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. Mark Curyllo

    I have a renamed version of CarStream using the APK Editor ready. I will try it today on borth versions of AA 2.9 and 3. I’ll check if it works. If not I will also try doing it with Google Play 11.9.75

    Reply ↓
  3. Edgar

    Hi , after instal app there is only “carstream player” showned on MMI but no video from it. how to hack that android to get app work ?

    Reply ↓
    1. SOS MUY PUTO GOOGLE

      you link is the musical video, what is your idea? lost the time? or you are work in google spy.

      Reply ↓
  7. Mark Curyllo

    I have a question, does your phone have to be rooted for this work around this time? It worked before on my un-rooted device.

    Reply ↓
    1. SOS MUY PUTO GOOGLE

      The indian kiran lost, becuase, sales your apk, in few time, google appear with this, but every body, pay more cash. bye bye google have the control over the lifes of all peoples in this planet. i waiting for JOHN CONNORS OF TERMINATOR, GOOGLE=CIBERDINE.

      Reply ↓
  10. 마스터노드암호화폐

    Hmm it appears like your website ate my first comment (it was ssuper long) so I
    guess I’ll just sum it uup what I had written and say,
    I’m thoroughly enjoying your blog. I as well am an aspiring blog bblogger but I’m still new to everything.
    Do you have any points foor newbie blog writers? I’d really appreciate it.

    Reply ↓
  11. Edgar

    The AA app wont start with older Google play service if try 11x and 12x , it reuires update… how to solve ?

    Reply ↓
  13. Edgar

    If try , whenever i try run AA it say Gogle play service requier update to start app only on newer google play service AA starts

    Reply ↓
  14. emeres

    I have tried it with Google Play 11.9.75 and AA 2.9 CarStream still doesn’t show up. I don’t know what to do anymore.

    Reply ↓
  15. corey

    When everything is reinstalled you still have to the apk editor and rename carstream to prevent it from being block. Then it will show up.

    Reply ↓
  17. emeres

    Also how do I stop Play Store from self updating to newest version? Do I force stop it? I think it will cause the app to misbehave.

    Reply ↓

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  20. Celuraid Extreme Trial

    Hiya, I am really glad I’ve found this information. Nowadays bloggers publish just about gossips and net and this is really irritating.
    A good blog with exciting content, that’s what I need. Thank you
    for keeping this web site, I’ll be visiting
    it. Do you do newsletters? Can’t find it.

    Reply ↓
  22. Toofan

    It works fine with older google play services. U need to unistall googleplay service update. 12.2…. works.

    I wish there was a better workaround cuz google play services updates itself almost daily.

    Reply ↓
  23. Toofan

    For those of u who still dont see carstream even after downgrading google play service, check that unknown sources is checked under develouper settings in AA.

    Reply ↓
  24. Marek

    These are all complex and time-consuming solutions. Anikumar has to invent something …. Google can not win !!!!!

    Reply ↓
  27. Amir

    Hi Kiran and Fellow posters,

    I am trying to build the latest car stream apk with different package name using APK Editor Pro and I am getting the following errors and APK fails to build:

    res/drawable-v21/$avd_hide_password__0.xml: Invalid file name: must contain only [a-z0-9_.]
    res/drawable-v21/$avd_hide_password__1.xml: Invalid file name: must contain only [a-z0-9_.]
    res/drawable-v21/$avd_hide_password__2.xml: Invalid file name: must contain only [a-z0-9_.]
    res/drawable-v21/$avd_show_password__0.xml: Invalid file name: must contain only [a-z0-9_.]
    res/drawable-v21/$avd_show_password__1.xml: Invalid file name: must contain only [a-z0-9_.]
    res/drawable-v21/$avd_show_password__2.xml: Invalid file name: must contain only [a-z0-9_.]
    First type is not attr!

    Please advise.

    Reply ↓
  30. Allan

    Hi,
    I just wanted to let you know:
    I got it working with the following:
    Google Play Services 12.2.21
    Android Auto 2.9.57 – » make sure to allow unkown sources in developer options

    Tested in an Opel Insignia B.

    Best regards

    Reply ↓
  32. Lim Swee Seng

    Hi bro , how to fix the lagging video and sound no sync issue . I using redmi 5A which come with 2gb ram ….. and run with Mazda connect headunit ………

    Reply ↓
  34. Prashant

    Bhaiya maine abhi alpha baleno li hai par mai video nahi chala paa raha hoo sab kuch kar liya youtube auto bhi aur car stream par screen me youtube nahi chal raha kya karu mere pass android galaxy j7 pro hai pls bataiye

    Reply ↓
  35. Florin

    Dezactivați magazin google play și nu se mai actualizează serviciile google play. Dezinstalați actualizările de la servicii google play și reinstalați varianta 12.2.18 și android auto recunoaște carStream. La mine de 4 zile funcționeaza fără probleme!

    Reply ↓
  36. Joakim

    Hi, APK editor pro does not build anymore. Any other way to keep google from blocking your app?
    Thanks/ Joakim Linzie, SWEDEN

    Reply ↓
  37. Emy

    Is there any possibility to according with google so we can download app without any problem?
    We could collect money to agree the Google requests?

    Reply ↓
  38. zarrah

    Hello, you used to write fantastic, but the last several posts have been kinda boring?
    I miss your super writings. Past few posts are just a bit
    out of track! come on!

    Reply ↓
  40. Co

    Ho seguito tutti i passaggi e comprato l’app per modificare apk. Non funziona nulla… come si può risolvere?

    Reply ↓
  45. DSA

    Hi, please, does anybody knows how to downgrade Google Play Services to version 12.2.21? I am running Android 8.

    Reply ↓
  47. quimcota

    Hi KiranKumar -Great Bloog- and Fans of AA – someone can confirme if: You will need to do root in device, to be able to install the AA 2.9 and Carstream 1.8.3 and be compatible with old versions of GPService v 12.2.21 and the GPStore v 8.3.43 and these are not updated automatically by Google blocking this compatibility to work well in the MMIs??
    tks

    Reply ↓
  48. Ozn

    Dear Kumar. We can not use Carstream on our car from Google Play Upgrade. Please up to date your Carstream for using again. Thanx u so much…

    Reply ↓

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