EV Journey

Today, I migrated myself from iPhone 17 Pro to a new Samsung S26 Ultra, devising upon the Violet Blue colour in the end, I’ve had too many black phones for my liking.

I’m embarrassed to say that last year I also migrated to the S25 Ultra from an iPhone, clearly that didn’t last long as I ended up on a Google Pixel months later. But I digress, even in that short space of time, the migration process has improved, and perhaps Apple having put in place a process, or was it Europe mandating it, to support migrating to Android. Aside from the usual requirement to enter passwords in all apps, I didn’t have a need to load any apps, and only had to discover logins for some — I’m regretting those login with Apple choices now, they really do lock you into one platform whereas the Google equivalent does not.

I decided to head out later in the afternoon, check out how difficult it was going to be: firstly to connect to the car; and secondly to set up Android Auto.

Connecting Bluetooth was relatively painless, the phone quickly discovered the Elexio and was paired within 10 seconds. Shortly thereafter, the car then offered to setup Android Auto after determining my phone was Android.

After Android Auto setup was started I was told permissions would need to be added in my phone, I think the differences between Android Market platforms here is a weakness here as instructions were a little weak, I was left a little confused as an Android noob how to fully achieve what they sought.

After returning home, I had noticed Google maps was being used so I decided to try launch Waze. I was presented with a requirement to again set permissions before it would load in Android Auto. I wonder if there couldn’t be some macro or AI support to quickly support seeing these permissions so users aren’t forced to do these tasks but rather click a button to authorise.

Having now seems both Android Auto and Car play, I think the latest looks a little more polished visually.