Play Youtube Video on Android Auto using this app
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.
8th Feb 2018 : For raising bugs or enhancement requests please visit https://github.com/thekirankumar/youtube-android-auto/issues
 | (1528266 hits) Youtube Auto Latest Version Download |
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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I can open the app on android auto but it says “open in YouTube app first” so i can’t use it. I’ve enabled developer and selected the developer option. Galaxy s8+ with 2017 HondaCRV
Same issue for
hello, I installed the latest version but no longer hear the audio! … help me !!! .. thanks !!!
I sometimes also have that problem. Pause the video and resume, than the audio works in my Mercedes.
This is THE BEST app I have been waited!!! As soon as I found, installed it. I have used for past 2 days with “Wow~”. In Sudden, it is not working with my 2017 Honda CR-V this afternoon. Can you help me how to fix? or What to use “Go to Android Auto App click ‘Receive from phone’ to load this page”
Hey man,
It’s really a great app, i use it every day in my Opel Astra Intellilink r4.0 infotainment system.
The only issue is when i browse a website and try to type something (email address on linkedin, credentials on facebook … ) the car’s system keyboard doesn’t show up when i select any text field.
Could you try to fix that issue ?
Thanks a lot.
Achraf
Hi great idea, have been trying on the head unit in 2017 VWTiguan but unfortunately the video does not show, only get audio. Any suggestions? Thanks
Should I try an older version? If can get to work will definitely pay a contribution!
Hi,
Impossible to launch Spotify after using Youtubauto.
Otherwise congratulations your app is perfect! Thanks.
The sound is transmitted by bluetooth and the video by USB. The inconvenant is that the sound is de phased compared to the vidéo.
Hi , Thanks for giving us joy…. The background option dosnt work for me I installed latest virsion and own 2018 ford kuga . Please helo me !
Hi, i think it would be very insteristing use the bar to next movies in offline mode
Thanks for making this great app!
noticed a bud-after certain version of YoutubeAuto installed, had my samsung s7edge connected to my car by usb, listening FM radio, didn’t start YoutubeAuto, then after a while (approx 15 mins or more) the radio was stoped and had to change the Audio source from usb to FM, then it happened again and again, if had my phone disconnected, then Radio worked fine all the time. so seemed like your app was automatically connecting to car’s Audio source even it is not started.
I finally got this app to work on my car radio I ended up having to press the gauge button and enter youtubeauto that way.. I have a Pioneer touch screen
VW Tiguan 2017, infotainment discover media.
The right rotary knob on the radio turns in the opposite direction than for other functionalities in the Android Auto app. In the AA app, when I turn the knob to the right, I go to the function / position below on the screen, in YoutubeAuto I have to rotate left to go to the function / position below on the screen. Is it possible to change /fix it?
Not all the time, but there are moments that after switching from YoutubeAuto to Spotify, Spotify does not start only AA switches back to YoutubeAuto Audio which does not start.
The same here, when listening one of music app, if someone calling you and after conversation is over it not going back to music app just going to youtubeauto then i need to lunch music app again manually.
No consigo ver en pantalla completa. Cuando le doy a pantalla completa se pone negra y solo escucho audio. ¿He de instalar alguna extensión o aplicación más?
I downloaded the app a few days ago and have been in love I have used it everyday in my 2017 fusion with sync3. But now the app isn’t popping up on the headunit or giving me an option at all for YouTube auto
I have same problem with sync 3 – was working until i rebooted phone. Now it doesn’t show up anymore. Another unofficial AA app still works, so i don’t know why it’s gone.
Doesn’t seem to be working. It just says “Click Last Tab on the Bottom…” I do click on the last tab (YouTube Auto) and nothing happens.
Yeah I just ahd it working 2 hours ago but rebooted my phone and all sudden android can’t see it any more I tried to uninstall both but it still not showing.
Used the app all day today. Worked great. Now after restating my phone it doesn’t show up anymore
Uninstalled/re installed the latest version and it is still not showing up when I plug phone in.
Suggested feature addition is add ability to download Youtube content to phone for playback vs. streaming – as the Youtube app allows. That way content could be downloaded over wifi and played back without data usage.
Worked great the past few days and this morning. But after work it doesn’t even pop up, is this from the legal contact from Google?
Please try 1.6.
Thanks for your hard work and prompt reply.
What happened?!! Was working, now nothing!!! No other even an option to select.
Not even an option to select.
Dang!
1.6 is working! Thank you sir!
When CarStream is running, the phone does not hear the voice, phone call in and out, CarStream must will automatically pause or off when you call the phone , try to call in car when the video is working
Thank you very much for your work, I’ve tried several versions and I still have the same problem with the top bar. Looks like the tactile isn’t properly calibrated. I have to press repeatedly to turn the microphone on or back or go to the home page. I have no problem with spotify or waze the tactile works fine any idea ?
Fonts are unreadable in latest version carstream. Instead of fonts it shows dark black boxes. I can share the screenshot if you want. Everything was fine with previous version.
Bhai download pe click kr ra bt option ni aa ra koi bi. Hlp me plz
1.6 is working great. Background player is not working and this functionality should be removed to safeguard the app from Google.
Aspect ratio feature is the best part.
Can’t use voice command to search video.
Please restore the microphone icon and “on demand” voice search
Microphone works fine for me. Everything seems to work like before with 1.6.0. Great job, Kiran
ciao è possibile abilitare la tastiera di ricerca anche con l’auto inn movimento?
al momento l’unico modo per ricercare è ad auto ferma o tramite i comandi vocali
Works well, but it is still pretty buggy. Sometimes it will loop the warning screen, so I can’t get passed it. Also, audio doesn’t work on occasion, but video playback does. Would love to see an option to Auto hide the top nav bar so more screen real estate is available for YouTube. Now, we just need a way to watch PornHub, so I can fap and drive at the same time!
Oh, keyboard doesn’t work.
Hello Kumar,
thx for the app. I downloaded it and after work i will test it !
No funciona intalado version 1.6 y no funciona en AA sse queda pantalla negra al seleccionar cardStream solucion a movil Huawei me funciono correcto con versiones anteriores ayuda Ayuda AYUDA AYUDA AYUDA
Hey man, thx a lot on this app.
I found the bug re-produce way for “Sometimes it will loop the warning screen, so I can’t get passed it.”
In my first time to connect w/ my car, everything good, but after leaving and re-enter and re-connect, it will loop warning message and nothing we can do.
I found after we cleanup data & cache in phone setting and re-approve on the permission request, and re-connect to car again, everything is good again just like first time to connect w/ car.
Hope this can help you find the bug root cause.
Pretty good app!! Thanks!
Thank you very much for what you are doing and for keeping it free!
Why is it hard to answer to some of us how do you use background play?
some if us are asking for help for more than a week already.
hello you can enable video from the sd of the
smartphone thank you very much
Big thanks for this, what an awesome piece of work.
1.6.0 working great in Hyundai Ioniq with a Samsung S4.
Keyboard not popping up when you surf the net
Thanks for your hard work on this.
Thank you for this amazing app!!! I was able to get 1.6.0 to work perfectly on my ford focus ST. What are the chances google tries to ban this app with the new name? Was googles main issue the app’s name?
Some cars don’t provide sensors data like car brake. So most cars run your app without any restriction.
Don’t know if somebody reported that already but I faced a problem with Deezer and your app. When I’m trying to play something on Deezer (at car screen), your app is focusing on itself and stops playback. Had to uninstall it to bring my music back :/
Beside of that everything else worked just fine.
Someone has a problem with this latest version, because it is not accessing my videos.
Astra K a Honor8 v AA nefunguje. Dá se opravit?
Opel Astra and Android7 Honor8 with, can you fix it?
Now the names of the tracks hang, in 1.4.3 it was perfect. Now only the title of the first track is shown, but it does not change anymore
Ciao non funziona su Huawei p10 lite come posso fare per poterlo utilizzare?