Build games for cars

Games offer a unique opportunity to engage users in a fun and interactive way while their car is parked. By bringing your game to cars, you can reach a new audience and provide entertainment during downtime.

In addition to the guidance on this page, follow the platform-specific requirements for each platform that your game is compatible with:

Mark your app as a game

To indicate that your app is a game, you must add the android:appCategory="game" attribute to the <application> element of your manifest.

<manifest ...>
    ...
    <application
      ...
      android:appCategory="game">
        ...
    </application>
</manifest>

Support common display aspect ratios

For the best user experience, make your game fully adaptive to different screen sizes so that it runs in full screen without letterboxing or pillarboxing. Refer to the car app quality guidelines for games for a list of criteria your game must meet. Target the following common aspect ratios for each platform and orientation:

Android Auto

  • Landscape: 16:9 anchor aspect ratio
  • Portrait: 9:16 aspect ratio

See Test against canonical screen sizes for more information on testing with Desktop Head Unit configurations for common screen sizes.

Android Automotive OS

  • Landscape: 4:3 anchor aspect ratio
  • Portrait: 10:16 aspect ratio

See Use bundled hardware profiles for more information on testing with the Android Automotive OS emulator using hardware profiles for common screen sizes and aspect ratios.

Declare support for game controllers (optional)

If your app supports controller input, include the following manifest declaration for the android.hardware.gamepad feature, as OEMs can use this information to improve the user experience:

<manifest ...>
  ...
  <uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.gamepad" android:required="false"/>
  ...
</manifest>

Minimum hardware specifications

Android Automotive OS

To learn more about the minimum hardware specifications for Android Automotive OS devices, see the Automotive Requirements section of the Android Compatibility Definition Document (CDD) for the Android versions your app supports.

Android Auto

Apps that support Android Auto run on the user's Android phone. Learn more about supported Android phones and versions in the Get started with Android Auto section of the Android Auto Help Center. Apps in parked app categories, like the Games category, are supported on mobile devices running Android 15 (API level 35) and higher.

Resources for building Android games

The Android Games Dev Center has many other resources to help you build high-quality games with great performance.