Android Auto is essential if you want to access your phone from your car’s infotainment system without ever having to glance at the screen. But as convenient as it is, all those notifications that keep popping up while you’re driving are more than a little annoying—they can also be a dangerous distraction.
While Android Auto has a built-in option to turn off message notifications, it’s not perfect if you still want alerts from specific apps or people. Fortunately, there’s a more advanced way to customize these notifications while driving—but the catch is that the option isn’t inside Android Auto itself.
This setting turns on Do Not Disturb when your phone connects to your car
If you hate getting notifications while driving, this is the option to enable
One of the biggest annoyances I’ve had since I started using Android Auto is all the notifications I keep getting while I’m driving. While I don’t mind being notified if one of my parents is calling or messaging me, I don’t really appreciate the distraction caused by my friend’s back-to-back Discord messages appearing on my car’s screen.
By default, Android Auto lets you turn message notifications on and off, and you can even silence group chats, but it still lacks the more refined settings that many of us crave.
Thankfully, most newer Android phones have a special Driving mode that you can enable in the phone’s settings. It’s separate from Android Auto, but it integrates really well because it turns on when your phone recognizes that it’s connected to an Android Auto display.
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The exact way this option behaves varies between phone brands. On my OnePlus 15, the option just enables Do Not Disturb, while my wife’s Samsung Galaxy S23+ Driving mode acts more like an automation engine, with a standalone Do Not Disturb mode and a few additional options. The Google Pixel’s Driving mode is similar to Samsung’s, though it’s slightly less customizable.
Regardless of what phone you have, this option can completely transform your Android Auto experience because you no longer have to toggle Do Not Disturb each time you get into your car. If you haven’t been using it lately because you can’t deal with the notifications, this could be the solution you’ve been looking for.
You can customize exactly who and what gets through
Only let the important stuff through
Driving mode works through Do Not Disturb, so you get the same level of control over notifications as with your phone’s DND. This means you can choose which apps are allowed to send notifications and, more importantly, which contacts can call and message you. You can let all calls and/or messages through, but if you want to block out absolutely everyone except your closest family and friends, this is the best way to do it.
I’ve personally set it up so that anyone can call and message me, since there’s a good chance I’m meeting someone and they might call to let me know plans have changed. The more important feature for me is that I can finally block all app notifications except for a select few that I want to get alerts from, just like my regular calls and messages.
If you have a Samsung phone, Driving mode offers more customization than the simple automatic Do Not Disturb on my OnePlus 15.
For starters, the Driving mode’s DND settings are separate from your phone’s regular Do Not Disturb mode. For example, you can choose to be notified only by favorite contacts and repeat callers in case of emergencies in Driving mode, while still allowing most calls and notifications in your normal DND.
You can also set up custom actions to trigger when Driving mode is enabled, such as opening an app, performing a specific phone or app action (like enabling Mobile Data), reading notifications aloud, or activating Bixby voice wake-up.
How to enable the option
It’s just a few taps away
Enabling Driving mode on Samsung phones is very straightforward. Go to Settings > Modes and Routines > Driving > Start. Set it to trigger when Android Auto is connected, then customize your options however you wish.
On Pixel phones, the option is in Settings > Modes > Driving.
If you have a OnePlus 15 like me, the option is under Settings > Safety & emergency > Silence notifications while driving. From there, you can set it to automatically enable Do Not Disturb as soon as it detects a Bluetooth connection to a car, or both when Bluetooth is connected and when you’re in a moving vehicle.
If you have an Android phone from a brand not mentioned here, try searching for a similar option by typing “driving” in the Settings search bar to see if anything pops up. Even if your phone doesn’t have a dedicated mode, you can always configure and enable Do Not Disturb manually—potentially by mapping it to your phone’s physical button, if it has one, to keep the process as seamless as possible.
This should’ve been built into Android Auto
Safety features like these need better integration
While I’m glad that most phones now offer a way to enable Do Not Disturb while driving, with varying degrees of customization, this is an option that really should be baked into Android Auto. That way, everyone could benefit from this important safety feature—even users with older phones that don’t have a dedicated Driving mode.
I’m not sure if it’s too late, but I believe Google could make it happen, given how genuinely useful it is.
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Tweaking these settings will make you want to drive your car way more often.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
