yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] injo503:
So with my Nexus 5x there isn't a way to get arunchained to work at all? What do I have to do to make it work? Switch phones? Buy an Android stick? I'm relatively determined but I want to be able to text message from my own phone number. If it helps, my Google Fi service will provide me a second sim card for data only for free. Can I use a router hidden in my dash or trunk? What do I have to do? All I want is to be able to surf web, play YouTube, etc from my pioneers screen.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
It doesn't depend on the phone but just on the Chromecast. In other words no matter what phone you have, you can't use it with the wireless hotspot of your phone to make it work anymore. Luckily most phones do support Miracast so it can be fixed by replacing the Chromecast with a Miracast adapter.

The only phones where you are kind of stuck are Google phones. As on those Miracast support is disabled by Google so you really have to use a Chromecast.

Someone reported that using a real portable wifi-hotspot still works but there's no guarantee that this will continue to work.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Pig Vomit:
Android Police has an article on it. Gee.....I wonder who might have told them?

http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/0...ems-broken-casting-using-android-hotspot-wifi

Sometimes ya gotta stir sh&t up. Post people, post!

AP is usually pretty solid with their ability to get comments from Google on things like this.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] gInx52:
I have a similar setup to what you are planning to do actually.

I'm on verizon and have the MIFI hotspot. I used the MIFI as the bridge for the phone and chromecast. I just turn on the MIFI and once both devices establishes connection then the ARU runs and automatically triggers casting to the pioneer headunit.

As a side note, I had to change some settings on the ARU to ignore activation the phone's hotspot but other than that seems like a viable solution for now until Google fixes the issue.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Optimuscle:
If I already paid for arunchained do I need to pay for this app again?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] injo503:
So can I just buy an HDMI android stick to make ARU work since my nexus 5x wont work? Then the android stick can use the internet hotspot on my nexus 5x phone. Or I could get an android stick that has 4g LTE capability. My cell phone provider, google Fi, will provide me with a free data only sim card that uses the available data from my regular phone service. Google Fi also allows me to text or talk from my normal phone number from any computer or device with an internet connection so I could still use the android stick, and therefore App Radio Unchained to make calls and texts from my Pioneer. Would this work? What are the limitations? And most importantly what Android Stick should I buy????
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Your N5X would work fine if Google wouldn't make screencasting so complicated. Adding an Android stick also makes things more complicated. It would mean that you can't use handsfree Bluetooth with your phone.

Anyway from the posts here you can still use your phone with a Chromecast. If you use a MIFI hotspot with your data only sim card then it still works.

Another option is to manually restore Google Play Services to 10.2.98, then it can still work with the phone's hotspot. However to not get an update you need to disable automatic updates in the Play store which makes thing difficult.

And last but not least you can also get another phone that supports Miracast or a wired connection.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] injo503:
I'll look into the mifi hotspot. What do those cost? And would they definitely work with my data only project Fi sim card?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Fes Numan:
Since Google's response to breaking Chromecast's casting when using the hotspot on your phone is for a fix to be expected to be "released later this summer."

Reading back a couple of pages, there was mention of using an app called CastReceiver that would make an HDMI android stick act like a Chromecast but doesn't require an internet connection. Is this a viable option for the current Chromecast issue?

I would get the CastReceiver to try it out but I do not have any HDMI sticks to test it with.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
I hope somebody else can answer that as I can only indicate the general idea. Or you have to look into it yourself.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
I tried it but unfortunately it also didn't show up as a possible casting device. It makes sense as the issue is in Google Play services, on the phone that's trying to connect.

I am also working on an alternative and that's Miracast protocol support directly into the app. Currently my proof of concept can connect to the Miracast device via wifi direct, then negotiate the casting connection up to the point where it expects a H.264 video stream. Now I am looking into how to stream the phone's screen and audio.

Unfortunately a finished solution is also going to take quite some time, probably also 'late this summer'.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] lpasq:
A little off topic... After years of riding the G1 through Nexus device train, and all the early fun of rooting, amateur ROM building, and all sorts of hacking, I stopped rooting when this app launched. I also no longer needed to mod my phone because I grew to find that modern Amdoid OS, in pure experience form, is fine for me. Question for the fellow ARU community members: What current Miracast mobile phone would you recommend with as close pure Android OS?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Optimuscle:
My screen casts fine using usb-c to hdmi and I get touch input. However, the touch input has several lag and the screen isnt properly displayed on the unit. I have a Samsung S8+ I can still see the navigation buttons on the head unit and there is a black border around the screen. Anyway to improve my touch input? I have already gone through the calibration. Also is there anyway to get full screen mirroring without the nav buttons?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Pig Vomit:
If you have been affected by the Play Services/hotspot problem, please star this:

https://issuetracker.google.com/issues/62378390

****EDIT****

Just found this.....apparently it was unintentional and will be fixed "later this summer". We hope.

https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!msg/chromecast/c3Mc0GdJFYk/2fxPKBjoAQAJ

Hi All,

We really appreciate you reporting this issue, and thanks for your patience as we looked into what's going on.

It appears a recent update to improve the reliability of your Chromecast unintentionally disabled the ability to cast from your Android device when the device is acting as a Wi-Fi hotspot. This is not an officially supported functionality, but we recognize that many of you found this to be a helpful option to cast your content. Our team is on a fix for this, and you can expect to see it released later this summer.

In the meantime, our suggested solution is to use two devices:

Device 1 (either a mobile phone, or separate mobile hotspot) to act as your Wi-Fi hotspot

Device 2 (with supported operating system) tethered to Device 1, and to cast your content

We hope this allows you the ability to cast your content while we add support for this feature on Chromecast.

Thanks,

Vivian and the Chromecast team.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] gInx52:
If you are referring to the app radio buttons on the left side of the screen, then double tapping the home button of the head unit should toggle that and will give you the full screen.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
The delay is because Android 7 only allows to inject complete gestures as is mentioned in the app's description:

"As Android 7 only allows to inject complete gestures, a gesture has to be completed first on the head unit before it will be dispatched to the phone. It works similar to record and playback. Suppose you need to do a long press of 2 seconds, first press for 2 seconds, once you lift your finger it will be dispatched and replicated on the phone where it will take 2 seconds as well. It's recommended to only do things that take a short time so there won't be too much delay."

The black border on the screen can be fixed with the head unit's app video settings & the S8 has an option to set the screen aspect ratio for casting.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Another option is to use an old phone and enable it's wifi hotspot as a temporary solution. Google is apparently going to fix the issue so from then on the phone's local wifi hospot can be used again.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Optimuscle:
My head unit doesn't have that option unfortunately. Where is the setting to set the aspect ratio for casting on the S8?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Pig Vomit:
There is a new Play Services available, 11.0.56. It does not fix the casting problem. I will try the new versions as they come out and will let everyone know if one works.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] bigcid10:
Here here!!
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Now have audio working as well. Going to add touch and then make a full demo.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] bigcid10:
Ok,I'm in
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Speedmatze:
Sounds like a very interesting project.

I have a rooted LineageOS 18.1 with MicroG and would like have some apps (e.g. MagicEarth) to be mirrowed to the car.

All attempts to use Screen2Auto or similar have been unsuccessful so far. No google services framework seems to block the existing hacks.

So if you need some help testing, I would be more than happy to help.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Thanks for the offer. For now it's just a prototype that needs to be productized. There's still a lot of things that need to be done for that. Currently I am working on it next to my regular work (= freelance assignment). Starting June 1st the intention is to work on it full time for at least a couple of months.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] tiho5:
Well done! Looking forward to this! Go ahead and good luck! Thanks.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] stargate125645:
@Area51©, I will definitely buy a license when it comes around! I have a couple of questions:

1) This will work with factory head units in newer cars that run Android Auto, correct?

2) Would you be able to fix the Android Auto screen so that it can take up the full screen of the car head unit? Lots of newer cars today have screens with additional width, but it splits the screen up so that, say, Google Maps only displays on 16:9 portion of it and the rest of the space has relatively useless widgets. Car manufacturers have said this is a Google issue, though I'm not sure so this might be a moot question. I do know Google Maps via CarPlay works full screen on said vehicles.

3) Is there anything you can think of that Google could do to nerf this?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Yes that's the intention, in the end it should work with as much AA head units as possible.

The head unit advertises what screen size it has available, all of that can be used. Not sure if that's the actual whole physical screen. That depends on the head unit.

Of course they can. They can remove a feature from Android that the app needs to work. Regarding the protocol they can't do much to the existing head units. Obviously this app can't be in the Play store. So I won't even try that.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] stargate125645:
So any super wide screen will just extend, say, Google Maps to show more map on the larger screen? For example, Hyundai and Kia vehicles only do a split screen on their larger screens, with a width on the right, and they blame Android Auto. It sounds like they are not telling the truth, then?

That sounds like it would also nerf Android Auto itself, though. Did I misunderstand your answer? I mean something that would make your specific rendition not work, but allow theirs to continue. Manufacturers are moving to OTA updates, so something might be included in those at the behest of Google, perhaps?

I appreciate all your work here!
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
I don't really know. The head unit can advertise multiple screen configurations. Maybe AA only supports a few of those.

Google can remove a feature from Android that AAU needs but AA doesn't need. I don't want to go into details.

Anyway everything is an early stage so the details are for later.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] arimhan:
This looks really promising. Honestly I wouldn't mind a version with juste mirroring and audio working, that would be way better than having to use the car navigation.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Thanks, touch is already working but currently there's issues with the app running out of memory and crashing. Need to do some serious redesign. The good news is that from tomorrow on I will be working on it full time. The plan is for a few months and then see if it's viable to productize it.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Short update. I fixed a few memory leaks. App is now stable again. Touch and video is working with the head unit. Now working on improving the audio. Kind of works when connected to the Openauto head unit simulator but there's a huge delay (several seconds) and doesn't work with the head unit yet.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] arimhan:
That's some great news. I can't wai to be able to use this.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Pommes9485:
You are my only hope on using microg, can't wait for any kind of release.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Finally, audio is working on the head unit too. Overlooked an Audio focus request message. Head unit needed that, the emulators didn't care. Now looking to improve the audio latency.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Here's a new demo with audio and touch from the head unit working: AAUnchained video mirroring demo 2 .
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] bigcid10:
My radios is a 2660nex

It has Android auto built in will this replace it or will it be used from within the factory Android auto as an icon?

Or will I have to turn off Android auto auto load and use this as a replacement?

Thank you
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] tiho5:
Looking great. Test some other app besides YouTube next time, please. Great work.

Edit

Does the audio sound from the phone also? It fells like both are sounding. Lol. Scrolling is a bit laggy but I think it is awesome what you've accomplished.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
For the head unit it will look like Android Auto is connected. On the phone side nothing from the built-in Android Auto stuff is used. When connecting via USB, the phone will ask to use which app you want to use AA or AAUnchained and you can set to always use the app you select. As for wireless, I don't know yet, still have to find out how the official connection method does work.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
I used VLC and YouTube as this will show the video performance the best way. If those are not laggy, any app should work. What apps would you like to see?

Audio of the phone was on but very soft. I don't think you can hear it. Anyway, audio has some lag, it's about 500 milliseconds. I did some analysis on it and it seems to be the AudioRecord class from the Android API itself. That's on my old Nexus 6. Still have to see how it's on a more recent phone. I tested this also with Android Auto itself and Screen2Auto on a Nexus 5X , it gives about 300 milliseconds delay.

Touch is a bit laggy because I am using an accessibility service to inject touch. This allows only to inject complete gestures so the app is recording a gesture from the head unit and then playing it back on the phone. This is the only way to inject touch without root. I wanted to have this working first as most users won't have a rooted phone.

When root is available, touch events can be injected directly and there won't be hardly any delay. The plan is to include this also in the app.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] tiho5:
Great.

Can you make audio only for the head unit?

May be also try a simple other app. Like say phone or messages. Just for a quick example.

You are doing a fantastic product. Thank you!
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] arimhan:
This looks already daily drivable.

One thing that could be good would be transmisting navigation data to the car dashboard. On my car when using android auto, the car also display the next turn on the dashboard too but that may be hard to do if you don't have a dual screen android auto head unit.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
It's not daily driveable yet by a long shot. It only has enough implemented to work with this head unit. It can only connect once to the head unit. When the connection fails, the app has to be killed first and then restarted. There is also different protocol versions. This only supports one version partly. So there's quite some work to do.

This version was meant only to evaluate if it's possible to get video, audio and touch working without any major obstacles. Kind of a go or no go for further development. It seems there's no major snags so I will continue.

One of the things I will try to add is a Network to USB SSL decryption proxy that can work as a man in the middle between Android Auto and the head unit. This will allow to decrypt and log all the communication between AA and the HU.

Regarding sending navigation data to the dashboard, It would likely be possible to discover how to send that data to the HU. However that navigation app will only do that when it is running in Android Auto mode. When it's running mirrored via AAUnchained, it will assume it's running on a phone screen and not send that data.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] bigcid10:
Ok, that's fine

Thank you
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] maximushugus:
I'm following your work with a lot of attention. I looks very very promising.

I have a question : will the app work without Android Auto installed on the phone ? Will it work without Google Services ?

Android Auto is the only Google app that is keeping me from running a complete deGoogle Lineage OS phone, so it would be awsome !

Thanks
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Yes, the app implements the Android Auto protocol internally so it works without Google Play Services.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
I continued working on AAUnchained for another month.

Short progress report:

General:

- App can now completely reset to initial state so it can be started again

- Implemented start / stop when USB to head unit connected / disconnected

- Powerlock added so phone will never sleep when AAUnchained is active

Protocol

- Did some more testing with different emulators regarding different protocol versions

- Made lots of sensor status messages (like day/night, odometer etc.) working

- Video and audio focus messages are now supported which means that you can now jump back to the head unit and return to the mirrored phone again without losing the connection

Touch improvements:

- Multitouch is now working

- Touch compensates for black bars because of different aspect ratio between head unit and phone

More testing:

- Bought a Samsung S22+ for testing with Android 12 & high performance hardware

- No artefacts in video anymore (there were some on my old Nexus 6)

- Audio delay is down to 200 milliseconds (was 800 - 1000 on Nexus 6)

I am going to make a new demo video soon.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] stargate125645:
Is the aspect ratio going to be an issue going forward or did you figure that out, too? It's not something I even thought about. You definitely have me giddy for the first beta!
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
The AA supported resolutions have 5 : 3 aspect ratio. Most modern phones have aspect ratio like 18.5 : 9 or 19.5 : 9 which means that there will be black bars on top/ bottom when screen mirroring. I just made it so that those black bar areas are excluded from touch and only the visible area is used.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Recently I encountered another issue that is really annoying. It's with audio capturing. While Google now (in Android 10 or higher) allows audio capturing it's limited to certain audio types. Those are USAGE_MEDIA, USAGE_GAME and USAGE_UNKNOWN.

Apps like Youtube and VLC use USAGE_MEDIA for audio so that can be captured. However navigation apps like Google maps or TomTom Go use another audio type for voice instructions and that audio can't be captured.

It's like a dealbreaker to me. I think the most important thing that you want to use is a navigation app so that should work as intended. Probably voice instructions can play from the phone speaker but that would be just lame.

I have been looking a way to capture all audio but it can be only done by system apps. Currently that means that app has to be signed with the platform keys of the installed Android version. This means that even on a rooted phone it can't be done. Doesn't look like there's a solution.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] stargate125645:
For my edification, why wouldn't there be a way to make the interface take up the entire screen like AA does currently? Or like what Samsung phones do to resolution when connecting via MiraCast ("match source" I think the option is called)?

As for your audio capture post, that is definitely a bummer. How does AA do that now?
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Samsung just sets another screen resolution. A normal app can't do that. With root access it can be done but it will have side effects. For instance I do that on my Android TV box and then the default launcher app can't handle it. Samsung can integrate everything nicely but I can't do that.

Another option may be to create a virtual screen. But I don't know if you can make any app to display on that. Even if so it would require to make some kind of app launcher and it's a lot of work.

It's a matter of app permissions. And Google being Google just made sure that their apps can have every permission that exists. Only the core part of Android is open source. More and more stuff is closed source from Google.

Google dictates that a normal app can't capture system audio.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] stargate125645:
I'm sorry! This seems like a big obstacle. 😩
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] Area51©:
Ok, I did some more investigation on this. There is a way to capture system audio on a rooted phone. I didn't verify this on Android 12 yet but on Android 11 it's possible. Also it's a somewhat complicated workaround.

The huge disadvantage is that of course the requirement for the phone to be rooted, limits to number of potential customers enormously.

My initial requirement was that everything should work on any phone, not just rooted ones. So now I am pondering whether to continue or not. There's still a lot of work to do to finish it. Don't want all this work to be wasted.
[Paid Software Announcement and Discussion] stargate125645:
I stopped caring about rooting long ago as enough features were added to Android to avoid the need, coupled with your ARUR app. Would it be possible for you to make this work with an Android stick and not a phone - presumably something that's easier to root?

Also, for my edification, what allows ARUR to capture all audio but not your AA facsimile?