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. Ernevv

    Hi, your application is amazing, I love it. Could you make it really fullscren by hiding the bottom bar of android auto?

    Regards

    Reply ↓
  2. Flo

    Great project, thank you for your work!
    Would it be possible to adjust the video quality? Perhaps per general setting that would apply for all the video’s you watch…
    This would be a great way to be able to keep the data usage relatively low. Sometimes I like to listen to music of commentary that is only available on youtube. At that times i’m not interested in the video and it would be a shame if I had to stream the video in HQ.
    Thanks in advance!

    Reply ↓
  3. jimmy

    When play a song in full screen mode,it will be terminate by next song. Does it can always keep in
    full screen mode ?

    Reply ↓
  5. Andrea

    Hi, compliments for this great app. But with huawei p9 with android 7.0. don t run. It block in the switch screen and the touch screen became black.

    Reply ↓
  6. Shaun

    Hey man, are the steering wheel controls (Up and Down) supposed to work? If I’m watching a video and I had previously been listening to (e.g.) Google Play Music, the video is interrupted and music starts playing instead. If I had not been previously listening to music then those steering wheel controls do nothing. It would be cool if they could be used to play the next/previous video. Awesome work man, you should make a thread on XDA!

    Reply ↓
  8. Alex

    Ciao la tua app é fantastica, potresti inserire i pilsanti “avanti” e “indietro” per saltare da un video all’altro?
    Poi sarebbe bello cmparisse una tastierino per l’inserimento dati direttamente dalla barra di ricerca della app.

    Reply ↓
  9. VasAlex

    1. Voice search does not always work the first time.
    2. The size of the video due to the presence of the bottom panel of Android Auto will never be on the full screen. I suggest a solution – the size of the video to stretch without respecting the proportions, or move the video screen to the left, and on the right in the margins make the program control buttons.

    Reply ↓
  13. Lola

    Hey, first of all thanks for the excellent work.
    Not sure if this was asked before but is it possible to play videos in background so you can use google maps etc. In foreground ?

    Reply ↓
  14. Sandy

    Hi.. Firstly thanks man.
    You have made many of our dreams true..
    The steering wheel controls (Up and Down) are changing tracks in google Play Music, the video is interrupted and music starts playing instead. Would it be possible if they could be used to play the next/previous video.

    Many thanks once again for your extraordinary work.

    Reply ↓
  15. Dan

    This app seems great but did not work on my new VW Golf VII restyling.. i followed the instruction but android auto screen goes Black :(

    Reply ↓
  17. Matt B

    Would it be possible to hide the AA nav bar in a future update.

    Also, just wanted to say thanks. Works perfectly on my 17 Cruze. Going to try local playback after work. My kid will be excited to watch cartoons in the car!

    Reply ↓
  18. ChingChih Wang

    Would you pls fix a problem for CX-3?
    2016 CX-3 using the youtube auto will defficult to touch the top of the control button. It’s very insensitive when I use the app in CX-3. But it very easy to touch on my CX-5 2015.

    Reply ↓
  19. Ago

    Hi,
    I just tried last rev v1.3.2 and it works fine accessing my root on phone (tried a whatsapp video) but is it possible to grant access also to external memory? I didn’t find a way to do that.
    However thanks for your work :)
    Ago

    Reply ↓
  20. Алекс

    Hi. The app is great. This is what I miss in Android auto. But I noticed that the sound lags behind video by about half a second. Or what not to do with it?

    Reply ↓
  22. Carlos

    I love You!

    Just try to desaper de bottom frame to reproduce video on full screen and use de stering Wheel botoms to play and share.

    Reply ↓
  23. Hamlin

    Awesome application. I am sure that your next attempt would be to cast the phone screen. Couple of days back I successfully streamed local videos with the help of bubbleupnp and then you built that feature inside your application itself. Just amazing. Keep up the good work.

    Reply ↓
  24. Aykut

    Hi, Is it posibble for any other app ?
    For example, Can we use yandex navigation ?
    We wait a solution for that :D

    Reply ↓
  25. Marco

    Is it possible to make the Android Auto hidden buttons? the videos would be bigger. thank you very much you are great!

    Reply ↓
  26. VasAlex

    v1.3.2 Video files only reproduce the format mp4. Will there be support for other formats?
    The pictures do not open to the full screen.

    Reply ↓
  27. Rafa

    What I’ve realized I do not know if it happened to everyone, that if we open androidauto without a connection to the network, the YouTube application starts jumping and how is it on the menu also to return to seat does not let you, you have to put the 4g connection or wifi so that no jumps and to be able to exit.

    Reply ↓
  28. rafa

    I have tried the application and if you do not have a screen connection and you can not choose to return to seat because it does not leave you, but I put the 4g of the mobile and it works perfect, if it is without the last update that allows you to see the videos that have inside the mobile, we should have a connection to work and see the videos we have inside, it would be a shame that it had to be without, his own would not have to be connected to see the videos that we have in our mobile .

    Reply ↓
  30. Frederic


    Marco:

    Is it possible to make the Android Auto hidden buttons? the videos would be bigger. thank you very much you are great!

    Yes!!! Thats what I want too…

    Question: What is the screen size of android auto?
    (700×480?)

    Reply ↓
  31. Bassam

    Hi. Thank you for the good work. I tried all that and when iam trying enter Youtube apk from the car sterio it dosent work. I have a pioneer stereo who is supporting android auto. And i have your latest version of youtube auto. Please help me. Thnxx!!!

    Reply ↓
  32. Bassam

    Hi again. When i try to open the app in my pioneer steteo. It flashes a cople of times and crach. How can i do?? Thnx

    Reply ↓
  33. Geoffrey

    Thanks for this beautiful app ! It works very well ! Like others already said, it would be great if fullscreen was real fullscreen and could hide Android auto navigation bar

    Reply ↓
  34. Mikel

    Hi.
    Congratulations for your great work.
    You refer to being able to open folders on the SD card. However, it is not possible to access the SD card. Only the phone memory can be accessed.

    Reply ↓
  35. Paolo

    Awesome application, thank you!
    Last rev 1.3.2 can access only into internal storage but can’t access in sd card. I can’t find a way to do that!

    Reply ↓
  39. Joe

    This is great, thanks so much for putting this together, I look forward to more development from, I will be donating soon!

    Joe

    Reply ↓
      1. mabv

        Thanks Kiran! I would also ask what could be the problem regarding the website “www.iwantv.com.ph”? It still logs me out after logging in.

        Reply ↓
  41. ds

    thanks for you’re work its great,
    can you add a”ad blocker” for youtube,
    or there is workaround to stop the ad
    thank’s keep up the good work

    Reply ↓
  42. infortunate

    Hi,

    VW Golf MY16 car: When playing MUSIC using the HU, when I enter in this APP the SOUND is MUTED (the play is paused).

    Please, can add the option for not pause the audio? Futhermore, to UN-MUTE when exit from this App.

    Thank you!

    Reply ↓
  43. infortunate

    Hi,

    Another one suggestion: Create a BOOKMARK list using the phone, instead of the simple “Send to Phone” in the App running in the smarphone.

    This will be more useful than only “one” bookmark.

    Regards!

    Reply ↓
  44. Valentin

    Application working fine in HTC ONE M8. It have some small bugs but I am sure you will fix them.
    As ne features will be very cool if we can select video also from SD card. Now at me I see only phone internal storage. Also will be very cool if we can see only video, music and images instead all directory’s. Anyway application is great.
    Thank you.

    Reply ↓
  45. Lukesan


    Dan:

    This app seems great but did not work on my new VW Golf VII restyling.. i followed the instruction but android auto screen goes Black

    Works perfect on my Golf 7.5 with the new 8 inch display.

    Reply ↓
  47. Michele

    Hi your app is amazing! You made my son happy! Quoto the request of some in making the car hidden Android bar.
    If you can, try to implement the mobile app gallery to avoid browsing the phone directory. You’re a great one!

    Reply ↓
  49. ahhl

    comments
    on 1.3.1 i able to start and resume video but not on 1.3.2.

    volume control still not working. nevertheless this is tge best since i able to watch downloaded video

    but don’t recommend during driving

    Reply ↓

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