It’s great to see that there are quite a few F-Droid applications that now support Android Auto. (For newer cars that support it, it allows the application to cast the display to the car’s display, which is much larger and easier to see without distraction).
Given that these applications span a large number of the existing categories (Navigation, Ebook Reader, Messaging, Podcast, etc. etc.), it’s not very easy to find ones you are not familiar with.
An official category like “Android Auto” or similar would make it easier to find apps that support it.
It seems like a good idea to add it to fdroiddata/config/categories.yml to make it “official”
It’s the responsibility of the author of the application to design it to provide Android Auto (AA) support via the relevant API. The car side of AA will support an application if and only if it has been properly designed to do so. So, the vast majority of Android apps do NOT support AA, as it takes a bit of work by the app programmer. (That’s precisely why a new category would really help finding these apps).
Here is the Google Android Auto page that provides an overview, some examples, and links to the relevant APIs;
For the end user, they just install the application. For apps not from the Giggle Play Store (like those from F-Droid) one needs to go to Settings → Connection Preferences → Android Auto. From there tap on the “three dot” menu → Developer Options → Unknown Sources and tap to check the box. After enabling unknown sources, the apps you already have installed that support AA will just show up in the app launcher on the car display.
One needs a newer model car that has AA support in the infotainment system, and a recent release of Android that supports AA. Approximately 2019 or newer, though your MMV.
Some of the F-Droid apps that are AA capable are: Internet Radio, Open Tune, Podium, Librera Reader and Element X. There are a few others available from the IzzyOnDroid repo.