Since the fairly recent updates to Google Maps I've not been able to get it to work properly under Car Mode. I use Car Mode fairly often, unfortunately.
For example:
- If I set a route up, go to the home page, put some music/internet radio on, back to home page and press Navigation it clears the route and starts again
- After that it continually crashes and I have to exit and re-enter Car Mode to get it to work again
- There is no longer a Car Mode navigation home screen when you press Navigation, it's just the Navigation main page (makes it a pain to find things)
Anybody know if it can be fixed at all?
Cessquill said:
Since the fairly recent updates to Google Maps I've not been able to get it to work properly under Car Mode. I use Car Mode fairly often, unfortunately.
For example:
- If I set a route up, go to the home page, put some music/internet radio on, back to home page and press Navigation it clears the route and starts again
- After that it continually crashes and I have to exit and re-enter Car Mode to get it to work again
- There is no longer a Car Mode navigation home screen when you press Navigation, it's just the Navigation main page (makes it a pain to find things)
Anybody know if it can be fixed at all?
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Click to collapse
I'd expect it to be fixed in HTC's Sense update coming soon...until then it looks like a straight incompatibility between the way Car Mode and the new Maps/Navigation do things. Very likely the amalgamation of Maps and Navigation into a single integrated app.
You are not alone in this problem, there is much complaining.
Tigerlight said:
You are not alone in this problem, there is much complaining.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for that, makes me feel a bit better Had a search around, but I haven't been here for a while, and there is so much to go through.
I have a Note 4 fully updated, fully stock, not rooted.
I have Google Now set to wake up on any screen including while asleep.
It usually works great, but occasionally it will stop responding as if it was disabled. It will do this in the sleep mode as well as after I wake it up by hand and swipe to unlock. I have yet to determine what conditions create this problem as it seems to be a randomly occurring issue.
Once Google Now decides to ignore me, it seems the only way to get it to pay attention again is to navigate to the Google Now search bar (which resides on one of my side screens) and wait for the microphone to become solid again. There were even a few instances where I had to actually press the microphone icon to get Google's attention.
Normally I would not care so much about this, but I am wanting to use this feature to help a quadriplegic who cannot physically interact with the phone. He could use it to answer calls, and all the other voice features that Google offers. But if the listening service is unstable it will not be a practical solution.
Is anyone else experiencing intermittent "listening" from Google Now even though you have all the full listening options turned on?
Like I said, it does work...just not always.
Thanks!
Does anyone know of a way around the fact the Car Mode now prompts you to select either Android Auto or S Voice each time it starts now, after the recent B0F1 update?
If I choose Android Auto, my Home button becomes useless. It will flash up a screen telling me to start auto in my car and touch the display (I don't have Android Auto in my car). If I install the Android Auto app, it essentially does the same thing.
If I choose S Voice, well, then I'm stuck with that crappy app each time I start Car Mode
While Car Mode was always rather limited on the Note 4 (lack of support for home button launching your car app of choice), it was at least useful for keeping the screen on. I use A2DP Volume to start Car Mode when I connect to my in-car BT. Before the update, Car Mode simply put the steering wheel icon in notification, and kept my screen on all the time (if charging). This was perfect.
Now, I have to choose one of 2 useless apps, which breaks my Home button.
In lieu of a fix, does anyone know of a simple, reliable way to keep the screen on? Most of the techniques I've tried in the past were unreliable.
Apparently, the fix is as easy as installing a "car home" app that registers as such...
I had Auto Mate installed, which didn't seem to register as a selection. I installed Car Home Ultra, and when I'm in Car Mode, I get the popup to select either Android Auto, Car Home Ultra, or S Voice.
Now my home button always brings up Car Home Ultra. So, they didn't make it worse, they fixed the broken home button behavior, *if* you have a proper home app installed.
Enable developer mode, there is an option in it to keep screen on while charging. Thats what I did.
Go to : Settings > About Phone
then tap "Build Number" until it flashes a toast message telling you Developermode has been enabled.
Then under Settings you will now see Developer Options, go into that menu and check the box for "Stay Awake"
SOLVED.
I use Car Home Ultra but despite setting it to always default as the car mode home, whenever I press home button after opening it it brings up list of apps to open including Android Auto that isn't installed. If I select CHU as always it will then work fine until I next close & open then I get same again
Any advice or anyone else seeing this?
Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk
I do not have this issue.
I told it to always use Car Home and it does.
I really hate the car mode in 7.1 btw.
Why in the world did they remove the recents button. ugh.
And I dislike that I cannot hide the "car mode" from the pulldown.
Cannot wait till Xposed is up and running so I can mod these things to work better.
Thanks to the work by a lot of people in @Moriatier 's "Frankenstein Phone" thread, over here, many of us have been able to flash our V30's from other variants to the US998 variant. An unexpected discovery (for me at least) was that the US998 has Mirrorlink which is not present in at least some of the other variants.
What is Mirrorlink?
It is an interface designed to allow a cell phone to interact with a car head unit. It is similar in purpose to Android Auto (AA) or Apple Carplay (ACP). Basically, your V30 display is shown on your car touch screen and you can control the apps from there. BUT... in the interests of safety, there are MANY restrictions placed on what is displayed and what you can do, as well as steps to limit what you can do with your device while it is connected.
A quick word on safety:
TL;DR - Don't be a jackass. Pay attention to the road while driving.
The restrictions placed on what is displayed and what you can do with those options appear to be there mainly in the interest of driving safety. Texting or other distracted driving contributes to motor vehicle collisions. The purpose of this thread is not to promote playing angry birds while driving.
With that said, IMHO some of - EG in AA, even a passenger is blocked from seeing the full list of music genres available in spotify. I would prefer you give me a warning which i acknowledge, and then let me proceed. IMHO, driving safety is the responsibility of the driver; if someone is going to be a jerk and text while driving, then restrictions on these interfaces are not going to stop that. Just as I would ask anyone behind the wheel of a car, be responsible.
Moving on:
I have used Android Auto for the last couple years, but continue to experience frustration with the limitations placed on the device while connected, and with software bugs that IMHO leave AA feeling like a Beta stage app.
Ideally, I would like to be able to simply mirror my device screen on the car head unit. I could then choose the apps that I want to use. For example, I would love to be able to open the Gasbuddy app and see a list of the surrounding gas prices and link to navigation for the one I choose. I would like to be able to play Ingress without disconnecting and reconnecting the device every time I stop at a portal. I would like to use Google Maps but have access to streetview so I can actually see what I'm looking for. When I pull up to the drive through, I would like to be able to see the list of coffee orders that I need to ask for without having to disconnect my phone from the car. How about when you arrive to pick up someone, being able to read email, news or watch a video clip on your car screen while you wait for your passenger to come to the car!
You get the point. AA and ACP are very restrictive and do not allow this. However, whether by design or error, Mirrorlink seems much more permissive. It even has a "home screen" button to show the home screen on your device. There are several Youtube videos showing Samsung Galaxy S8 users having full access to their phone. Unfortunately, it isn't working as hoped on the V30... yet!
UPDATE: I have a fairly stable setup working now with my V30 on my 2016 VW GTI. Note: I purchased a tool that allowed me to unlock a feature in my car that was blocking mirrorlink once the car was set in motion.
Index:
Links (Post #2)
Installation and setup (Post #3)
Links:
LG Mirrordrive App
Button Savior - Non Root
Full Mirror for Mirrorlink
Android Auto App
Screen Rotation Control
Nova Launcher
Screen Resizer
Drivemode
Requirements:
1. A car head unit that has Mirrorlink! Mine is a 16 VW GTI
2. US998, with Oreo 8.0.0
3. Install LG Mirrordrive App
4. Install a Home Screen Launcher that allows for landscape home screens. I am using Nova Launcher.
5. ** I needed to unlock "Mirrorlink in Motion" and "Video in Motion" on my car ECM **
Optional:
1. Install a driving interface app to make launching and controlling your options while on the move safe and convenient. I am usimg Drivemode right now. It is a little cartoonist for my taste but it works well and is easy to use.
2. Install Button Savior - Non Root (So far I haven't seen the need for the root version). This app creates an overlay with customizable buttons to control functions on the phone such as closing a window, or returning to the home screen as well as shortcuts such as opening the dialer app. My car head unit has it's own overlay buttons that are doing the job for now, so I don't need this app, although it might add some functionality. You can decide if you need it or not for your setup.
3. Install Screen Rotation Control - As long as your phone desktop is in landscape mode, you should not need this for typical operation. However, Apps that are portrait orientation only (Starbucks coffee for example) will cause an issue. If you use this utility, it will force even those apps to landscape.
4. Install Screen Resized (or similar tool). On the VW Gti screen, a slim part of the left edge of the image is off the display. This means you can't see a bit and can't touch icons on the left edge. Screen resizer allows you to padd the left edge so it fits properly on my head unit. YMMV
Setup:
1. OPTIONAL: Launch Screen Rotation Control and set it to landscape.
2. In your phone settings under Mirrorlink, tap for options, and select "Allow car to auto-connect." Strictly speaking, you don't have to do this, but if you don't, then you will have to go into the phone Mirrorlink settings each time you connect to turn it on.
3. OPTIONAL: Launch Button Savior - You will need to turn on an accessibility setting - It will tell you. I suggest setting the location of the side button (that you use to open the bar) to the bottom of the screen.
4. OPTIONAL: Launch Screen Resizer - For my VW GTI, I enter 150 (or so) in the top field to make the display fit properly. Then Resize, accept. You can now Close this app. To return to proper size when you disconnect, either reboot or launch resizer again, leave the fields as 0 and click resize and accept.
5. OPTIONAL: Launch Drivemode (or other driving interface)
6 (a). Set you car head unit to use Mirrorlink. Plug in your device to your car and make sure the car is detects it and initiates a Mirrorlink connection.
It might tell you there is no working app on the car, but show the Mirrorlink screen on the phone. In this case, go to the options menu in Mirrorlink on the car and launch the LG Mirrordrive App. Close the LG Mirrordrive app.
6(b) Now go into the options menu in Mirrorlink on the car, and select the option to close apps and close the Mirrordrive App. (Yes, I know you just opened it. We need to open it to get the service activated, but leaving it open may interfere with what we want to do. Hopefully down the road, someone smarter than me can find a way to bypass this.)
7. Select the home screen button in the car menu ( looks like a phone rotating from portrait to landscape on my car unit menu).
You should now be looking at a landscape view of your cell phone home screen!
Working:
I have tested Google Maps, Waze, Telegram messenger, Starbucks App, Gasbuddy and Spotify, to name a few and they are all working!
Of course, Google Assistant continues to be of great help in allowing voice commands while driving, such as, "Send Message to Dave on Telegram" or "Navigate to 123 Wentworth Street"
Problems:
As soon as I put the car in motion, my screen blacked out with a notice saying the app is not available while the vehicle is in motion. I was able to get past this by umlocking "Mirrorlink in Motion" and "Video in Motion" on my VW GTI's ECM. You will need to test and assess your own vehicle head unit. I used an OBDeleven to unlock mine.
I tested Full Mirror for Mirrorlink but had more problems than success. However, this was before finding a work-around for the rotation problems. This might be worth a second look, especially if you are having problems with the car head unit buttons to control your apps.
I tested Auto+ Show, but had no success; it never detected any connection. I think this app might be for a specific piece of video hardware or something.
I get an error on Spotify saying music cannot be played while using Mirrorlink. It pauses the music. I was able to work around this by launching the Rocksound app AFTER everything else is already working. Then I used the head unit on screen controls to get back to my own desktop and Spotify worked properly then.
reserved for future use #3
Mad Medik said:
There are several Youtube videos showing Samsung Galaxy S8 users having full access to their phone.
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Click to collapse
it is a bug, it is not feature of Samsung with LG MirrorDrive
Mad Medik said:
... yet!
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No bug = no full access
Mad Medik said:
Problems:
As soon as I put the car in motion, my screen blacked out with a notice saying the app is not available while the vehicle is in motion.
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Click to collapse
you can unlock MirrorLink in motion in VAG vehicles
shaggyxda said:
it is a bug, it is not feature of Samsung with LG MirrorDrive
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Click to collapse
Yes, correct.
shaggyxda said:
No bug = no full access
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Click to collapse
I'm not sure what you mean? There are some work around (bugs?) Discovered already and hopefully more to be found.
shaggyxda said:
you can unlock MirrorLink in motion in VAG vehicles
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Click to collapse
Yes, but just saying that won't help anyone who doesn't already know about that. Please share links and/or your knowledge in that area so others can benefit!
A solution without changing the car's coding would be much better. Especially as this is often removed after servicing at VW/SEAT/SKODA dealership, and it is not possible to do on ANY mirrorlink car.
Currently the only working and consistent (100%) and easy-to-do "hack" consists of using any "drive-enabled" app, and render a floating window (can also be maximized) on top of it. For this Android 7.0 or higher. is MANDATORY. But then you will indeed get full mirroring quite easy.
ktwo said:
Currently the only working and consistent (100%) and easy-to-do "hack" consists of using any "drive-enabled" app, and render a floating window (can also be maximized) on top of it. For this Android 7.0 or higher. is MANDATORY. But then you will indeed get full mirroring quite easy.
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Click to collapse
"using any drive enabled app"
I'm assuming we would all be starting with the LG MirrorDrive app. Does that count as a drive enabled app or do you mean something in addition to that? I recall having to install a mirrorlink enabled music app, open it then cancel it, before launching Spotify, or Spotify audio would be cut off.
"render a floating window"
I have previously enabled the force resizeable option to allow any app to split screen. That appears to be a step being able to launch a floating window according to this:
https://www.xda-developers.com/andr...what-it-is-and-how-developers-can-utilize-it/
Is that what you mean or do you have a different process?
The LG app is drive enabled yes, but you can also use some others, like Sygic or Rockscout. (if you look at the mirrorlink applauncher screen those apps will not have a crossed steering wheel, means they will not kick you out if you start moving the car)
Now with 7.0 as you said, you can make floating windows, as long as the floating window is rendered on top of a drive-enabled app it will work. However right now to do this it would require a bunch of different apps, so the process is very cumbersome. I'm trying to improve this with a single new apk install which brings all the needed features to do this. (e.g. a soft-button bar, a launcher for launching a floating app, maximized on top of it)
There could be several other theoretical options available. (Just theories, i'm still trying to understand how mirrorlink exactly works)
1.) somehow fake the certificate or modify a existing apk to show a different activity than the intended one
2.) somehow make mirrorlink think an app is drive enabled without faking the certificate, instead just add mirrorlink compatibility into the manifest to show up on the launcher
3.) intercept the mirrorlink VNC server / proxy it to a custom VNC server
4.) find a way to let the mirrorlink system think the car is not moving, while it is (without messing with car ECU obviously)
I'm pretty sure MirrorLink has some other weak points, and being a system which will no longer be developed or used (many abandoned it e.g. VW, SEAT is no longer providing mirrorlink app but the moved to AA). So once this weak spot is found, its kinda the holy grail, as this will probably never be changed again (whereas Android-Auto weak-spots might be patched ASAP).
Check out this security analysis too: http://damonmccoy.com/papers/ivi-woot.pdf