Fire tablet converted to Head Unit via flashing ROM - possible? - Android Auto General

Hello all,
I have not found a thread/ROM about this, so I guess it is not possible. or is it?
It seems like it "should" be possible, but maybe the Head Units have some special hardware code that makes it impossible?
Thanks,
Mark.

Google "nexus 7 car stereo" for thousands of ideas.

CZ Eddie said:
Google "nexus 7 car stereo" for thousands of ideas.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, but I don't think I've made myself clear... there is a HUGE difference between installing the Android Auto app on a tablet and a built-in Android Auto device.
Everything I have seen by searching has been a tablet or phone with an app... The Android Auto app is going to be killed off very soon, and certain functionality will be developed only for the built in devices.
My question is whether a tablet can be hacked so GOOGLE sees your tablet as a built-in device, and will issue it with updates etc.
tx
Mark

Even the chinese HU don't use android auto they have some other app that does the same and most people don't use it. In the end the concept of mirroring isn't that practical and there's too many hurdles such as apps have to be enabled for it...

nic2k said:
Even the chinese HU don't use android auto they have some other app that does the same and most people don't use it. In the end the concept of mirroring isn't that practical and there's too many hurdles such as apps have to be enabled for it...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So better to use a 3rd party app then I guess. Tx

Related

quick question guys!

hey guys. my girlfriend just got a mytouch and i was wondering if there are any apps out there that require two android devices. i think theres one where you can track another android device and see where she is at. i just dont know the name of that app. any help is appreciated.
there are lots of apps that do exactly what youre referring to. some of the are even built in. latitude in maps, for example, will show you the last updated location of the device using the function. there are also programs like GPS tracker which use a web interface for the same thing.
also, with the new CM builds, bluetooth filesharing would require two bluetooth enabled devices.
are there any games that can be played android vs. android??
rpesigan6 said:
are there any games that can be played android vs. android??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both of you just sign up for Latitude and turn it on. Insecure much?

[Q] android auto compatible apps?

Is there any resource for finding a list of "android auto" compatible apps? I should (hopefully) be getting a 8100NEX tomorrow (to use with my nexus6.) However, I can't seem to find a current list of compatible apps. For example, I'd like to find a music player (not Google's play music - the 1000 track playlist limit is too... limiting) that'd work with it.
Thanks
Gary
https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/promotion_3001303_android_auto_all
I emailed Doubletwist asking if they are going to have an Android Auto update and they haven't responded.
garyd9 said:
Is there any resource for finding a list of "android auto" compatible apps? I should (hopefully) be getting a 8100NEX tomorrow (to use with my nexus6.) However, I can't seem to find a current list of compatible apps. For example, I'd like to find a music player (not Google's play music - the 1000 track playlist limit is too... limiting) that'd work with it.
Thanks
Gary
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.android.com/auto/
There is a list of compatible apps.
Skynx72 said:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/promotion_3001303_android_auto_all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you - that was exactly what I was looking for. (It's a short list, isn't it? ugh..)
MarcJ1904 said:
http://www.android.com/auto/There is a list of compatible apps.
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Click to collapse
Honestly, this looks more like an advertisement for android auto than a "live" (and updated) list. I appreciate the reply nevertheless.
Take care
Gary
I hope so, but for example: WhatsApp, Facebook and so on I can´t use with Android Auto and I would think these apps are the apps with the fastest update rate.
garyd9 said:
Is there any resource for finding a list of "android auto" compatible apps? I should (hopefully) be getting a 8100NEX tomorrow (to use with my nexus6.) However, I can't seem to find a current list of compatible apps. For example, I'd like to find a music player (not Google's play music - the 1000 track playlist limit is too... limiting) that'd work with it.
Thanks
Gary
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Gary. Try going to appradioworld.com and click on the app tab. You'll find a list for android and apple that is stated to be continually updated.
John
garyd9 said:
Thank you - that was exactly what I was looking for. (It's a short list, isn't it? ugh..)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Only messaging and audio playback apps. Mainly because (according to the developer docs) these are the only API's currently available to developers. This will undoubtedly be expanded on; there is another category of apps (car related) that no API's exist for at this point.
But how long will it take? If you compare it to Wear, probably the better part of a year. And it seems Wear was much more finished in the first place. This is a little disturbing. No one buys the initial run of Auto compatible units because Auto is so unfinished, and manufacturers loose interest. Hopefully, that will not be the case, but I for one am on the fence for now.
http://www.appradioworld.com/2015/04/samsung-galaxy-s6-not-compatible-with.html#more
They say the HTC One M8 is compatible with Android Auto, but my HTC One M8 doesn´t work
MarcJ1904 said:
http://www.appradioworld.com/2015/04/samsung-galaxy-s6-not-compatible-with.html#more
They say the HTC One M8 is compatible with Android Auto, but my HTC One M8 doesn´t work
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
...and this relates to the thread topic how?
garyd9 said:
Is there any resource for finding a list of "android auto" compatible apps?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The lastest release of the Android Auto app has a link to the available apps.
Where can I get the latest version? In Germany the app isn´t available in the Playstore.
MarcJ1904 said:
Where can I get the latest version? In Germany the app isn´t available in the Playstore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Best place for all Google APKs: http://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/android-auto/
Install manually and it should work, but keep it up to date.
I had a problem where AA refused to start because there was a newer version on Play. But it wouldn't download due to my country not being whitelisted. Some day it might refuse to work at all without the right parameters.
This could happen in the middle of a trip, or at least after a car restart.
Of course almost everyone had fun recently with an accidental development release that showed numbers and emails all over the screen.
Hello,
thanks for the link.
When I try to take a look which apps are supported the result is "No result." (Germany, also with United States VPN)
Perhaps you can post a list of the supported apps?
Facebook will never be allowed on Android Auto.
MarcJ1904 said:
I hope so, but for example: WhatsApp, Facebook and so on I can´t use with Android Auto and I would think these apps are the apps with the fastest update rate.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android Auto is designed to Auto safety guidelines that are very strict. Facebook is not something someone should be using in a car.
What is the diffrence between Facebook and WhatsApp and ICQ what is supported?!
MarcJ1904 said:
What is the diffrence between Facebook and WhatsApp and ICQ what is supported?!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Android Auto supports "Messaging" (and "Media").
So if Facebook could do an app or extension limited to text messaging with text to speech and speech to text, then AA could support that I guess.
No looking at pictures/videos or posting them or doing text on screen for sure.
But the app would have to be approved by Google, for distraction, and whatever else suits their business goals.
I wish Waze was supported. I would rather use it than Google Maps.

Full Android Mirroring via Android Auto

Hey!
I'm new to Android Auto.
I'm owning a Opel Astra which supports Android Auto.
Is it possible to use the Android Auto feature of the car to mirror the whole Android phone (like Mirracast)?
Thanks for any help.
Marcel
Unfortunately not. I was hoping somebody with the right skills would build a modified Android Auto app that can do that but since it hasn't happened yet I suspect that:
1. building an Android Auto app that mirrors the entire phone is simply impossible
2. the amount of people currently using Android Auto is too small to even care
3. nobody wants to risk being sued because somebody killed himself while using a modified Android Auto app
For now, just install the sensible Android extension for xposed. It does solve some annoyances and it is a good start
Kenwood head units in Australia do this, it sucks. Super slow and not very user friendly.
Short answer : access to the headunit using the Android Auto protocol is protected using a signing certificate. So basiclaly only Google can write a software that works with the head unit. So there is no way to create a custom Android Auto app unfortunately.
marcjero said:
Short answer : access to the headunit using the Android Auto protocol is protected using a signing certificate. So basiclaly only Google can write a software that works with the head unit. So there is no way to create a custom Android Auto app unfortunately.
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Click to collapse
Can't it be cracked with xposed or something?
sosimple said:
Can't it be cracked with xposed or something?
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Click to collapse
I think xposed could unlock some limitations (like application side loading) but won't enable something like mirroring..
Will the app mirror link not work
Sent from my A0001 using Tapatalk

Android Auto - How it works?

Hi,
I have searched on the internet but I can't find any good info about android auto.
First I don't understand how it works. I have seen that you need android auto on your phone in order to communicate with your car device but what is running on the car device? Is a different type of operating system?
Can I add an application developed for Android on Android Auto?
adrian94a said:
Hi,
I have searched on the internet but I can't find any good info about android auto.
First I don't understand how it works. I have seen that you need android auto on your phone in order to communicate with your car device but what is running on the car device? Is a different type of operating system?
Can I add an application developed for Android on Android Auto?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
AA consists of 2 parts -
AA application running on the phone
AA client on say a car headunit (could also be another android phone or an android tablet) that mirrors the AA phone display
AA can be run self hosted on a phone, then you don't need the second part.
If you want to have a fixed display (client/server setup) in the car & you don't already have a car headunit supporting AA, you can install an app such as HUR- https://forum.xda-developers.com/ge...ndroid-4-1-headunit-reloaded-android-t3432348 on the headunit/tablet. There's a trial version that you can download to try.
Hi kk131
Thank you for your replay.
So if is running on my phone this means that all my phone application will be available on my car console?
adrian94a said:
Hi kk131
Thank you for your replay.
So if is running on my phone this means that all my phone application will be available on my car console?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As the purpose of AA is to enable phone use during driving, it provides limited access with a simplified display :
Google assistant - so you can have voice interaction
Phone
Navigation - waze/google maps
Music apps - google play music, spotify (depends what you have installed on your phone)
Great info.
I am asking this because I have an application of podcast on google play and I would like to be available on AA and I am trying to find out how can I do that.
Do you know any relevant info on the web that can clarify me? I am guessing that there are some constraints if we speak of automotive
Install AA on your phone., run it, see if the app is shown in the menu. If it isn't you can go into AA developer mode and enable 'unknown sources' and test again. The thread I referenced above covers getting in AA developer mode.
If that test is successful, then go further and install the client on your car console.
Great, I will try it and come back with some answers.
Thank you for your time
Hello again,
I manage to complete all my tests and all was ok. I have installed a few applications and one custom application and all worked ok.
I have one more question for you if you can help me of course.
Do you know a tutorial or something from where I can start with Android auto? I have seen that there are not tow application (one for Android and one for Android auto ) is the same app but for Auto version are fewer scenes.
If you can give me a hint here it will be just great.
Thank you.
adrian94a said:
Hello again,
I manage to complete all my tests and all was ok. I have installed a few applications and one custom application and all worked ok.
I have one more question for you if you can help me of course.
Do you know a tutorial or something from where I can start with Android auto? I have seen that there are not tow application (one for Android and one for Android auto ) is the same app but for Auto version are fewer scenes.
If you can give me a hint here it will be just great.
Thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It would be helpful to know what hardware you have in your car.
I'm not an expert, I use a Nexus 7 tablet for the car display with headunit reload (HUR).

Android Auto alternative

Hi,
I'm disappointed with AA. I think there is some space for an open source alternative to this system which is so closed.
Moreover the end of life of the standalone version makes me feel that Google doesn't care much about their customer experience.
I tried the Google Assistant driving mode and it's... a disaster for now.
I think it would be easy to create a great AA like launcher. But to make it succesfull there must be a community and an ecosystem around that. Apps are important even in automotive context.
Typically Waze is a key app that many drivers want.
At this time I'm wondering what is the best approach to start this kind of project. I see few show stoppers and I'm interested to get some thought from you about that.
1/ Head unit integration : long time ago I worked on the reverse engineering of the AA protocol. I discovered that the protocol is using SSL certificates. Head units holds a public key and mobile use a private key provided by Google Play Services. The problem is that these certificates have very short lifetime (about 6 months) and if I remember fine the root cerificate will expire in 2030 or something. I don't think that head unit s check the expiration date anyway (because many of them don't have system time). But for sure you need a Google private key in order to initiate communication with a head unit. The key could be captured decompiling code few years ago, don't know if it's still as simple as that.
If head unit really don't check the expiration date then it could be possible to replace the whole AA stack with an independent one.
But even if this work I'm not sure it's possible to disable the native AA protocol and take control of the USB port without rooting.
2/ Apps integration. There are 2 categories of Automotive apps : media apps and navigation apps. I think there are also a category for messaging apps.
Navigations apps are apps that provides an automotive friendly display. Waze does this for example.
Media apps are easy to integrate becaase they rely on the legacy mediabrowser APIs.
Integrating the navigation apps is tough. Because these apps are exposing a special AA service that only privileged apps can invoke (by default).
However apps dev can also allow a third party app to connect their dispkay service. This won't ever happen except if the car launcher become mainstream.
Good point is that would not require any change in implementations : it's just an access right problem.
I have seen a lot of car launchers in Play store. They all display the apps on native mode which is not what you want while driving.
Any comments to this ?
I would also like to see an alternative way...but unfortunately I did not find anything yet.
I'm also not happy with everything on Android Auto.
For example:
- I have apps (e.g. navigation) that are not compatible with Android Auto
- I can't accept Whatsapp calls on Android Auto
- The navgation of media apps is not the best way (if you want to change the playlists, there are way too many inputs necessary)
- I can't turn off Google Maps (GPS) to preserve battery and reduce heat on the phone
- I need internet (I live in a rural area...therefore sometimes I don't have internet and then in a lot of times, Android Auto just crashes...)
- I don't like Google's update policy (it's just good luck if a new version of Android Auto works stable). I want to have a working version and leave it on the phone.
From a user standpoint I definately would like to see an AA alternative. I don't need to watch videos or anything like that but there are a few necessary apps for me that AA doesn't allow.
SOFO888 said:
- I don't like Google's update policy (it's just good luck if a new version of Android Auto works stable). I want to have a working version and leave it on the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can achieve that by disabling Android Auto automatic updates on Play Store app.
CaioTheBrain said:
You can achieve that by disabling Android Auto automatic updates on Play Store app.
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Click to collapse
No, unfortunately not. Every Google app has an expiration date, also Android Auto. This expiration date then forces you to update your app. Otherwise it will not start.
There are a few Android dongles that trick the car's headunit into thinking it is connected via Android Auto. However, most of the devices are CarPlay AI units that trick the headunit into thinking is is connected to a CarPlay device and then display the Android system through the headunit. But they are all buggy.
Perhaps something can be learned from how they do that. An app that mimics Android Auto but allows full user control would be great.
I am by no means an expert but I want to help do this! I liked using rooted devices for AA and having AA tweaker but I always felt like it was just the start of something not a finished product so I'm definitely down with this. What I feel like would be the simplest approach would be making an Android auto app that (it communicates with your phone and doesn't need data) runs on a cheap tablet that you put on your dash or wherever in the car and from there you have full control over the app and device. Just my thoughts
Did someone tried sreen2auto? Its mirroring your phone to your android auto. Search it on XDA forum.
drnightshadow said:
Did someone tried sreen2auto? Its mirroring your phone to your android auto. Search it on XDA forum.
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Click to collapse
I used to use Screen2Auto but it required too much upkeep every time Google made changes to Android Auto. The last time it broke I couldn't get it working again.

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