stores.

The platform also offers extensive developer options that not everyone knows exists, including improving the reliability of your phone's USB connection to Android Auto with a simple setting, or, in this case, a feature I recently stumbled across that lets you improve the resolution of Android Auto on your in-car display.

Make your Android Auto screen less blurry

It's wild I didn't know this feature existed until recently

Have you ever looked at your car's infotainment screen with Android Auto running and thought that it seemed a bit blurry? As far as my Ioniq 5 is concerned, this isn't something I've really taken note of, but with other cars I've driven, it's definitely a thought that's crossed my mind.

I've always assumed that it's just what the screen looks like and that its panel must be low resolution. While this might be true in some cases, particularly with older vehicles, there's actually a hidden resolution setting you can change to make your vehicle's Android Auto display look noticeably cleaner and clearer. I'm actually shocked at how much of a difference adjusting this setting made with my Android Auto display.

First, you need to enable Android Auto's Developer options with the following steps:

1. Open the Settings app on your Android phone.
2. Navigate to Connected Devices (it's the second option).
3. Tap on Android Auto (on my Pixel 10 Pro, I also need to press on Connection Preferences first).
4. Scroll down and tap on Version until Developer Settings are enabled (you'll get an update that you only have three taps left when you're close).

Now it's time to make your way to Android Auto's Developer settings:

1. To do that, tap the three-dot button at the top of the screen under the Android Auto Settings you're already in.
2. Now tap on Developer Settings.
3. Scroll down to Video Resolution and select from one of the options: 800 x 480, 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080, 1440 x 2560, and 2160 x 3840 pixels.

Depending on what Android smartphone you use, these steps will be slightly different (in my case, my daily phone is a Pixel 10 Pro). That said, they should be very similar.

Make sure you select the right resolution

If you have an older vehicle, increasing the resolution might make the display look worse

If you have an older vehicle, dialing the resolution up to 4K will look pretty bad (it'll look bad on even new vehicles in most cases). You might even encounter an entirely black screen in some situations. If that happens, just change the resolution, and you should see your Android Auto home screen again. It's worth noting that, in my case, I needed to set the resolution and then unplug and plug my Pixel 10 Pro in again to my vehicle for the resolution to change.

In my case, I bumped the display resolution up from 1920 x 720 to 1920 x 1080, the resolution I think my Ioniq 5's main infotainment screen is (Hyundai has never disclosed the screen's resolution as far as I know). I immediately noticed that it looked markedly sharper, whether it's my home screen's custom pixel art background, app icons, or Waze's map. If you aren't sure what your infotainment screen's resolution is, it's worth looking up your vehicle model. In most cases, if your car is from the last few years, it's likely 1920 x 720 or 1920 x 1080.

This isn't exactly a hidden feature, but if you're looking to clean up your Android Auto home screen even more, you can get rid of apps you don't use. To do this, head to Android Auto > Customize Launcher > Display. You'll then see a list of apps on your dashboard. You can uncheck ones you don't want and drag and drop them to rearrange their location.