Google search: "What's the difference between Android Auto and Android Automotive? Conclusion: Android Auto simplifies smartphone connectivity for accessing key apps while driving, whereas Android Automotive OS offers a comprehensive standalone operating system integrated directly into the vehicle."

Android Auto will not work with your Volvo XC40 Pure Electric.

 

Some owners have managed to get AA working by using a third party adapter. These adapters basically connect to the car as if they were iPhones using the carplay protocol. I'm not sure whether it's a true AA interface or just screen mirroring, though

 

It's true AA and as you explained, the way it works is by making the car believe it's running apple carplay.

 

Thanks!

 

Software update 3.3.16 is supposed to include AA

 

As of now (September 2025) android auto works for me, with cable connection. What I did not manage to do is to use it wirelessly, that is a nonsense to me as both the car and my mobile (Samsung s25 5G) support wifi @5GHz. Any indication or help would be welcome here. Why messing around with AA? Simple: it's not a fair support without WhatsApp. I really cannot understand why Volvo keeps thinking that in the 21st century it is acceptable to send/read text messages hands free, but not WhatsApp!!

 

Volvo XC40 Recharge MY2021-2024 and EX40 from MY2025 does not support wireless Android Auto or Apple Carplay. Cable only. And supported apps visible from phone on center screen is limited. There is no info at the moment that points to any changes in EX40 MY2026 and forward.

 

Thank you for taking the time to respond! One f/up question, though: what can be considered as an official source of such information? Volvo site is ynclear/incomplete and in forums there are contradicting and conflicting information. E.g. I had noticed the "Android auto" icon on my car display recently, but many still say that it is not available at all.. All of this made worse by advertising of producers of "dongles" that resolve the issue..
So, a reference to a kind of single version of the truth would help.
Thank you in advance!

 

The Android Auto app in the car interacts with an Android Phone connected by wire. The connection will not display all apps on the phone in the center screen in the car. I have owned Volvo XC40 from march 2021 and now EX40 Ultra Black Edition Performance since august 2024. I'm an admin in the Norwegian XC40/EX40 Group on Facebook with over 10.000 members. Me and my fellow admins in the Fb-group follows a lot of sources related to Volvo Cars and we also have some connections into the Volvo system through dealers and dealer networks. I guess we are as informed as possible without sitting inside the Volvo Cars company and being inside the production facilities. There are no signs of wireless Android Auto and wireless Apple Carplay in the EX40 i 2025.

 

Wow! Thanks, SagaPer! This is way more than I asked.. looks like your view over the Volvo (complicated!) reality is pretty complete. But it also confirms a little bit my idea, i.e. that Volvo is all but clear and sharp in this context. In a "normal world", i.e. in a world where the payment of >40K€ for a car compares with professionalism and customer care, I'd expect that Volvo (and not the good willing Volvo Owners, and Facebook readers and forum administrators only) makes clear and easy to find + easy to read documentation available to all owners.
That is the reason why I now call Volvo a "chinoswedish" company... it brings the glorious name of the glorious Swedish Company, but it sometimes behaves as a pure chinese company. This is just my opinion, as a little owner of a Volvo car, that may be my first and last Volvo...

 

I'm using the Motorola MA1 AA wireless adapter to connect our Pixel phone wirelessly to our '24 Polestar 2. I'm guessing that if the MA1 works in the Polestar, it would also work for the Volvo.