4 Android Auto tips you won't regret using on your next road trip

Tanner Marlar is a career-long journalist covering the automotive techincal industry. From the best and worst infotainment systems to ground-breaking innovations in the automotive space, Tanner has all the information you need. In his spare time, Tanner runs his own photography business, capturing motorsport memories at tracks across the country. 

As a traveling freelance photographer and academic researcher who spends most of his time on the road, I accumulate around 30,000 miles on my car each year. That's a lot of driving, which means even more downtime. So what do I do with that downtime? I've already discussed several apps I can't live without, but when it comes to entertainment on the go, these four apps truly stand out.

Whether you're jet-setting across the country for a big meeting or hitting the open road in search of a measly profit, you can find any kind of entertainment you need with these four simple apps, outside your chosen music streaming app, that is. If I tried to list all of those, this would be a long article, to say the least.

Audible is the only way to listen to audiobooks

Sometimes there's no need to try something different

You'll find some apps you might not have heard of before on this list, so let's go ahead and get the easy one out of the way early. There's no better audiobook app out there than Audible, full stop. From high-flying adventure classics to tear-jerking epics, Audible's catalog has enough to keep anyone entertained for hours on end. Recently, I've been listening to the entire "Reacher" series by Lee Child, and Audible is even nice enough to organize them chronologically for my listening pleasure -- all 29 of them.

I've tried using apps like Spotify for audiobooks, but having to purchase them on a browser doesn't make that process easy in any sense. Additionally, as an Amazon subscriber, my fiancée and I get great deals on points we can redeem for more books down the line. It's the only way to go.

This app is a college sports fan's dream

As a fan of multiple universities, this makes my life much easier

While both of my teams took a loss last weekend, I still felt like a winner because I got to swap between both broadcasts, thanks to the Varsity Network App. It's run by a company called Learfield, and if you haven't heard of it, they essentially control most of the radio broadcasts for college athletics around the United States. I've always been a fan of radio play-by-play announcers over television broadcasts, and the Varsity Network pairs my favorite teams with my favorite voices for each of them.

While driving two hours for a photo shoot this weekend, I got to listen to the earth-shattering defeat of both of my teams in real time. However, one of them should still be ranked in the Top 25 when all is said and done, so I can't complain all that much. If you're a college sports fan, I highly recommend the Varsity Network app. Oh, and the best part? It's completely free.

Castbox fixes the most annoying Spotify podcasting issue

Even my morning commutes get run through this app

My biggest bone to pick with Spotify is that when I finish my usual morning podcast on the way to work, it makes me go through and pick another every time. Sure, another will begin to play, but it will be an episode of a true-crime show that I finished two years ago (this actually happened today).

My favorite thing about Castbox (and most third-party podcasting apps) is that it allows me to build playlists of my podcasts, so I don't have to keep selecting new ones each time I finish another. This may sound like a small feature, but it makes a world of difference on longer road trips, as it allows the listening experience to feel much more low-effort.

Stay informed while you're on the open road

Whether for safety or the curious driver, scanners never really go out of use

Have you ever been driving, seen an emergency vehicle whizz past or pull over for one, and think to yourself, "Man, I hope I don't run into wherever it's headed?" In reality, you typically do. However, if you've got the Scanner Radio app, you can listen to active police scanners in the area to decipher exactly where an issue might be and plan to avoid it.

For instance, if you're a few hours outside of Atlanta, a quick scan might be able to tell you which roads to avoid, which are plagued with traffic, or which areas might be clear. You might argue that with GPS technology being what it is, most maps can plan their way around heavy traffic. But haven't they let you down before? Yeah, that's what I thought.