CarStream (previously YoutubeAuto) for Android Auto APK download and setup

2,440 Replies

Play Youtube Video on Android Auto using this app

Screen Shot 2017-12-31 at 10.04.28 AMVersion history :

29th Dec 2017 : v1.0 released

29th Dec 2017 : v1.0.1 released to fix install errors on Android API level < 21

30th Dec 2017 : v1.0.2 released with safety disabled. Safety was showing blank screen when fullscreen. Controller support for nontouch screen still pending.

30th Dec 2017 : v1.1.0 Controller support for non touch devices done. Includes fullscreen and back nav support as well.

1st Jan 2018 : v1.1.1 Fix for app not installed on Marshmallow and lower Android phones. Install this version if you face “App not installed” error

1st Jan 2018 : v1.1.2 Stability fixes and support to resume video if was playing before app was minimized.

2nd Jan 2018 : v1.1.3 Ability to open any website via “Google search” option. Also send any custom url from the phone app. The car app remembers the last url visited and loads it automatically.

2nd Jan 2018 : v1.2.0 Speech to text for youtube searches. Minor fix to controller inputs.

2nd Jan 2018 : v1.2.1 Possible first fix for audio volume not controllable.

3rd Jan 2018 : v1.2.2 Full screen videos can be toggled more easily due to floating toolbar. Speech recognising view not hiding bug fixed. Its clickable just in case it doesnt hide. Progressbar to show page load progress.

3rd Jan 2018 : v1.2.3 Possible second fix for audio volume not controllable on some cars

5th Jan 2018 : v1.2.4 Fixed black screen which appears sometimes. Possible third fix for volume control in some systems.

6th Jan 2018 : v1.3.0Night mode support for Youtube added. Switch on your headlights to see the magic.

9th Jan 2018 : v1.3.1 Full screen mode now persists across videos. No need to switch fullscreen mode for each video on a playlist. It also stays on across app launches. You also should see a slight page speed boost.

9th Jan 2018: v1.3.2 Initial implementation of playing local offline videos/music/images. To enable, open phone app, grant “external storage” permission, then long press on the home icon (to the right of back button) on the car to open the SDcard folders. Now you can select a file and play it fullscreen. (Demo)

12th Jan 2018: v1.4.0 Now you should be able to use steering mounted controls (for next and previous video). This update also allows a “somewhat” background playback which allows you to listen to the audio without the video, but the catch is that you have to select the video first using the UI and then switch to background mode. This update should fix any volume control issues you have been facing in the past. (Watch the Demo)

12th Jan 2018: v1.4.1 If you have crashed when accessing youtube purchased videos, this build will fix it.

13th Jan 2018: v1.4.2 Please uninstall all previous builds and install this one if “youtube auto” has suddenly disappeared from Android auto (from last 1-2 days). If you dont uninstall previous builds, there is a chance that 2 similar looking apps show up.

This is possible because Google has blocked my previous app. Still not 100% sure.

13th Jan 2018: v1.4.3 About link redirecting to 404 page fixed.

14th Jan 2018: v1.4.4 Safety Warning popup added which pops up everytime you start driving. This warning will disappear if you use handbrake/parking mode.

15th Jan 2018: v1.5.0Aspect ratio support to remove black bars. You can toggle between aspect ratios in full screen mode. Also irritating notifications have been removed.

15th Jan 2018: v1.5.1Fullscreen controls support for controllers, use right,left,up and center to seek, change aspect ratio and play/pause.

15th Jan 2018: v1.5.2Bug fixes for “I understand the risk” not clickable for some users. Fixed steering mounted controls not working the first time.

15th Jan 2018: v1.5.4Fix for “I understand the risk” button not clickable. Irritating notifications are back because without them there is no way to make steering controls work reliably. Will be fixed soon

18th Jan 2018: v1.6.0Youtube auto renamed to CarStream with new logo. Looks like google bannned again. So if previous app is not showing up, use this app.

19th Jan 2018: v1.6.1Youtube auto renamed to CarStream with new logo. Looks like google bannned again. So if previous app is not showing up, use this app.

25th Jan 2018: v1.7.0Bookmarks support added. Click on last icon on the top toolbar. Long press on a bookmark to delete. Demo

25th Jan 2018: v1.7.1 Italian and chinese translations added. Check the credits section for how to add more languages. Thanks to everyone (mentioend in credits) for translating.

26th Jan 2018: v1.7.2 External SD card support works with most devices. Look for the ‘external storage’ bookmark. French translation added.

27th Jan 2018: v1.7.3 Basic keyboard input added. Translations to finnish, portuguese, danish, turkish, french added. Thank you everyone

6th Feb 2018: v1.8.0 More translations added. Revamped local offline player. Now play SD Card videos with next and previous support. Also supports formats like MKV. Also Bookmarks issues have been fixed. For a full list of supported formats read ‘Standalone container formats’ on this page

6th Feb 2018: v1.8.1 Bug fix release,
issues related to local videos not playing correctly fixed.

7th Feb 2018: v1.8.2 Bug fix release for bookmark dpad support in non touch screens

8th Feb 2018: v1.8.3 Bug fix release for audio focus issues. If carstream overwrites other players, this version fixes it. Also local audio/video continues to play in background.

21st Jun 2018 : 2.0.0 Introduces a way to unlock carstream in rooted phones. Thanks to ‘slashmax’ for figuring out the trick.

The following message is shown if handbrake is not applied. Please make sure you use this app safely.
Android auto youtube warning

8th Feb 2018 : For raising bugs or enhancement requests please visit https://github.com/thekirankumar/youtube-android-auto/issues

Youtube Auto Latest Version
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Youtube Auto Latest Version
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How to install the app

How to watch local videos of all formats on SD Card

Raising bugs, enhancement for new features

CarStream is developed and maintained by me in my free time. In order to efficiently manage my time, it would be great if you can use github for raising bugs and feature requests. I have been using this blog’s comments section till now for this, but it doesnt scale well. So if you put anything here, it will mostly get ignored. So please use github. I know its painful to create a github account, but it helps me. Before raising a github issue, check if the same issue exists, otherwise it will most likely be closed.
Use this link to reach github issues page

Debugging black screen issue

Black screen when switching on Youtube auto is usually related to Power saver mode on your phone. Some phones have it as “aggressive doze mode” or “advanced battery optimization”. For youtube auto to work seamlessly, you have to switch off power saver mode completely or disable it just for Youtube auto.

Also sometimes you can follow this trick of switching on youtube auto phone app on phone and then connecting to the car. Please try this on Xperia and Huawei phones. Also some huawei phones are not compatible with android auto in general. Even Waze doesnt work. Source

Disabling the bottom bar in fullscreen mode

Many users have requested this feature of hiding the nav bar when in fullscreen mode. Unfortunately google doesnt support this feature and we can expect google to give an API in future version of android auto. So this is not feasible.

Source code

If you want to add new features or checkout the code visit https://github.com/thekirankumar/youtube-android-auto/ Pull requests for new feature are welcome.

Donation

If you like this app, please make a donation.

My bitcoin (BTC) address 1MHUymspbm3FgJexAFcvxxq6QdHS9bJjZh

My paypal address https://paypal.me/thekirankumar2

My litecoin (LTC) address LXRkN1JDm1weqDL6WKCQRTcqqfPnSiGaCQ

Credits

Unofficial Android SDK https://github.com/martoreto/aauto-sdk Without this SDK this project wouldn’t exist. Thanks to Martoreto for reverse engineering the Waze app and coming up with a easy to use SDK and a sample app.

VideoEnabledWebview https://github.com/cprcrack/VideoEnabledWebView This webview makes fullscreen videos easy to implement.

Thanks for helping with translation :

German : Timo Neumeier
Russian : Ilja Skobelev
Italian : Gabriele Rizzo
Chinese : Nelson
French : Adil Bousfiha
Finnish : Joona Ahveninen & Raitsa
Portuguese: Daniel Stuart
Turkish: Ufuk Ata
Danish: Hayrullah Celik
Bulgarian : Boby
Polish : Krzysztof Białek
Estonian : Magnus Jaaska & Olev Kaas
Spanish : César Formica & Miceot

If you want to translate to your local language, please visit the github repository and raise a pull request or just mail me the strings.xml file at [email protected]

Note

Disclaimer :This is my personal project and I maintain it in my free time. The work here is in no way related to my Employer. It is a hobby project where I have not committed to anyone about maintaining it. With Google blocking every move, its getting more difficult to progress. You can imagine how it would be to fight as a one man army against google.

Unblocking instructions

[21st Jan 2018] Google has blocked the app multiple times till now and its becoming difficult for me to release just a new version to unblock it. Here are some tricks to do it yourself when google blocks the app.

Google blocks the app’s package name. This is how apps identify themselves and google is able to block the app easily by just identifying my app’s package name and then blocking it. As a workaround, if you are an android developer, just clone the source code and change the package name in build.gradle as well on the google-services.json file.

If you are not a developer, I recommend you use APK Editor Pro app (Its a paid app, but the apks are available everywhere). It allows you to change package names of any app without creating the APK yourself.

  • Download APK editor PRO (free version doesnt allow many features)
  • Open the settings and click “sign APK with” and select “key created by APK Editor”
  • Exit settings and come back to main menu
  • click “Select APK from app”
  • select the car stream apk
  • select “Full Edit”
  • click on the third tab on bottom called “manifest”
  • click on the second line from top called “manifest xmlns:android….
  • click on “package” and change the package name to anything you want. This is the most important step. You should use something which is unique to you. Use maybe your name or username in it. Do not use special character except “dot”. If your name is john doe, use maybe “com.johndoe.testapp” as the package name. Be creative here, because this is what google uses to block the app
  • Click save button, be careful not to press cancel.
  • Now click the build button on the top-right corner of the screen
  • This will take a few seconds and finish the creating a new APK
  • [IMPORTANT] Once it finishes, uninstall the old version of car stream. If you dont uninstall, the new APK wont install
  • Now go back to APK pro and press install the new apk you created which has your custom package name
  • After installation, Car Stream should work for you


If you get install issues with APK editor, try APK cloner. It doesn’t let you change package name, but it automatically chooses a package name and is easy to use and free.
If google blocks the apk again, come back here to this section for a new workaround.

8th Feb 2018 : For raising bugs or enhancement requests please visit https://github.com/thekirankumar/youtube-android-auto/issues

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2,440 thoughts on “CarStream (previously YoutubeAuto) for Android Auto APK download and setup”

  1. Rich

    Hi, installed Carstream 1.6.1, then changed name by AppCloner, uninstalled carstream, installed with my name. Program shows up on car’s display but when I push the button the white screen shows up with all toolbuttons on upper line, no video, only sound, then switches to android auto screen, then back and so on and on, no video. Tried many times no luck…

    Reply ↓
    1. DJ

      Hi, Oscar.
      Yes, the google still block but you can trying by following the Unblocking instruction above, we also tried and this trouble was gone.
      Good luck,

      Reply ↓
  3. DARIO

    in the ford kuga 2017 with sync3, with the 1.6.1 version the steering wheel controls do not work. if I press the next video, it takes the video off and does nothing. if I press the previous video, it returns to the previous screen, but not the previous video. with the old versions it worked

    Reply ↓
    1. DJ

      Hi, DARIOin this case, I think may be clear the cache file, Uninstall and Install again will solve this issue, please try.
      Thanks,

      Reply ↓
  7. Andrea

    With app cloner when saving the new app, a message comes out saying that there is a bug created by Cyanogenmod to protect the phone. What function of Cyanogen should I deactivate to continue? Smartphone no root.

    Reply ↓
  9. Salvatore nardo

    Mi funziona perfettamente
    Tranne che quando vado ad effettuare il login
    Per accedere a Google o canali TV in streaming
    Non mi compare la tastiera .
    Non quella con la lente su un alto, ma bensì quella del sito in questione. Potresti risolvere per favore
    Grazie . Poi per il resto sei un grande .
    Se risolvi questo problema saresti un genio.
    Spero non l’abbia riscontrato solo io questo errore , o anche se così fosse che sia risolvibile

    Reply ↓
  11. hide

    Hi Kiran

    Thank you for useful apps
    Actually, the application ceased to be displayed from the other day
    Please help me.

    My car is Ford Mustang 2016.
    Android version is 7.11.
    Application is up to date.

    Please tell me what is the problem

    Reply ↓
  12. Rom1

    Hi, I followed all the steps with apk editor pro, uninstalled original carstream before installing clone of carstream. The clone didn’t open on m’a smartphone (“carstream stopped”). When connected to discover pro and android auto activated, no carstream appeared as in the instruction video. Any idea?

    Reply ↓
  15. AMRUTHA

    Hi Kiran,
    I tried to build the app package but it turned out to an error showing” the first type is not attr! “.is there any solution for this???

    Reply ↓
    1. JEsc

      I used the free version of App Cloner as mentioned in previous comments and it worked. I had installed the APK Editor Pro paid app but was getting a parsing error so I took the refund and installed the Free App Cloner app. Very easy

      Reply ↓
  19. freebrug

    I solved my problems by reinstalling android auto. So please do not just rebuild the app but also reinstall android auto.

    Reply ↓
  21. Stallion

    Hi, just wondering if its possible to edit the source code in Android Studio? Is it possible to attach an add-on (ad blocker) within the browser?

    Reply ↓
  23. Alex

    I noticed that if installation from unknown sources is prohibited, it does not work. Earth is allowed to work after cloning. sams s7. kia seed 2017

    Reply ↓
    1. DJ

      Hi, Mirek ^ Alex
      for the unknown source, First, you should enable the AA for development mode and then you will be able to selected to support for the unknown source, after that your carstream should be worked. please try.
      Thanks,

      Reply ↓
  25. Vishnu

    Instead of completely removing the code for background music playback to comply with Google just make it a toggle inside the code which can be set true or false. So by default the app will not play background music. But if someone wants to edit the apk and change that value to true they can still keep background music.

    Reply ↓
  26. Pasi

    Sorry but I might not understand??

    I have Skoda Suberb 2017 with Android Auto. I’ve edited package name but I do not see CarStream as an app in my car Android Auto view.

    Also I do not understand mention: “go to android app and receive from phone”?

    I don’t see that kind of choice anywhere… If you time for help me I’d really appreciated!!

    Reply ↓
    1. Daniel

      In the CarStream app, click on Send to Car. Then, plug device into car to boot up Android Auto. Click on the right most button on the navigation bar in Android Auto. Select CarStream. Accept the warning message. On the top navigation bar of CarStream, click on the right most icon, Receive from Phone.

      Reply ↓
      1. Tom

        You need to installa “App Cloner” from Google Play Store. Than following basic indications within the app. At the end remove the ‘original’ app and keep the cloned one: it will popup on the android car display of the car

        Reply ↓
  30. Nik

    Works great but have to open the app through the dial option. The only problem is I can’t get rid of the android auto menu bar at the Bottom

    Reply ↓
  31. David

    Hello kiran,
    Thanks for your fantastic app. Do you plan to play files with * .avi extension and more?

    Thanks for all!!

    Reply ↓
  34. Kage

    I’ve paid both premium versions for both apps mentioned. I cannot get it to work.

    @Dev I’m willing to PayPal you $10 for the app. Can you send me a working APK to my email?

    Reply ↓
    1. DJ

      Hi, Kage.
      I guest some things may need to re-confirm with your process.
      Please make sure you have Selected the “Unknown sources” from Android Auto developer menu at the basic required.
      then Install the normal CARStream package and using the APK clone to clone it with just only change then name clone.
      Good luck!

      Reply ↓
  35. Nelson

    Hi Kiran Kumar,
    What is your email address?
    I have completed the traditional Chinese file(locate :zh-rTW) as your default strings items.
    I will send it to you.

    BTW, Beautiful work for this.

    Reply ↓
  39. CATINIELLO

    Well, on my Ford Fiesta plus that amounts SYNC 3, this app DOESNT’ APPEAR using Android Auto.
    Above all, when i try to RENAME PACKAGE of this one, i obtain always the same error: first type is not attr!
    PLEASE, HELP TO FIND THE RIGHT WAY FOR USING IT ON MY CAR

    Reply ↓
  40. Marco

    I have a problem when switching from playing video to just audio only when you tap the music icon. I would have to refresh the page a couple times in order for it to play without using the video so I can use my GPS. Also it tends to exit out what it is playing but not android auto and goes to my radio. Please fix it

    Reply ↓
  41. Dario

    Pull and compile: I opened the project within Android Studio without touching anything, but when I try to build the APK, it says “Error:Class “Bookmark” must contain at least 1 persistable field.”

    What’s wrong?
    Thank you!

    Reply ↓
  45. Deniz

    Russian version is working and it is not blocked but carstream is not working without app cloner. Is russian version of apk safe?

    Reply ↓
  46. mjvc

    Hi Kiran,
    Thanks for your effort on this amazing APP.
    After using APP clone to duplicate and rename the app, it works on VW Passat B8 car stereo.
    Thank you very much.

    Reply ↓
  49. Sham

    Dear Kiran
    Thanks a lot for the wonderful work and it’s a gem!

    Is it feasible to use heremaps in Android auto…which helps to have offline maps for a state/country fully .. Gmaps is only allowing to have offline maps for small areas

    Reply ↓
  50. Sham

    Dear Kiran
    Thanks a lot for the wonderful work and it’s a gem!

    Is it feasible for u to include heremaps in Android auto…which helps to have offline maps for a state/country fully .. Gmaps is only allowing to have offline maps for small areas

    Reply ↓

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