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. Ger

    At the moment its all about stopping google play services updating automatically. I have found another way and am going to try this before I post it here.

    Reply ↓
  2. Andrea

    Salve io ho una new kia sorento Gt line 2017/18, ho fatto tutti i passaggi ma, niente non mi compare il logo carstream

    Reply ↓
  6. emeres

    I have changed the name as per Kiran’s instruction but at this point CarStream app does not even open.

    Reply ↓
  7. emeres

    It seems as the app is completely blocked by google. Or something went wrong, but I couldn’t open the app before and after changing the name.

    Reply ↓
  8. phenqpills.org

    I have been absent for a while, but now I remember why I used
    to love this web site. Thanks, I will try and check back more often. How frequently you update your website?

    Reply ↓
  12. joe

    The googs must have either paid Kiran off to stop development on this or… full on murdered him.

    I miss this app so much for my weekly 5+ hour drives.

    Reply ↓
    1. emeres

      That was funny :) Joe, just follow his instructions and it will work. Just make sure you downgrade Google Play Services.

      Reply ↓
  13. Prakash

    Works with AA2.9 and Google play service 11.9.75.

    But when I try to play video in full screen, screen goes blank but audio is playing.

    Any fixes for this?

    Reply ↓
    1. emeres

      Just follow those steps:
      Downgrade Google Play Store to 12.2.21
      Disable Google Play Store
      and
      Update your existing apps through APKPure
      Works like a charm.

      Reply ↓
    1. emeres

      Go into your apps, find Google Play Services and click on uninstall updates. This will revert the app to older version. It will still not be the correct version you need. But download APKPure ( app store ) and search for Google Play Services app. Find version 12.2.21 and download it. Make sure you have the Google Play Store disabled before you download it. The great thing about APKPure is that you have all previous versions of applications to download, that’s how you will find the correct one.
      Don’t worry about having Google Play Store being disabled, you can update you apps with APKPure. Hope that helps.

      Reply ↓
  16. Anilkumar

    If you downgrade Play Services to 12.2.21, it will get automatically updated to latest version within 24 hrs even if you disable background connection.
    So better downgrade to 11.9.75 this wont get updated automatically.
    and use only AA 2.9.xxxx.

    Reply ↓
    1. emeres

      I’ve been running 12.2.21 for the past 4 days and no updates. I also disabled google play store. Services did not update so far. Fingers crossed. Good to know about the 11.9.75 version, I will keep that in mind.

      Reply ↓
  19. Fk

    I downgraded Google Play to 12.2 after that when I plug it in android auto won’t run got the message Google Play service not updated

    Reply ↓
  21. Conan

    Will this work on Ford Sync 3? I have not been able to get it to work at all. I have installed the latest version and when I click on the apps icon on Ford Sync it shows up as an option. However all it says it to click on the last icon on the bottom bar. When I do nothing happens.

    Reply ↓
  23. emeres

    You have to follow developer’s instructions from the home page. Also make sure your Google Play Services is downgraded to version 11 or 12.

    Reply ↓
  29. Nicola

    Ciao scusa se ti disturbo ho fatto tutto quello che hai scritto scaricato android auto 2.9 scaricato carstream e poi clonato o provato ad utilizzare anche app edit ma nulla, prima mi funzionava e si apriva ma ora quando mi dice di cliccare il pulsante in basso a destra mi dice ” torna a Peugeot”. Aiutooooo ti prego

    Reply ↓
  30. việc làm

    Thank you for the auspicious writeup. It if truth be
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    Reply ↓
  31. Rene

    To #25/Conan:
    Yes. It works fine with Ford Sync 3.
    I have Ford Sync 3, Nokia 5, Android 8.1, Google Play Service 11.9.75 and AA 2.9 – perfect….

    Reply ↓
  33. Leonardo

    When i downgrade my Google service play to 11.9.75 or 12.2.21 i execute Android auto play 2.9 but says that Google service play it not running or not upgrade. Somebody knows the solutions??

    Reply ↓
    1. emeres

      You have to uninstall updates when you go into your apps. It will downgrade to a lower version. Use APKPure to download a correct version. Keep your google play store disabled and use APKPure to update your apps.

      Reply ↓
  36. ứng viên

    I’m more than happy to uncover this site. I wanted to thank you for your time due to this wonderful
    read!! I definitely really liked every bit of it and i also have you saved
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  38. Rene

    To # 37/Leonardo:
    Maybe you should try different versions from AA. I mean it was the same problem in my car with 64bit Version from AA 2.9. (i am not sure witch Release)
    I found the Version “2.9574924-release” 32bit and it works with Google Play Service 11.9.75

    Reply ↓
  39. LeoN

    “I found the Version “2.9574924-release” 32bit and it works with Google Play Service 11.9.75″

    I tried this combination and it’s not working,
    When I tried to open AA, it says Google play services not seems to be working,

    Reply ↓
  41. tìm việc

    Having read this I thought it was extremely enlightening.
    I appreciate you finding the time and effort to put this short article together.
    I once again find myself personally spending a lot of
    time both reading and posting comments. But so what, it was still worthwhile!

    Reply ↓
  43. Rene

    #LeoN: maybe you have not installed the right version from Google Play services? There are more than twenty apk’s from Google Play Service 11.9.75… for different Android… Different phones…

    Reply ↓
  45. LeoN

    #Rene
    Thank you for your reply,
    How can i sure or find right version of Google play services,
    I downloaded from apkmirror site.

    Reply ↓
    1. emeres

      In apkpure search for “google play services” then go to history and it will pull up all previous versions of the app. Choose 11.9.75 and download it. Make sure you also disable google play store before you download it. If you won’t play store will try to update your services to newest version.

      Reply ↓
  46. Ozhan

    Hi,

    I installed your app (v1.8.3) with changing apk name, have AA v3.1.581054 and google play services v12.6.73 installed my phone. And the app is not working. Do I need to undo google play store updates? Or is it the only solution for the problem. Because it is annoying me when I uninstall the updates from google play services with popup warnings…

    Reply ↓
    1. emeres

      Just follow those steps:
      Change the name within the app ( as per Kiran’s instructions )
      Downgrade Google Play Services to 12.2.21
      Downgrade your Android Auto to version 2.9 ( you can find those versions on APKPure )
      Disable Google Play Store
      and
      Update your existing apps through APKPure
      Works like a charm.

      Reply ↓
  47. LeoN

    i tried to change apk name with editor pro (i paid by the way)
    i installed 12.2.21 and/or 11.9.75 of google play services
    2.9 version of AA
    i tried lots of different scenerio
    not working :-(

    Reply ↓
  48. emeres

    It should be working for you. Have you checked if any of the apps did not update on their own? Disable your play store also.

    Reply ↓
    1. emeres

      It should be the same as for any phone. Just go into your apps. Find Google Play Services and in the upper right corner you should see settings ( uninstall updates ).

      Reply ↓

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