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
 (1527951 hits)
Youtube Auto Latest Version
Download

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”

  2. Matteo

    Hi Kiran,
    1.7.3 Version is the better !!!!…..
    Some questions…..
    I understood that with the lastest versions was possible use different video format\codec…..
    After few test i understand that is possible play only mp4 with h264 codec…. (i converted my video that now for me this isn’t a problem but……).
    I’m looking forward to the playlist mode for local file …..
    Thanks !!!!
    (Today i add in my personal web page a link for donations to you)

    Bye bye from Italy

    Reply ↓
  3. Daniel M.

    Hi Kiran.
    Non touch screens (controller types) are unable to access bookmarks. Can you fix this please ?
    Thanks!

    Reply ↓
  4. Angelo

    Ciao matteo io uso la 1.6 ma se dovessi installare la 1.7.3 devo rifare il procedimento con app cloner? Comunque grande app e ottima idea quell del link per donazione.

    Reply ↓
      1. Matteo

        Io l’app nel dubbio la clono….
        Da quando è uscita la 1.7 ho visto che non sono stati più rilasciati aggiornamenti AA per cui non escludo che la prossima versione possa ribloccare l’app….nel caso puoi scaricare una versione “clonata” dal mio sito personale (ci accedi cliccando sul mio nome).
        Bye

        Reply ↓
  5. Craicmeister

    Hi Kiran,
    I have installed version 1.7.3 and I have a one plus 3t, I have connected the phone to the car via USB to my 2018 vw Amarok but cannot see YouTube auto on my car screen or do not have ‘send to car’s on my phone, I can play YouTube manually on my phone and can hear the audio through the car speakers but cannot see video, thank you.

    Reply ↓
  7. Jack

    Hi, could You insert The @ simbol?
    With 1.73 version external sd card doesn’t work anfore (with 1.70 version It works). Many thanks

    Reply ↓
    2. andrea

      grande e grazie per l’applicazione, sono riuscito con cloner apk a farla funzionare su vw golf 7.
      Ora vorrei chiederti è possibile ovviare il problema di riproduzione video in movimento?
      Grazie

      Reply ↓
  8. Salvatore nardo

    Potresti aggiungere per favore la tastiera con caratteri speciali per effettuare la login occorre la @
    Sicuramente non ne hai avuto modo
    Ti ringrazio e ti faccio tantissimi complimenti

    Reply ↓
  9. Burak krmtc

    Hi KIRAN KUMAR firstl thank you for this app great job..
    But I have some trouble with it i have sony xz and audi a5 new generation. My car has not touch screen then we use it 4 axe button also this button scrolling 2 way and also this button using for confirming with pushing. Now my problem is when the advertisemt start i can not pass it
    at full screen. Please add some way for it because some add is so long like 4 minute.. The other thing is please add clock top of screen left side or right side.. Thanks for reading..

    Reply ↓
  10. Joan

    Hi Kirian, thanks for the app, it’s wonderful.
    I have a problem with my audi a3 that doesnt have touch screen. As the previous comment, we cannot pass the ads. And also we cannot press bookmarks because the audi mmi wheel doesnt work in this page.
    Thank you again

    Reply ↓
  11. memyselfandi

    THX for your great work.
    I’ve a problem. Inside the CarPlay App there is no “send to car” and if I open AA I can hit the CarApp but there is a message “Click last icon in bottom bar & start playing from youtube”
    Can u help me?

    Reply ↓
  13. Ronaldo

    Oi pessoal segue aí o link com o procedimento de instalação do player de vídeo html5.
    Lembrando que tem que ter o CarStream instalado.
    O player lê todos os vídeos em MP4 que estarão em uma pasta no Android … Todo vídeo adicionado será feita a leitura normalmente.
    Dá pra pular os vídeos e voltar normalmente ..
    E. Meio provisório até nosso amigo thekiran kumar desenvolver uma solução melhor

    https://youtu.be/Yp0LSVEx_C8

    Reply ↓
    1. Adriano Dantas

      Hi Ronaldo, good morning !!!
      Thank you very much!!! Your help was really good !!!
      Now I can see all the videos I have on my cell phone.

      Olá Ronaldo, bom dia!!!
      Muito obrigado!!! Essa sua ajuda foi muito boa mesmo!!!
      Agora posso ver todos os videos que tenho no meu celular

      Reply ↓
  14. Avelino

    A los que no os funciona bien con Huawei debéis desinstalar Android Auto y reinstalar de nuevo y os funcionará.

    Reply ↓
  15. Pdb

    Can anyone with plex please explain how they got it to work, I click on the plex bookmark and try to login but it doesnt work it just sits at the login page?

    Reply ↓
    1. Jojo

      I got mine to work by opening the CarStream app FIRST on the phone itself, before plugging into the car. Then log into Plex with your credentials.
      The CarStream version I was using wouldn’t pop up a keyboard when I tried to login while in AA.

      Reply ↓
  16. andrea

    grande e grazie per l’applicazione, sono riuscito con cloner apk a farla funzionare su vw golf 7.
    Ora vorrei chiederti è possibile ovviare il problema di riproduzione video in movimento?
    Grazie

    Reply ↓
  17. Pasi

    Hi!

    Yeah now everything works. I did not realized that there is changes also in AA what I have to do…

    Anyway now there is one nice niche feecher what I’d like that you could do. I have VU+ Duo2 sat receiver. From that receiver I can watch every tv-channell and recordings with my pc or tablet or phone. If I am using my phone then I am watching it with VLC.

    VLC can open stream from m3u8 playlist and f.e. one channell url-address is:

    http://192.168.1.45:8002/1:0:1:31:1001:20F6:EEEE0000:0:0:0:

    Is it anyhow possible to open those streams with CarStream? I really like to watch those with AA. (Off course I am connecting my phone with vpn so I can use same address inside & outside my home network.)

    Reply ↓
  18. leonardo iodice

    Hello, I want to compliment you for this amazing app that works really well on the FORD FIESTA PLUS 1.5 TDI on board the SYNC 3. There are some things to improve:
    - the keyboard, first of all, lacking of SPECIAL CHARACTERS, including the snail, without which it becomes difficult to log into the various internet sites;
    - there is no possibility to make LO ZOOM of the photos and, the same photos, when they are opened never come out PROPORTIONALS WITH THE MONITOR of my car;
    - poor integration with MICROSOFT SILVERLIGHT videos that often stop and are without sound: they do not work on premia play and skygo mediaset when used by the browser;
    - lack of support to see IPTV and open the relevant m3u lists;
    - finally, there is no possibility to HIDE / FAR DISCOVER the navigation bar below when viewing the videos in FULL SCREEN.

    Reply ↓
    1. Gabriele Rizzo

      -The keyboard is the stock of Android Auto, inserting symbols would require re-writing the keyboard completely. You can login into sites from app. Login will stay
      -Most of the sites with mobile user agent won’t let you zoom. A user agent switch will do, if implemented
      -Silverlight is not available on Windows. And probably never available.
      -As stated above, the navigation bar on the bottom can’t be hidden due to Android Auto API. Read above before commenting

      Reply ↓
  19. Burak krmtc

    Hi AGAIN KIRAN KUMAR..
    When i take r shift my audi a5 revers camera start thats ok but youtube can be play background. Only sound thats i need.. Thank you for this app again..

    Reply ↓
  20. elbubi

    Dear Kumar.

    I’ve just emailed you spanish translation.

    Regards and thanks for your time developing this GREAT app!!!

    Reply ↓
  24. Jimster

    To get Netflix working I think all you would have to do is change the UAString in the browser within the app Kumar. If you can set it as always mimicking a Desktop computer then Netflix would work. Netflix isn’t playing video because when you click on any video within Netflix it either opens the Netflix app on the phone or of you don’t have the Netflix app on your phone it sends you to a page that suggests you download the app to be able to watch it on a phone or a tablet. If the browser was set to ‘desktop-only’ version of the web page then I think it would play the video.

    Reply ↓
    1. Kiran Kumar Post author

      Tried that, but Netflix apparently uses wildevine drm encryption, which isn’t present in webview. On desktop it uses Microsoft silverlight to do this. When I changed use agent, it prompts me to install silverlight which isn’t present for Android

      Reply ↓
  25. Sean

    Hi I was just wondering I just rooted my phone and the now car stream isn’t showing up on my Android auto receive is that because of the root? Or because google has blocked it?

    Reply ↓
  26. Rosana Bighetto

    Gracias por esta excelente aplicación…poder ver vídeos en movimiento para entretener a los niños es lo mejor del mundo….gracias por trabajar en la aplicación todo el tiempo aunque sea sólo un hobbie para vos. Sólo gracias y te sigo hasta el final y felicitandote siempre por el gran trabajo.

    Reply ↓
  27. Wolf

    Hi, great job!
    It would be interesting to create something that differs from Android Auto, a nice dashboard home (Data, Time, Weather, News feeds, Radio channels) Internet icon, File icon, Youtube icon, etc. etc.

    Reply ↓
  28. Karl

    How does the SD card support works??
    Can you explain it, iwont to play videos from USB Stick what i have to to??
    Step by step mayby a video

    Reply ↓
  29. EDMILSON FERREIRA

    Hi everyone, here is the link with the html5 video player installation procedure.
    Remember that you must have CarStream installed.
    The player reads all MP4 videos that will be in a folder on Android … All added video will be read normally.
    You can skip the videos and return normally ..
    E. Interim means until our friend thekiran kumar develop a better solution

    https://youtu.be/Yp0LSVEx_C8

    Reply ↓
      1. EDMILSON FERREIRA

        It reads the files, but does not pass in the sequence as a playlist, you have to stay in the videos for them to pass. In the case presented, it reads the playlist without. Need to choose the videos one by one.

        Reply ↓
        1. flyfoxx

          Hi Edmilson, I followed your method to install your app and unzip the www file. After I turned on the PHP app, provide a correct path, unzip www to the root folder, and open CarStream, the first page did not default to the designated folder like what you showed on your video. It was still the youtube main page. However, if I manually key in the path, it does go to the pointed folder. Shouldn’t it be defaulted to the designated folder once you turn on CarStream? Sorry for the off-topic discussion here…

          Reply ↓
  30. Blueye

    Hello I have a problem such that after opening carstream i can not use other default Android auto streaming apps such as Spotify or Google music. Carstream app overrites them. Can you switch to Spotify player after carstream?

    Reply ↓
      1. Blueye

        The problem is, after i press understand button and open carstream, then i want to close it and at the third tab of AA (music player tab) i choose Spotify but player stays on carstream

        Reply ↓
  31. Thamer

    Hi kiran
    Thank you for your support and we would like to translate the keyboard of the application of carstream in Arabic and ask you to help send the file in English to be translated to Arabic and sent back to you for adoption on the application can be sent on my email: [email protected]
    Thank you.

    Reply ↓
  32. Anika

    After changing package name and trying to build new apk, it always gives me the error “res/drawable-v21/$avd_hide_password_0.xml:Invalid file name: must contain only [a-z0-9_.]

    Any help?

    Reply ↓
  33. Angel

    Cuando le pulso a pantalla completa en el móvil o en AA se pone la pantalla totalmene negra. Pienso que es por el móvil. Tengo android 6.0. Debo instalar otra aplicación?

    Reply ↓
  36. Ryan

    Anyone found a way to block ads without root? Using certain sites is a pain without adblock but for some reason my adblocker doesn’t work with carstream. Any thoughts?

    Reply ↓
  39. Volodymyr

    Friends, can you make the browser play movies online? When I want to play movies, only the trailer loaded on YouTube is restored.

    Reply ↓
  40. Ozn Kyr

    Hi. At the 1.7.3 version we can’t use keyboard while driving. İt says to us please parking for use the keyboard =/ we must always stop the car if we want to watch any video clip ! İt is problem coz the car playing videos while parking !!! Please solve this problem. Thanx…

    Reply ↓
  42. Michael

    Olá seu aplicativo e ótimo porém teria como reproduzir os vídeos online sem precisar ficar selecionando um de cada vez

    Reply ↓
  43. ANDERSON

    As a suggestion: By accessing the external SD, when you finish viewing a video, CarStream switches to the next video automatically

    Reply ↓
  45. Sean

    Hi I can’t seem to get carstream to work on my AA anymore I tried cloning it when I click send to car I don’t see the tab on the receiver area any help would be greatly appreciated.

    Reply ↓
    1. Marco

      You need to download the latest version 1.7.3.. The latest doesn’t have send to car anymore. Read unblocking instructions in this page

      Reply ↓
  46. Marco

    There’s a lot of issues switching to background play. I have to keep refreshing the carstream video in order to get background music. It’s annoying and please fix it

    Reply ↓
  49. Sean

    I keep getting an error when I start the build process in apk editor pro I keep getting error A/ (15667): First type is not attr!

    Reply ↓

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