Clever Google trick turns your phone into a free must-have car gadget that could save you money – and it’s NOT a satnav

YOUR smartphone has long served as a navigation device, but it could soon serve a different purpose behind the wheel.

Google also wants to turn your Android phone into a dash cam.

Experts have posted screenshots of the yet-to-be-released feature.

But it could be a great little money saver for anyone who wants to protect themselves without having to buy an expensive kit.

Alternatively, you can use it to convert an old, worn-out device.

It records videos with optional audio.

To ensure that not much storage space is wasted on your smartphone, the recordings are compressed to 30 MB per minute.

And there’s also a 24-hour cap on recording.

You can look back at previous recording sessions, but they will disappear after three days unless you save them manually.

This allows drivers to turn off the screen while the dash cam is in action to prevent the battery from draining too quickly and overheating.

If necessary, you can still use the handset for navigation at the same time.

The dash cam feature has been spotted in the Personal Safety app.

Accordingly 9to5Googleyou can even set it to start recording automatically when you connect to a specific Bluetooth device like your car’s system.

The tool is expected to land on Pixel devices as well as select other Android devices – if Google decides to do so at all.

It’s not clear when and if Google will ever release it, but the screenshots give a pretty good picture of how the dash cam option is evolving.

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