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When designing an app for browsing content, you'll need to plan what's in each
view, as styling and navigation for browsing are handled by Google and the car
maker. Here are some considerations:
Layers
How many levels of content do you want within your app?
To minimize cognitive load, limit the total number of levels. Use subheaders
to group content into subcategories within a view, which flattens hierarchy
and improves navigation.
Format
Do you want to display each level of content in either a grid format or a
list format? A grid format displays multiple items displayed simultaneously
in a grid-like arrangement, whereas, a list format (displays items
vertically in a list).
Grouping
Within each browsing view, do you want to group content into subcategories?
This can help organize large amounts of content and make it easier for users
to find what they're looking for.
Searchability
When designing an app for driving, it is recommended to implement search
capability. This allows users to quickly find specific content without
having to navigate through multiple levels of browsing views.
How you define the root media item and its descendants establishes your app's
content hierarchy. You can apply content styles to browsable media items to
determine whether their children are displayed in grid or list views and whether
they are organized under titles.
If you implement in-app search, you won't need to design the voice and keyboard
search interface, as car makers design both the voice search affordance and the
keyboards.
In this example, the designer uses a grid format to display music
albums (Android Auto).This example uses a list, showing a combination of playlists and
artists (Android Auto).This example uses a grid as well as a media control
bar (AAOS).This example uses a list as well as a media control
bar (AAOS).Two examples (list and grid) of media apps on AAOS
(portrait)
Browsing view requirements
Keep in mind the following requirements and recommendations:
Requirement level
Requirements
MUST
App developers must:
Provide subheader text if you decide to create subcategories within a browsing view
SHOULD
App developers should:
Avoid browsable content that extends more than three levels deep from the top level
Decide whether to implement an in-app search function
MAY
App developers may:
For each browsing view, determine whether to display content in a grid or in a list (list is the default)
[[["Easy to understand","easyToUnderstand","thumb-up"],["Solved my problem","solvedMyProblem","thumb-up"],["Other","otherUp","thumb-up"]],[["Missing the information I need","missingTheInformationINeed","thumb-down"],["Too complicated / too many steps","tooComplicatedTooManySteps","thumb-down"],["Out of date","outOfDate","thumb-down"],["Samples / code issue","samplesCodeIssue","thumb-down"],["Other","otherDown","thumb-down"]],["Last updated 2025-04-16 UTC."],[[["Plan the structure of browsable content views, including the depth of levels, formatting (grid or list), and subcategory grouping."],["Consider implementing in-app search to enhance user experience and aid content discovery."],["Limit content hierarchy to a maximum of three levels to minimize driver distraction."],["Use subheaders when grouping content into subcategories within a view."],["Choose between grid and list formats for displaying content, ensuring the format aligns with the content type."]]],[]]
