Earlier this year in August, Google announced that it had started working with the developers behind a couple of prominent navigation, parking, and electric vehicle charging apps to bring new categories of apps to Android Auto. The collaboration has resulted in the new Android for Cars App Library, and the company is now releasing an open beta version of the library for any app developer to use.

According to a recent post on the Android Developers Blog, the Android for Cars App Library will allow developers to design, develop, and test their own navigation, parking, and charging apps on Android Auto. Google has divided the open beta release into three phases to help developers every step of the way. For the design phase, the company has released design guidelines and app quality guidelines to ensure that new apps are optimized for the platform and follow the best safety practices.

Once developers finalize a design, they can then move on to the development phase. For this phase, Google has provided a developer guide to make it easier for developers to build their apps for the platform. And finally, in the testing phase, developers will be able to test their apps on the Android Auto Desktop Head Unit emulator that simulates a car infotainment display. To further streamline the process, Google has updated the emulator with support for multiple screen sizes, displaying information in the instrument cluster, and simulating vehicles with touchpad input.

If you're interested in bringing your app to Android Auto, you can get started with the Android for Cars App Library by following this link. App developed with the new library will be published on the Google Play Store in the coming months.