CarStream (previously YoutubeAuto) for Android Auto APK download and setup

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
(1529737 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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2,440 thoughts on “CarStream (previously YoutubeAuto) for Android Auto APK download and setup

  1. Chad

    Anyone know ShashankBagla aka slash_m_a_x. on XDA? He claimed to have a way to get around the most recent blockage. He stated about a month ago that he had been running fine with the newest versions of GPS and AA. He also seems to not be willing to share with anyone, even on the DL. Would be nice to actually connect with him and see if there really is a potential work around or not.

    Reply
  2. gpfoto

    The only way is to remove access to the network to GPS, but the unlock will require root. Actually other solutions are not possible !

    Reply
    1. Chad

      I have no issues with it requiring root. I’m just looking for a legitimate solution rather than rolling back major services and AA.

      Reply
    1. SOS MUY PUTO GOOGLE

      you are very stupid and your comment more stupid, your opinion about this problem, are more basic basic simil at you.

      Reply
  3. SOS MUY PUTO GOOGLE

    Google people monitor this site. all the time, google is the owner of your life, of mine of all people? may be the principle of manipulating personal data, google knows where you are going, what you eat, how you dress, knows everything about each one of us. Under the motto of open sources, it does what they want !!!!

    Reply
  4. sim2000

    La solution ne fonctionne plus.
    Android Auto 2.9, Google Play Service 12.2, mise à jour desactivé avec Titanium Backup root.
    Au démarrage d’Android Auto “Google” s’est arrêté.
    Et si on valide la notification pour mettre un compte de sauvegarde Google, Google Play Service se met à jour, Android Auto se lance correctement et l’application Car Stream ne fonctionne pas.
    La solution ne fonctionne plus!

    Reply
    1. Tie83

      Bonjour, es-tu sûr d’avoir installé un bon apk pour Google Play Service (ou Google apk tout court) car il existe plusieurs versions selon ton processeur arm etc.. ou ton affichage 480dpi, no dpi… En effet, j’ai déjà eu le message “Google s’est arrêté” car l’apk que j’avais installé ne convenait pas à mon téléphone. Après avoir installé le bon, plus d’erreurs.
      A ce jour, tout fonctionne parfaitement, j’ai utilisé Carstream ce matin et même les fonctions vocales fonctionnent avec les dernières mises à jour. J’en parle dans un post plus loin.

      Reply
      1. sim2000

        Bonjour,

        Merci de ta réponse, je vais chercher de ce côté. Effectivement si c’est la bonne appli, ceci expliquerai le problème ;)

        Reply
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  6. Tie83

    Since I replaced Google play store (disabled) by apk pure with my s7 non root, everything runs fine. You just have to be careful with the last Google updates.
    First I wont recommend to install the last G board update, because you will be notified that for it to function, Google service must be updated.
    Secondly, with the last Google app update the voice command no longer worked with my phone. On android auto it said “voice command no longer available”. To solve this, i downloaded a beta version of Google on a Apk site, and now everything works fine again.
    Hopping it can help someone, because I wasted a lot of time to find a suitable solution for the voice commands…

    Reply
  7. User

    Once you are on the proper version of Google Services 12.2.21 you can then disable Google Play and it will no longer auto update.

    Now to get Ad Blocking built into the App, that would be awesome.

    Reply
  8. Simone

    Hi, good job and really good apk…
    I have a problem and I will like hear some solution if is possible… I installed the apk and I can see the apk installed in the screen of my car (Citroen C3) but I haven’t access to search videos….. only I can search video directly in my smartphone and when I push play, I can only hear the audio in my car but I can’t see the video in my car…. I download the last version 1.8.3…. any idea?????? Thank you

    Reply
  9. Andy

    Unable to get YouTubeauto or carstream to pull up under all apps on my car. They show up under media but say to select them from the all apps part. Can get audio but no video. 2017 Ford fusion

    Reply
  10. Mauneek

    Unable to get car stream working in the car. It say click the last icon on bottom bar but when i do i cant seem to get car stream there either. Hyundai kona . Australia

    Reply
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  12. Javier Guette

    Saludos desde chiriguayork – Colombia, esta aplicación es un éxito para los autos con Android auto, ojalá el creador siga actualizandola más…. Muchas gracias…

    Reply
  13. Stephy

    THERE’S AN APP FOR ROOTED USERS THAT UNLOCKS 3RD PARTY ANDROID AUTO APPS AGAIN

    Just click on my name and skip ads. Thanks to AA Mirror’s creator.

    Reply
  14. Ashish

    Hi…i down load the app from your site ..car stream.i connect with my baleno..but there is only one option showing ..return to maruti suzuki

    Please tell how can i play video

    Reply
  15. Felipe Marinho

    I get only the select the last button on the bottom bar, but that’s is return to Volkswagen. Can’t see how to make it work. VW Fox 2017.

    Reply
  16. Sarco

    Lo probe en mi spark gt 2019 y me muestra el listado de aplicaciones en la pantalla del carro y no aparrce carstreame ya teniendo los permisos y el paso a paso seguido correctamente.

    Reply
  17. alonzo

    it says click last icon on bottom and then youtube will start but nothing happens i have 2018 accord spory

    Reply
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  20. Marek

    Kiran, please, will Carstream and similar applications work again like in the past? I can not disable Google Play updates in my country …… I’m sad about it Thank you for your answer, Marek

    Reply
  21. ppas

    i have xuv 500. i did everthing the way u mentioned but still on car screen same one icon apperaing.. plz help what to do

    thanks in advance

    Reply
  22. Lennart

    Hi!

    great App! Unfortunately, the Send App feature is missing on the German operating system. Only “Carstream” / ÜBER UNS (About) and “Fassung V1.8.3” without Link in the top line.

    Any idea?

    Reply
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  24. Adisak

    I try to use with my e-class w213 but it doesn’t work.
    Can you help me? How can i do it?
    I don’t see youtube on the android.

    Reply
  25. Raul

    He hecho todo tal cual dice el desarollador y no puedo ver ni youtube ni archivos del tlf. Si encambio en el modo audio de AA veo el logo de carstream, pero tampoco hace nada, he instalado la version 1.6.1 de carstream y una version anterior de AA 2.9 y nada, todo en modo desarollador y fuentes desconocidas y no hay manera, que puedo estar haciendo mal?

    Reply
    1. Gonzalo

      Raul fijate que version de google play service tenes, a mi no me andaba hasta que desactualice a la 11.9.51 ya que antes con la 12.6 no andaba

      Reply
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