Do You Have To Download Android Auto
Nevada Biernat
I have tried doing a manual disconnect on the AA notification, but it just turns around and re-connects. I've tried the various settings for AA auto connect in the phone settings and it makes no difference.
Is there a way around this? I only want it to connect when I'm actually in the car. I'm considering a tasker automation based on which WiFi I am connected to, or maybe the car's own bluetooth? But I feel like I shoudn't have to. Am I just not finding the right settings for AA in my phone? I'm not interested in an option that requires me to turn off bluetooth as that will limit my use of the phone in other ways.
It depends on how your vehicle is equipped. On some models, you can use Android Auto wireless without plugging in if you have a compatible phone. On other models, your device must be tethered by a USB cord to use Android Auto.
The end result is that I only have 1 device with an internet plan (my cell phone) & can use the built in touchscreen while my phone is just in a tray (though I could mount it also if I wanted). I have only used this in a 2022 Toyota Prius Prime LE so can't directly speak to compatibility with other vehicles but they purport to support many makes/models (as well as other options out there)...
What if you had a 2nd stock phone , that may not even need to have a SIIM and connected to your GrapheneOS phone as a hot spot? Keep nothing privacy related on your burner phone and just leave it in the car. That way, your burner phone can do all your Android Auto functions for you.
What I liked about the setup was this allowed me to have Android Auto & Waze & music in the car yet have the phone de-googled & more private/secure & all from one single data plan. In my case I only want to have a single device on a plan and want all other devices (like watch, car, PC, etc) to leverage that single data plan via connecting to the de-googled phone (either via WIFI-hotspot, Bluetooth, USB-C, etc)...
nodoze For the above setup, phone plan-wise, I wanted to make sure I had BOTH unlimited data & unlimited hotspot data with decent enough speeds... For those goals the 2 phone providers I recommend are either Tmobile or Visible mobile (on Verizon's network if you want/need Verizon)... Note that I only have tested with Tmobile but based on research Visible's unlimited hotspot may be the other great option (it is both better & worse that Tmobile's unlimited data hotspot option from various perspectives)...
In my case I provide phones for my wife & 5 kids & one extra for backup for my work/home so I have 8 devices on grandfathered Tmobile plan with many perks so feel pretty good... I was patient & added lines as deals came out (typically around black friday or new years) as my kids were growing up so half of my lines are "free" & some have discounts if a line uses less than 2GB of data so even as I enter retirement I hope to keep giving all my family lines... The key now is getting a de-googled phone setup that works for everyone... So far I only have 1 pixel & 1 Fairphone that I have been testing with... My wife has been using the de-Googled Pixel for awhile now as her primary phone (with some compromises) and I had to setup the KSPIV for her car... Now I am trying to do some testing with the Fairphone 4 (first will try CalyxOS & if I can't get full functionality will try LineageOS).... Sadly the Fairphone 4 doesn't support GrapheneOS nor does it support wireless charging nor does it have an audio jack but it is fully repairable (all via a single screwdriver) with guaranteed updates/parts for 5 years & does have swappable battery support (a rarity these days) and does support HDMI out over USB-C which Pixels do not for some reason... If I can't things where I want them via the Fairphone then I will get another Pixel & try GrapheneOS with display port... In the end I would like our de-googled phones to be central hubs able to connect to our cars & with external monitors with keyboard & mouse/trackpad to enable the phone to be the heart of our cars, watches, PCs & laptops & TVs (all from single data plan)... I also hope to also get a Virtual Machine going on our phones as well (via native Android 13 KVM or something like that) at some point with Windows 10+ as unfortunately my kids & I have some things for work/school that need Windows...
During the the research phase of my original plan, I took a stock Android phone to the car dealer and connected it to the Android Auto of the car I'm buying. My hope was that I could also then connect my Graphene to the car via bluetooth and have the latter take over the speakers when a call became active, but this didn't work. It was EITHER the Stock Android working on Android Auto, OR it was the Graphene connected for hands-free. I couldn't have both connected simultaneously. Attempts to disable the bluetooth connection on the stock Android were thwarted by Android Auto's ability to overrule the user and just re-enable bluetooth and connect (dammit).
Note this was all for our newer vehicles that had built in touchscreens that support Android Auto... For other vehicles (or maybe even new vehicles with crappy automobile vendor nav systems) you may be able to just replace/add a nav system with full native Android support & then just connect to your de-googled phone via the Wifi-Hotspot & bluetooth... For example for our 2006 Honda Accord we put in the following:
Something like that should give you full Google Maps or Waze or what not for Navigation and leverage your GrapheneOS via hotspot for data (assuming you have a good hotspot option on your phone plan)... Unfortunately my kid who is the primary diver of that car isn't very tech savvy and isn't willing to deal with starting the phone hotspot nor connecting the car's built in android to the hotspot so just uses the navigation built into the phone (as @Graphite above recommended)... That kid's phone hasn't been degoogled yet...
Siege801 Sorry for the late reply. Since my solution was working I didn't have a need to login to the forum and lost track till now. My KSPIV died (I had it in the console and my kids threw stuff on top of it and I think, coupled with the summer heat caused it to over heat)... Since the KSPIV was working fine I went to purchase another one but the model I had previously purchased wasn't available so I tried this one and it is both cheaper & better:
The main thing is that these devices take at least 30-45 seconds to boot up and turn on Android Auto & then has to get on the phone's hotspot... One thing that was easy to figure out/configure was to have it auto-boot to the WiFi app first thing so that I can make sure that it is successfully on the phone's hotspot before doing anything else (on the KSPIV I had to navigate to the WIFI app to check and that was too much for my wife)... I was also able to map one of the home screen buttons to the WIFI app so it is easier to check if there are issues later...
The new devices lets me easily pick the play store installed application for each button and for now for navigation I tested both Waze & Google maps and had trouble with Waze & thus am using google maps for now... Both have initial trouble until the android auto device has full internet from the phone hotspot but google maps handles lack of internet better & seems to handle working over hotspot better... I hope to later try an open source navigation app but for now my wife is only comfortable with Google maps (she hates Waze). Part of the reason I wanted Waze was because of Waze's integration with audio apps where you can see them on the same screen while navigating and I don't know how to do that with Google Maps (if it also supports it)...
Anyway it is early for me now with the new device and I only came back to check for updated options for Android Auto before buying a replacement device... I saw the above posts about someone forking GrapheneOS and compiling in android auto but decided to not go that route and instead try a 2nd device... If I later see clear instructions/proof of enabled Android Auto, while keeping those privileged permissions disabled, and still accepting OTA updates from multiple people I may revisit later...
I also saw pickus2's post above about disabling Bluetooth on the android auto device & first connecting Bluetooth from my GrapheneOS phone to the car then plugging-in and starting the device but I did not go that route... Too many steps for my wife and the delay to get everything up and running is already enough... We just connect both the Android-Auto devices Bluetooth & WIFI to either my wife's CalyxOS phone or my GrapheneOS phone...
One hill I may have to still climb is the challenge of sharing the car and having it paired to two Bluetooth devices & having it remember the login credentials for two WIFI hotspots... We have yet to travel together and will likely need to turn off the Bluetooth & WIFI hotspot of the passenger (or whichever phone we don't want to use) when we both are in the car together (or both phones are near the car)... It may be confusing if I am in the kitchen near the garage when my wife is trying to head out...
However if I understand it correctly, this patch would have to be compiled into GrapheneOS itself (so not viable for the average user), so it's something the GOS developers need to consider. I'm not sure if there's any privacy or security issues but if not it could be a great addition to the sandboxed Play Services.
2 days ago, I had a 1 hour chat with DK Samsung support. he asked me to delete my network settings on the phone at first, this did not solve the problem. At the end he told me to contact Google support. Even though i told him MY PHONE IS NOT CONNECTED to the cardisplay. Anyway, I got an idea. I connected the S21 with the old Samsung cable i used before with my Huawei - to and old PC. Cable is USBC to USBA. This did not work - S21 was not seen by the PC. Then I used the cable in the S21 box, which is as USBC to USBC, and connected this to a new PC - then the S21 was seen right away. I then asked the support guy - please advice where to bye a S21 supported USBC to USBA cable, because I think this might be the problem. he could not advice, because Samsung does not sell such a cable. In my car I have USBA (the old kind of USB connection). Then I started to search the internet for cables (what a jungle) !! After a lot of qualified (or not) guesswork from my side, I decided to spend 150 Euros on various connectors and adapters (crazy situation). I got the cables yesterday. I bought only short lenght cables - this was recommended in other goups with the same problem.... I tried also to see if I could find a "quality" cable (whatever that is, looking to the price, gold coated connectors or or or - who knows...). BUT one of these cables actually worked !! Suddenly Android Auto appeared on the cardisplay !! Hurraaayyy ! Now, I start to be happy with my new phone, even though some of the excitement went lost, due to all these problems
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