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. Daniel

    Something wrong in 1.8.1 e .2, crash in various situations, I made a rollback to 1.8.0 and everything works. I have a touchscreen system in Maserati Ghibli.

    Reply ↓
  2. Matteo

    Hi again ,
    i’m using 1.8.1 version….
    thanks for clock , i think that it was better if showed always as overlay on the videos….
    Sometime app crash if i go to the next video using steering whell commands….

    Thanks again

    Reply ↓
  5. Валентин

    Good day! Starting with version 1.8, the pause button on the steering wheel does not work. There is only turning off the sound, the video continues to play. I press the button on the steering wheel again, but the sound does not turn on. Adding volume to any button in the car does not give a result.
    Skoda Octavia 2017

    Reply ↓
  6. Arpan

    Hi Kiran..Thanks for creating wonderful app to watch youtube… But can you please make an update about 1) Selection of Video Quality Option in App (it is not there currently ) 2) Make an option in app itself to update app directly from there..no need to come everytime in site to look for a new update.. Thank you

    Reply ↓
  7. Mike

    Hi,

    Thanks for this! I am experiencing an error where switching from this app to spotify causes car stream to open again and can’t play spotify. This is on a pioneer unit. Spotify works fine if I never launch car stream. Thanks!

    Reply ↓
  12. Mattew

    Ciao Gabriele, la mia versione di APKeditorPro è l’ ultima, non riesco in alcun modo a rinominare l’ app, consigli?

    Reply ↓
  14. g88

    hello kiran. it would be great to add the function to change the quality of the video, and also hide the menu bar when running videos in full screen.

    Reply ↓
  16. Metin

    Merhaba. Uygulama için teşekkürler. Uygalama için ödeme yapmak istedim fakat paypal Türkiye Cumhuriyetinde kullanılmıyor. Üzgünüm. Ben v1.7.3 sürümüyle kullanmaya başladım pek sorun yaşamadım son sürümü güncelledim umarım problem çıkmaz.Aracım 2014 Mazda3 Power.

    Reply ↓
  17. Przemysław

    Hello Kiran I tried all versions of your app but it doesn’t work in my KIA stinger GT I just toolbar on my screen and mowing blue line under the upper toolbar, it does not work in itself , I even changed manifest as u wrote here with APK editor pro, don’t help at all
    PLEAS HELP
    BR Przemek

    Reply ↓
  20. Paolo Corberi

    Please, could You add the possibility to ask for Desktop version” of a site in the browser of carstream? I’ll use the feature to Watch Amazon prime video. With current setting , Amazon see my setup ad a mobile and requires me to Watch video sito Amazon prime video app.. with desktop version of the site, this issue is bypassed. Thank You

    Paolo

    Reply ↓
  23. Marco

    Thank you for the fix for the bug switching to background music. The only problem is when you on the carstream music player after you switch from video it doesn’t switch back to the stop symbol.

    Reply ↓
  24. PeterJao

    This app is great. But about playing 5 minutes, the video will play not smoothly, and then the audio is not match the Vedic. Any idea about this?

    Reply ↓
  25. Sean

    Hi great work with this amazing app I am trying to set up the plex app via the video tutorisl but for some reason once I select my phone on the plex media server no video files show up when I click local it does how do I get the videos to show up ?

    Reply ↓
  26. Mattew

    Dopo aver cambiato il nome, configurato il risparmio energetico su spento (p9 lite) e aver avviato l’ app sul telefono, sull’ auto lo schermo rimane nero (VW nuova polo). Consigli su come procedere?

    Reply ↓
    1. Gabriele Rizzo

      Huawei e Android Auto non sono mai andati d’accordo. Colpa di Huawei, l’unica è cambiare marca. Ci sono dei bug che affliggono l’esperienza utente di Android Auto su Huawei che sono vecchi forse 4 anni, e Huawei non ha mai fatto niente al riguardo.

      Reply ↓
  27. Arpan

    Hi Kiran..Thanks for creating wonderful app to watch youtube… But can you please make an update about 1) Selection of Video Quality Option in App (it is not there currently ) 2) Make an option in app itself to update app directly from there..no need to come everytime in site to look for a new update..

    Reply ↓
  28. Pulin purohit

    Thank you very much for developing such kind of app development.
    I would like to suggest you one thing which I have been noticed, that TYPING KEYBOARD does not include “@” symbol, so it is difficult to write mail I’d from SLDA.

    ALSO I wold like to tell you, if android auto wallpaper have been changed by user than it become more attractive….

    Thank you……..and salute to your efforts for making video play w/o hand break. You are the only one fallow in India who invented this thing….

    Pulin Purohit
    9574737182
    [email protected]

    Reply ↓
  29. DJ

    Hi, Arpan.
    Regarding on the automatically updated, I thinks, since the google had blocked, then the automatic update may not functional on this section,

    Reply ↓
    1. Marco

      He has unblocking instructions on his page. He’s not going to change the name because Google will block it. You have to change the name on your own with the instructions he posted on here

      Reply ↓
  34. presupuesto reforma madrid

    Me gusta disfrutar y visitar blogs, aprecio mucho el contenido, el trabajo y el tiempo que ponéis en vuestros post. Buscando en Yahoo he encontrado tu blog. Ya he disfrutado de varios artículos, pero este es muy ameno, es unos de mis temas favoritos, y por su calidad me ha distraído mucho. He puesto tu web en mis favoritos pues creo que todos tus artículos son interesantes y seguro que voy a pasar muy buenos momentos leyendolos.

    Reply ↓
  35. Ivan

    Hello, Kiran! Thanks for your app!
    One more question! Is it possible to switch the keyboard from russian to english language? And haw can i do it?

    Reply ↓
    1. Matteo

      Prova a scaricare la versione clonata dal mio sito (fai click sul mio nome) , prima di installarla devi disinstallare quella già presente ,
      ricordati di avviare l’app la prima volta sul cell e concedere le permission richieste.
      Ciao

      Reply ↓
  46. Sean

    Karp as long as you have allowed unknown sources on android auto the new version v 1.8.3 doesnt need the send to car option it does it automatically

    Reply ↓

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