yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Auto General] Tiemichael:
I understand some participants of this forum have found a (easy) solution to get all these great apps running under AA V3.0

I also understand that it's a 'cat and mouse' game with google, and published solutions might trigger Google to close available loop-holes.

But it would still be great if those (like myself) who are not so deep into Android and Android Auto can somehow get hold of these easy solutions or workarounds.

Other wise the great work done by all app-creators will only be available for a few experts and not the 1000+ others.

Maybe PMs could be a solution ...
[Android Auto General] DR400:
PM is definitely the solution ... Searching XDA also ...
[Android Auto General] gauresphere:
is this a hint ;)
[Android Auto General] shmykelsa:
Anyone interested in installing custom apps in Android Auto 3.0 could PM me
[Android Auto General] ermeda:
Deleted
[Android Auto General] ahhl:
b careful of the offer[emoji16]
[Android Auto General] xanthrax:
Guys, calm down please, would you ?

If there is something on someone`s post you might consider it offensive just report it and let the moderators deal with otherwise the thread would turn into a cheap pub with ugly music .

Forum rules

Further posts getting in conflict with the above rule might trigger different actions rather than a simple mod message in the thread.

Thanks for understanding

Dan - frum moderator

thread cleaned ... a bit
[Android Auto General] julianwue:
Wow! Google what a move. I have to say I am just dissapointed, but can also understand Googles actions in this case. On the one hand its super danger in so much cases to play around with an interface while driving. E.g. Youtube while driving is a silly idea. But did you ever see the menus and structure the on board units and radios have themself? Google is not in control of this and I know so much cars I would love to have a 2 click interface to do some activities. With self made apps, the level of distraction could be lowered in so much ways.

I ordered a brand new car with Android Auto and so on, some time ago. While I waited for the car, I developed a super useful app, which Volkswagen and co never could offer. In my emulator setup all was fine and working. In some testing cars I was running it successful. And now when the actual car is arriving I was super happy to test it, and now the functionality is gone. The big problem on this case is that Google keeps its own SDK hidden, which is for sure not a bad idea, but come on... how can apps and creativity be used around the world if you give only a few people (maybe not the most creative people in this world) access to this material. And as you can see, you see nothing or a variety of ONE app. Waze. The only one app that can be used with Android Auto so far, and hey without Waze owned by Google this also wouldn´t be an option. Seat showcased a AA app, but in store I never saw it. So far, AA is Google Maps and and interface for play music from different sources. To handle Textmessages with sound input output, can be sometimes so distracting because of the handling. Even to show a textbox is a better solution. But Google makes the rules.

So in my case, Google should let some developers into the program, let them show their ideas and what they have done so far. And I am sure 100% there are apps people would love, Android Auto would gain in popularity and safety would be not decreased. Don´t blame Google for shut down an inofficial way, blame them for not make an official way public or available for selected people.

Most important thing now. Don´t give them more input how to block (whitelist and such stuff). They will do this steps by themself, but slow down and let the mice be smarter sometimes. ;)
[Android Auto General] Emil Borconi:
Seat drive app is available only in selected countrie(s) read Spain....
[Android Auto General] psbankar:
Instead of completely abandoning third party apps, Google could have just made the interaction with Android auto more strict while driving. This way user would not be able to control things while driving and would have to stop. The overriding of driving safety was the only thing that flipped Google.
[Android Auto General] ktwo:
So i guess this is it? Google killed Custom Apps for good with AA3.1

Sad.. Speechless... R.I.P. ;(

Going to take out that car mount for the phone again..
[Android Auto General] petous:
Link: https://apkpure.com/seat-driveapp/com.seat.connectedcar.aa.driveapp
[Android Auto General] Emil Borconi:
I don't have a seat if you do try installing and see if it works...
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
As of today, custom apps are also not working in AA2.9... :(
[Android Auto General] Tiemichael:
Check your version of Google Play Services ... V 12.2.21 is working
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
I have 12.5.21 :eek:
[Android Auto General] xela92:
It is hard to stop Play Services from updating itself.

I'm trying to do this disabling write permission to /data/app/com.google.android.gms.* using

chattr +i /data/app/com.google.android.gms.*

(dunno if it's recursive, to be sure I did it also on the apk into the folder), till now it's working (did it this morning), I'm watching over to be sure it can't update anymore.

If you know other ways to do that let me know, the best way to let the custom apps work would be using Xposed to bypass the limitations bound into Play Services app I guess...
[Android Auto General] allenrb2:
I seriously hope someone figures this stuff out. The only reason I decided to give up my nice full android radio, was because I could watch youtube within AA
[Android Auto General] invisibleshadow:
Any news?
[Android Auto General] ktwo:
I'm now using a phone mount :E

I think there won't be an easy way especially since i don't want to root my phone.

I'm tryinging to find a way to get MirrorLink to run as it has 1:1 mirror on the VAG/SEAT. This will be the better alternative. No Google Dictatorship.
[Android Auto General] OPOt585:
You can try magisk, it doesn't break safety net and you can hide it from your banking apps
[Android Auto General] bluebell:
I don't think what Google is doing here is legal.

I don't care about custom apps. I want to run apps from outside of Google Play because I don't want to have a Google account. Removing my Google account from my phone is my right to privacy.

Android Auto is an advertised feature of my phone. Google has no right to interfere with my phone's ability to function just because I declined to agree to their ToS and be tracked by them.
[Android Auto General] alexey.vasilyev:
Have anyone checked "Android Car Support UI" released by Google? Cannot find any info about them.

https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/androidx.car

https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.android.support/car
[Android Auto General] Emil Borconi:
I think that's related to android automotive not android Auto, but I might be wrong
[Android Auto General] Jaihoidundso:
There is a new version since a few days: https://github.com/thekirankumar/carstream-android-auto/releases

But how can I download now the unofficial sdk? Because I can't do any steps now.
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
That's an interesting finding. Actually some version of com.android.support.car is a part of the AA SDK as well. AFAIK the final idea is that this package is common to both Android Auto (where the phone-generated content is projected on the car screen) and Android Automotive (where the car screen actually runs Android). I don't know if this goal has already been reached.
[Android Auto General] chuppito:
Hi, I have a waze version modified to have the bigger speedometer icon. Only as she is no longer signed google she no longer works on AA. Is it possible to modify something in AA to see it again? I do not want to go through screen because too greedy for my smartphone. Thank you
[Android Auto General] CCJ22:
shame unofficial android auto is dead.
[Android Auto General] Michele850:
Cao
[Android Auto General] poojamalik810:
I want to support my android mobile app support the same features as android auto. which classes are used to achieve this ? Any help will be surely appreciated.
[Android Auto General] poojamalik810:
Hi, I am building my android app. I want a feature like I want car display unit to display whatever i run in my phone and also user can interact from car display unit also
[Android Auto General] Menneisyys:
Folks,

could please anyone PM me with the sources of martoreto's original aauto lib? It'd help me a lot to play around with AA and try to implement something real. The .aar files' (compiled) content is obfuscated so it's of not much help. :(

(Note: you can safely PM me. Just check my post history etc - I'm not Google's lawyer :) )
[Android Auto General] ermeda:
I've heard the opposite that audio goes in Bluetooth...anyway maybe my Head Unit does not take over V4A and I can use it .

Sorry for not helping.
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
[MENTION=8666285]martoreto[/MENTION], is there any way to display the car's sensor data which is being sent to AA? I know some values are sent, like car speed, lights on/off and such. And when looking into the OS of my VW Discover Pro, I see some additional AA-sensors being mentioned... would be great to be able to read these! :cool:
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
There are 2 ways to access sensor data via Android Auto.

One is CarSensorManager.java (just added docs on these to README). This is the car-brand-agnostic Android Auto interface for sensors. Brands are free to choose which of the supported sensors are available though. For VW-group, the car sends the following: SENSOR_TYPE_CAR_SPEED, SENSOR_TYPE_GEAR, SENSOR_TYPE_NIGHT_DATA, SENSOR_TYPE_DRIVING_STATUS.

The other way is brand-specific vendor channel. This may be used for whatever the particular brand engineers had in mind. I'm attaching the mind of VW engineers, and it's really cool. Is this what you've seen? If not, what it was?

I've been able to read the sensors from my MIB II device using the code I posted in these repositories, have a look:

https://github.com/martoreto/aauto-vex-base

https://github.com/martoreto/aauto-vex-vag
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
Ahh that exlap data looks familiar. I have a specification document regarding this from VW. I'll try and compile your app. It's been a long time since I've done some Android development, so fingers crossed :D

Thanks for updating git! :)
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
Crossing my fingers. ;)

Although what's compiled from aa-vex-vag is only a low-level service, which can then be used in an app (I have this one, but it's not yet ready for publishing). The usage would be like this:

import com.github.martoreto.aauto.vex.CarStatsClient;

[...]

@Override
public void onCreate() {
super.onCreate();

CarStatsClient.requestPermissions(this);

mStatsClient = new CarStatsClient(this);
mStatsLogger = new CarStatsLogger(this, new Handler());
mStatsClient.registerListener(mStatsLogger);
mStatsClient.start();
}

@Override
public void onDestroy() {
if (mStatsLogger != null) {
mStatsLogger.close();
mStatsLogger = null;
}

mStatsClient.stop();
mStatsClient = null;

super.onDestroy();
}

and attaching CarStatsLogger.java.

To clarify:

aa-vex-vag compiles to an .apk which should be installed without modifications (I think I can publish the .apk as well...). Then in another separate app which you would need to create from scratch, use the code above.
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
Here's the apk for aauto-vex-vag:

https://github.com/martoreto/aauto-vex-vag/releases
[Android Auto General] Emil Borconi:
[MENTION=8666285]martoreto[/MENTION] just saying hi.

It looks that we both did more or less the same thing in parallel, but your skill set and knowledge looks to be much more advanced than mine.

R u planning any apps for AA, one of my next projects in mind was Uber/Lyft driver app implementation for Android Auto.

I like the idea of AA Passenger remote, did you consider putting that idea forward to Google?
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
:D

Compiled the sdk demo app, but it leads to a black screen, probably because I linked the wrong version of the sdk :laugh: tomorrow there's another day haha
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
Update: compiled the demo app with sdk v4.5 and installed it on my phone to test it with the car. No luck, still a black screen. [MENTION=8666285]martoreto[/MENTION], did you get it running with a real headunit?
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
Oh, thanks for trying this out yourself!

I think I can reproduce the problem. It happens for me too when I build the APK using Build -> Generate Signed APK...

I usually install my apps using Run -> Run 'app' in Android Studio, and using 'Debug' build (Build -> Select Build Variant).

Please check if this fixes it for you, and I'll try to fix the SDK, so it runs properly in Release mode too.

I didn't check the demo in a real car, but all the other apps I use work fine. I'll check this one too.

I also pushed to Github an update to aauto-sdk-demo (just updated dependencies).
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
My daytime job is tester, trying things out is basically what I do :D

Doing what you described with the new code: still the same behavior.
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
Haha, good to have you here, then! :D

Okkkkay....That's intrstng. Could you please capture an Android bugreport after this happens (Settings -> Developer options -> Take bug report) and PM me a link?
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
Will do tomorrow morning when I'm back in the car again. :good:
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
Hi, [MENTION=842765]Emil Borconi[/MENTION], nice to hear from you.

I was actually inspired by a comment on Stackoverflow I believe, where you posted a link to a .jar you use. Thanks for this one!

At this point I'm quite interested in empowering other developers to build various nice apps.

I also experiment a lot with creating apps I use myself.

Some apps actually prove to be usable, others not so much.

I'm rather not interested in apps which I wouldn't use myself.

What I have in the works (which does not mean that these will end up published), other than the SDK and AA Passenger are:

Making OsmAnd AA-compatible

Something telemetry-related (logging, uploading logs to a database, displaying gauges for which the manufacturer normally wants money)

Mirroring generic apps, but seems quite hard to do in a way which I'd feel it does not encourage distraction and is nice to use at the same time

A tiny app which displays a notification when the oil reaches operating temp. :)

I may be good at programming stuff, but not so much in putting ideas forward to others. :) I'd definitely be glad to see this functionality in the official app (and audio forwarding this way would need no root). If anyone likes to suggest this to Google, I have no objections.
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
Good.

I'm not sure if you know of this nice official Desktop Head Unit tool for testing AA:

https://developer.android.com/training/auto/testing/index.html

I personally haven't seen this ever functioning differently than my car display-wise (noticed some differences in audio though).

Didn't mention I tried the demo app in car too, and well, as Murphy would predict, works for me....... ;)
[Android Auto General] Emil Borconi:
Lol :) I have since improved and cleaned the jar quite a lot but that was the tipping point for me as well.... Seems so long ago. Send me a PM and I will email you the most up to date I have now.

As of oil and notification check my app in the signature the obd2aa... I started off them the seat drive app idea but because many of the cars do not use vendor extension and do not share any sensor information I decided to go with a plugin of torque rather then pulling from AA directly.

Now I do have some extras like speed camera and street info displaying as well.

I'm a top contributor in Google product forums meaning I have direct contact with Google employees, if you don't mind I will pitch your idea to them (of course with giving you all the credit for it).
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
As to the 1-second-black-screen-bug:

This was a bug in the demo app itself, as MainCarActivity class was not public. Now fixed in Github.

I have no idea why it worked for me at all (it works if I use Android Studio's "Run" command with Instant Run feature enabled).
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
Yes, that's a nice tool and I will certainly start using it :D thanks!

I made a bug report, but reading your last update, it's no longer needed. Will test later, don't have my dev machine with me at work today.
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
If you need any graphics/dials for any of the VAG brands, let me know :D

[MENTION=8666285]martoreto[/MENTION] : update, sdk demo now works fine :cool:

Next up: I'm going to try and make something useful with the VAG service
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
Anyone interested in writing a Torque input plugin using aa-vex-*? :) I don't have an OBD II adapter.

Yeah, that's what I started off, too, as this was the first thing which added something to the last tab.

Then Waze came, which contains I believe the full, newer SDK included and not stripped of unused classes.

Sure, go ahead!
[Android Auto General] murtaza16594:
Android Auto Vendor Extension

Hi,

Basically I am trying to gather the Car data through Android Auto and perform some analytics on the data obtained. I am now stuck with VendorExtension part. I have the Head unit code built on my linux machine and I am trying to send some data through the head unit but I am not able to send or receive data. I just went through your Github repo and saw the VendorExtension part implemented, so could you please help me out with a basic code to send and receive data from the Head Unit to mobile device. I have attached my code in which I have a HelloWorldService which calls the HelloWorldCarActivity class, please go through the code and let me know the changes. I have the Exlap head unit code installed on my Linux machine as well. I am trying to send some data from the head unit to the AA app and I am trying to view the data within text view inside the HelloWorldCarActivity class. Not able to attach code files I have send you the code through mail.
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
Demo running like a charm now :cool: (also with the DHU util, thanks!)

Trying to give it a more OEM feel now, to get familiar with it all.
[Android Auto General] ktwo:
Hey, thanks for making this possible :) I posted an issue here https://github.com/martoreto/aauto-sdk/issues but i got it sorted out now, i have posted what i have changed. Probably some system dependetn stuff in the gradle file..

This basically enables to use Android Auto as how it should be, not the crippled official App SDK.

Anyone here is using Oreo already? For some reason on a Nougat device the demo runs nice, but on Oreo i'm getting an error
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
I'm running on Oreo (Sony XZ1), demo works without errors.
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
Ok, I answered this one on github.

For the record, if anyone sees an error mentioning "Ambiguous overload" while compiling the SDK itself, see https://github.com/martoreto/aauto-sdk/issues/1.

I'm on 8.1 now, but tested on 6.0 and 8.0 in the past. No differences.

The error is when the SDK wants to invoke static method com.google.android.gms.car.DynamicApiFactory.newCarActivityServiceProxy (see aauto-sdk/build/out/smali/com/google/android/gms/car/a.smali). It's implemented in Android Auto application and accessed by the SDK in an obscure way involving Context.createPackageContext(..., CONTEXT_INCLUDE_CODE | CONTEXT_IGNORE_SECURITY). It may be interesting to see why it's not accessible / loaded / whatever... Please report if you have any new findings.
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
[MENTION=6948941]murtaza16594[/MENTION], I don't see an obvious bugs in the code (just, please format the post appropriately next time, it's unreadable...).

Make sure that you satisfy all the requirements listed in SDK's README (https://github.com/martoreto/aauto-sdk#vendor-channel).
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
Ha, this looks really cool! :good:

In the meantime I put up another demo app which displays some gauges.

I think it may help you filling the layout with data. :)

https://github.com/martoreto/aastats
[Android Auto General] ktwo:
Hi, i've too setup a new repository for my android auto apps. You can check them out here :)

LocalSpeedcam (Displays feed from radio stations for mobile speed cams)

https://github.com/nerone-github/LocalSpeedcam

AAutoLauncher (Opens App on the phone - bypass AA lock)

https://github.com/nerone-github/AAutoLauncher
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
Really nice! This is a nice base for an extended dashboard, thanks!

I cloned the repository and built my own apk, it runs in the head unit simulator, but not on the real device. The menu with other apps won't even open :crying: Going to check the logcat later tonight to see what's wrong.

Possibly because <uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.gms.permission.CAR_VENDOR_EXTENSION"/> is missing in the manifest?

Also, built apk will not install when aauto-vex-vag.apk is installed.
[Android Auto General] martoreto:
This permission is declared in aauto-vex-vag's manifest, as that apk is directly talking to vendor channel.

Oh, how's this possible? What's the error?

And to what name have you changed the package of aastats?

In order to work, both aastats.apk and aauto-vex-vag.apk need to be installed.
[Android Auto General] ahhl:
Launcher can be launch in AA, but cannot launch the apks. it just scroll up and down , cannot highlight the apks.

localspeedcam- can I insert my own local speed cam?
[Android Auto General] ktwo:
The launcher will launch the app on the phone, did you check that? unlock the display, tap on app and it should launch on the phone. basically it just removes the Android-Auto lock to use an app.

As for the speedcam, yea you can add your own radio station but need to implement the parser. if you want me to do that, please just post the link of the radio station with the speedcam list into the github issues and i will add it
[Android Auto General] Chillout:
No error, the menu with other apps just doesn't open on the real head unit, it throws me back to the main AA screen.

I've named the package com.mqbcoding.stats, and refactored in the right way. It runs in the desktop head unit, strangely enough, but never when the aauto-vex-vag is installed.
[Android Auto General] ahhl:
ha..ha..ha... I was hoping launching from android auto.

anyway I tried as what you said, nothing appear on my phone screen. ie no aalauncher appear on my phone screen. myphone screen only have android auto black screen only. cannot exit that screen.
[Android Auto General] ktwo:
hm so when you tap on the oem tab there is a black screen? did you enable unknown sources within the android auto Dev settings?

Also there is a known problem with Huawei which occurs on Waze too. Does Waze run for you?
[Android Auto General] ahhl:
unknown sources enabled

waze runs perfectly
[Android Auto General] ktwo:
Hm. Thats strange, did the demo app from martoreto run?

( https://github.com/martoreto/aauto-sdk-demo )

To identify the issue maybe try to run AA with the HeadUnitEmulator instead of the car

https://developer.android.com/training/auto/testing/index.html

Then you can see whats wrong in the log
[Android Auto General] ahhl:
[emoji3]I am novice, only knows how to install apps and use it.