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. Rolland

    Many thanks for app! Its great.
    1 problem i have, i can use the login fields, when i press it, don`t apears the keyboard screen..some solution?

    Reply ↓
  3. rpfaria

    Hi, thanks for this awesome app. There is a problem when lauching the app in the Car, the screen is zoomed in and If I try to click on fullscreen, it truns blacked out. Is this solvable in the cellphone side?

    Reply ↓
  5. Alexandre

    Some videos on YouTube look like green and purple. I use a Zenfone 2 with x86 processor. I suspect it’s a problem with the Android Webview System.

    Reply ↓
  6. SeMo

    Awesome!
    you’ve don a great job bro, congrats for the achievement.

    wish you a best and going to donate for sure ASAP.
    Regards,

    Reply ↓
  7. Ajay Jay

    Hi Kiran ,
    After updating your app to latest version , I am unable to launch the app in Android auto .
    The option to launch the app is not available now. I can see only the option ” Return to Maruti Suzuki”
    I tried the below but no success
    - Downgraded your app to the older version

    Can you suggest what can be done ?

    Kr
    Ajay

    Reply ↓
  9. jimmy

    When update to 1.4.0 ,it crash and can’t run this app again even re-install android auto and youtube
    auto? Do you know why and how i can solve it!!

    Reply ↓
  10. Janne

    Youtube Auto worked great for a few days and also yesterday evening. Today I can’t make it work in my Opel/Vauxhall. Nothing shows on the infotainment screen that has to do with Youtube Auto. I can open the app on my phone and Android Auto works as it should. Any ideas what can be wrong?

    Reply ↓
  12. Алекс

    Greetings from Russia. Concerned about white borders on the background of the video appear when playing next video. The delay of the sound from the video has not disappeared, tried several phones are connected through wire, Internet high speed. Cars kia optima gt 2017

    Reply ↓
      1. Roman

        this version works fine! checked in android auto skoda octavia! version 1.4.1 worked 5-8 hours ago, but does not work now. Thank you very much for your work on this application!

        Reply ↓
  15. Michael

    v1.3.2 is working. V.1.4.0 and .1 not. I think it is because of the background music player. I am not able to push any button on the top and AA is very slow.

    Reply ↓
  16. Erkan

    Hi 1.4.0 and 1.4.1 versions backround music player doesnt work when i push the play button its turning but not work. But other specs work well

    Reply ↓
  18. Akki

    And, if I sync via bluetooth, I get sounds but title is showing from first video on every video after, can this be fixed maybe?

    Reply ↓
  19. rpfaria

    I just tested the custom APK and it worked, the previous 1.4 regular APK stoped Working yesterday as well. Also, the custom APK has the correct resolution (is not zoomed in as I reported before) but this APK is different, I could not load saved MP4 files.

    Reply ↓
    1. Kiran Kumar Post author

      I’m glad it worked, this custom apk was just to validate my theory that Google indeed blocked my app. I was in the middle of some work, hence some features are not working. I will fix and issue an update.

      Reply ↓
  20. rpfaria

    Adding to the comment above, fullscreen is not working. The playing bar is zoomed in and the screen is blacked out.

    Reply ↓
  25. Janne

    I tested the latest custom APK and it works for me, also in full screen. However, it is not possible to search for videos as there are niether a keyboard nor a microphone button. Maybe you will update later?

    Reply ↓
  26. Adil

    Hello,

    First of all, thank you for your work, I have long searched for a youtube hask for Android Auto.

    I installed it since version 1.2.4, and I’m ready every update.

    I even have some concerns about my car (Opel Astra K)
    I can not do a full screen (black screen)
    The backgroud player does not disagree
    The player of files on mass storage is too big compared to my screen, and I can not adjust its Zoom

    Here is a link to a more detailed video https://youtu.be/IA29HP7apJ0

    I remain at your disposal if necessary

    Reply ↓
    1. Adil

      I just installed version 1.4.2
      The dashboard youtube and local file is more adapted to my screen, it ok
      but still no full screen.

      the backgroud player not work for the moment

      Reply ↓
  28. Dario

    Hello, your youtubeauto program is great. Could you add the function to automatically switch to the next video while it is playing from the phone’s memory, or add the forward and back arrows to scroll through the videos during playback. thank you

    Reply ↓
  30. 911jason

    The “about” button in the app now directs to a 404 error page on your blog. Newest version seems to be working great, including purchased video playback. Only minor issue is there is now a black border all the way around, even in full screen mode.

    Reply ↓
  31. rpfaria

    Just to let you know that the latest app is working again. Screen now is showing proper resolution, but fullscreen gets zoomed in and blacked out. One suggestion: enable next/previous steering wheel buttons to skip mp4 videos contained in a folder.

    Reply ↓
  33. Cristian Javier Tapia

    No funciona se queda la pantalla negra en mi seat arona y vuelve al inicio y no quiere entrat se cuelga esto pasa en huawei p9 ayuda ayuda

    Reply ↓
  34. Ric M

    Great app! I do have a question/request…. I have a Google Pixel XL and when I play videos through your app I am not getting full screen on both the app in landscape mode or in my car. The regular Youtube app fills my whole screen in landscape mode on my phone. Can this be fixed?

    Reply ↓
  35. sportage

    Hello, since Google has blocked the app, and installed version 1.4.2 no longer lets in the Sd card to play the videos offline and does not leave the option to search with the voice.
    Greetings and thanks for the effort.

    Reply ↓
  37. ahhl

    kiran
    your survey need one more line. “working but not fully functional”
    i not saying it not working. but i cant fastfoward or rewind. (ff on the audio not working. it just go to next video)
    going to menu, difficult
    not fully working for non touch screen

    Reply ↓
  39. Piin

    Hello, thank you very much for sharing this app. It was working when I installed it on my phone 30hours ago. However it is no working after I restart my phone 6hours ago. Even I upgrade Android auto and your app now, it is still no work. At the first time using, I could find the option “YOUTOBE AUTO” in car screen and used app as well. But now I can not find the option anymore even I reinstall app. (my phone is HTC U-Ultra)

    Reply ↓
  40. Lukesan

    Hi Kiran, can you see the version in the application itself? Also what is the handbrake trick in Android Auto?
    Personally I only want to use it when standing still somewhere. Last week I was driving and my son was watching a video and I had to turned it off because it was already distracting me.

    Reply ↓
  42. Radu

    Regarding the volume control in mercedes ntg5 it works like this: start youtube auto, play something and a notification about song will apear (volume doesn’t work), press favorits button (star) and will come back to mercedes menu, press star again and will come back to youtube auto, now volume works, if notification apear again, you will need to press star two times to exit and get back in.

    Reply ↓
  44. ALEXANDRE LIMA SILVA

    Hello Kiran, first of all I want to congratulate you for the initiative to develop this application.
    Now a suggestion, it would not be better to rename the app, not to have it provided with Google by YouTube account.
    It could be a very generic name, like “SCREEN AUTO”.
    Just a suggestion. Thanks

    Reply ↓
  45. andrea

    If u have a problem with black screen using huawei follow this passage.
    Go to phone settings> phone info> tap 7 times on series number> go back in menu and now u can see developer option>go to debug usb> switch it on.

    Reply ↓
  47. Michael

    Could you remove the popups in the top when you are using the app. In the moment it is very annoying. The popups make sense when you are playing Background music and want to see the next title in waze or Google Maps.

    Reply ↓
  49. 911jason

    One little nitpick, turning the physical dial on my stereo scrolls the opposite direction in your app than everything else in AA.

    Reply ↓
  50. Zebro

    Thanks, new versions work! But I personally do not understand the meaning of development, because old issues still exists( File/youtube browsing is in the full screen, videos- not, they all with side frames, phone file browsing with all permissions only /storage/emulated/0… So I leave on the first version, which does not have a file browser, but there is also no frame on the sides…

    Reply ↓

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