Android Auto UI changes

[BrokenPaw]

Hey, all, recently I have noticed two really bad UI changes to Pandora under Android Auto, and I'm wondering whether 1) anyone else has experienced these same issues, and 2) whether there is a workaround or fix or something.

On the Pandora screen on AA, down at the bottom where there used to be the Thumbs-down, Skip,  Pause/Play, Repeat, and Thumbs-up buttons, now there are Skip, Repeat, Pause/Play, Another Skip button that looks different, and then a three-dots kabob button that pops up a separate row of controls, which has the Thumbs-up and Thumbs-down buttons on it.

This is ridiculous for an app designed to be used in a car, because it means that to thumb up or down a song, you have to take your eyes of the road twice (or once for longer) to reach these commonly-used controls, and there's no apparent difference in functionality between the old >>| and the new >| control, so there's no reason to have relegated the thumb controls to a submenu.

Then on top of that, any time I thumbs-down a song, it doesn't just skip to the next track, it takes me back to the "These are all of your channels" list pane, and I have to re-select the channel I was already listening to.

So what used to be a one-touch "Thumbs-down" action has become a three-step (Kabob-Menu, Thumb-down, Reselect-the-channel) process, which is cataclysmically stupid for an app interface intended for use while driving.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[TinsleyTinsley]

Same issues!

Here is a photo.

Moderator Edit: Merged posts

[BrokenPaw]

I have also written to Pandora support via email.  They responded and asked for photos, so I sent them some this morning.  No response yet, but I will update if I learn anything useful.

[TannerPandora]

Hi @BrokenPaw and @TinsleyTinsley Welcome to community, thanks for posting!

We appreciate your feedback for thumbs on Android Auto. I've gone ahead and passed this along to our product teams for further review.

@BrokenPaw I do see that you have an email case with our User Support team. Looks like you may be also having an issue in Android Auto when you thumb down a song and it takes you back to your collection. For any further troubleshooting steps and questions, I recommend following up with the agent via email to avoid any duplicate steps or questions.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

[BrokenPaw]

Hey, there,

Yes, I do have an email case with Pandora Support; after my initial contact, they were very responsive, requested photos of the various screens I was describing, and they gave me a process to try to resolve the issue (which, unfortunately, did not work).  I wrote back to them with the results of that attempt (and with some additional information) five days ago, and have not heard back since.

I hope it's because someone is working the issue, and not because there is no resolution and no one wants to be the one to tell me that.

[TannerPandora]

Hi @BrokenPaw

I checked and I do see a ticket was created for the issue in Android Auto when thumbing down a track returns to your station list. It looks like this has been passed along to our engineering team for further investigation.

For the feedback around the thumb changes in Android Auto, I've made sure that this has been passed along to our product teams for further review.

Thanks for taking the time to post a follow up!

[Tlcp13]

The thumbs up/down change appears to be a poorly thought out 'enhancement' because I saw this on Apple Car Play a while back and was so thankful Andriod Auto was not set up that way. It is dangerous and I hope Product Dev rethinks that change. 

[Carsonzwalker]

I am also experiencing both of these things happening (thumbs buttons hidden behind the three-dots menu, and thumbs down returning to stations list) and am frustrated by it. Hoping either this can be changed back to normal soon, or at least add a setting to change it ourselves!

[BrokenPaw]

My phone recently updated to Android 14, and both of these issues went away.  I suspect that as part of the Android update, Android Auto updated as well (since it's now part of the OS instead of a separate app).

It's been a week or so now since the OS updated, and everything on the Pandora app on the car screen is back to as it should be.

Hopefully yours will resolve itself soon as well.

[th3_rur4l_jur0r]

Ick, mine don't look like that. Hope it's been fixed for you by now!

[Adubs]

These issues still exist today over a year later. I'm glad I don't pay for this service, because I'd be furious if I did.

[BrokenPaw]

For what it's worth, they did go away for a while, although the "goes back to station selection screen after thumbing a song down" thing has reappeared for me, and is present in all three of the vehicles I have available to test with.

[I-am-L]

I still have the thumbs down goes to playlist issue myself.

[GME]

I also have the Android Auto  "thumbs-down-goes-to-playlist" problem.  It started months ago.  I'm late to this thread... has a fix been developed?  I also want to reiterate that this problem isn't just inconvenient and annoying; it's also DANGEROUS as it requires the driver to (unnecessarily) "play" with the audio controls.  (FYI, I have uninstalled/re-installed the Pandora app on my
Android to no positive effect.)

[th3_rur4l_jur0r]

Still no fix on my 21 Camry or on my Android running latest software. So annoying. I've really been liking Pandora over Spotify lately, too, for more variety. This issue makes me not want to use Pandora in the car, though. 

[BrokenPaw]

After I made the initial post about this, however long ago, the problem did go away after a software update. As I recall, it was Android Auto that updated.

Then everything was fine until a couple of months ago, when it started returning to the channels list after a thumb-down. I'm having the issue again, and it seems like several others are as well.

And you're completely correct. This is a huge safety issue because it takes the driver's eyes off the road every time Pandora's algorithm plays something stupid or horrible. Which seems to happen in clumps of 5 or more horrible songs in a row recently.