Area51© said:

Now have audio working as well. Going to add touch and then make a full demo.

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.

Speedmatze said:

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.

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.

Area51© said:

Great news regarding AAUnchained. Finally video streaming to my Pioneer Android Auto head unit is working and it is really stable. See here for a demo: AAUnchained video mirroring demo.
This demo shows the AAUnchained app running on my old Nexus 6 with Android 9. It's connected wirelessly to the head unit via an AAWireless adapter. AAunchained mirrors the phone's screen to the head unit directly, 'talking' the Android Auto protocol. Because Android Auto is not used, all of the screen estate is available for mirroring.
Next things to do is to get audio working and implementing touch from the head unit to the phone.

I did some more testing with audio and it's also sent to the head unit using the AA protocol. Capturing internal audio is only possible with Android 10 and higher so that's going to be a requirement for the app. Have to see how that works but it's not nearly as difficult as getting the video to work.

Touch is even simpler. Touch info is already sent via the AA protocol, just a matter of hooking it up.

Click to expand...

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

Yes that's the intention, in the end it should work with as much AA head units as possible.

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.

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.

3) Is there anything you can think of that Google could do to nerf this?

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.

Area51© said:

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.

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?

Area51© said:

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.

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!

stargate125645 said:

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?

I don't really know. The head unit can advertise multiple screen configurations. Maybe AA only supports a few of those.

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?

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.

Area51© said:

Now have audio working as well. Going to add touch and then make a full demo.

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.

arimhan said:

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.

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.

Area51© said:

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.

That's some great news. I can't wai to be able to use this.