For obvious reasons, Google locked down Android phones that were connected and running Android Auto. While there have been workarounds, your phone was essentially a brick when it’s connected to a car. Now, Google is allowing users to swipe to unlock the phone when it’s in Android Auto/Car Mode…

With this new functionality enabled, after you unlock your phone’s lockscreen, you are greeted with a slightly tweaked car mode. Now, instead of just showing the Android Auto logo, the app has dialog instructing the user to “Swipe up to unlock.”

With this new feature, anytime your phone is paired to an Android Auto head unit, and you hit the Home button after using the handset, it’ll take you back to this splash screen. Just swipe up again to be taken to your homescreen.

Google has yet to officially announce this feature or state why they’ve added it. We have reached out to the company for comment.

9to5Google’s Take

As stated, Google hasn’t even acknowledged this feature just yet. Our best guess is that it has been added in part because of wireless Android Auto.With this enabled, passengers would be able to still fully use the handset even when it’s being used to power the car’s in-dash display.

What do you think about it? Let us know in the comment section below.

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