I’m on a quest to de-Google my life and that does include Android Auto. At the very least, I want to use more FOSS stuff if possible. I’m wondering if there’s any FOSS alternative to Android Auto.
Feel free to add your favorite de-googled alternative apps as well.
Edit: I’ve also been getting annoyed at the fact that my podcasting app of choice, AntennaPod, doesn’t extern its media controls to AA. Is there a fix for this such that I don’t have to keep reaching for my phone to pause an episode if I’m e.g. grabbing takeout?
Edit 2: a word
Edit 3: It appears that apparently, AntennaPod doesn’t work with Android Auto because I downloaded it with F-Droid and is signed with a different key, so Android Auto doesn’t trust it. There is apparently a setting for Android Auto that enables unknown sources. I might try that out soon.
I don’t believe that’s possible, the best you can do is foss apps with android auto compatibly. The only one that shows up as an option for me on my phone is VLC, but I’m sure there are at least a few others. Someone on the fossandroid community said osmand works with it earlier today, but I don’t remember seeing it show up as an option (but that was with a rental car a year ago, things may have changed.)
I don’t remember OsmAnd working on Android Auto, unless I didn’t see something in the car side of things I was supposed to open.
Basically the feature is there, but if you are using the F-Droid version, it won’t show up in the 3rd party sources area. Here’s the issue on GitHub: https://github.com/osmandapp/OsmAnd/issues/15400
Oh man I do want a FOSS alternative to Android Auto.
This would be a great idea but as I understand it, Android Auto and CarPlay are very explicitly tied into the auto manufacturers systems in a way that would likely require a group that builds the open source mobile auto platform to be certified and integrated with auto manufacturers systems.
This would be costly, and without the initial user base, unlikely to take off as manufacturers don’t like giving their data to other systems. Toyota held out a long time on Android auto for exactly that reason: not wanting Google to get access to their systems.
I like the idea, but I think the only for it to happen would be if an aftermarket headunit manufacturer were to build something that integrates with such a system. But that would be a very small user base and also unlikely to happen.
You do make a good point that I hadn’t thought of (and need to think of more often) wrt hardware. I guess the next best thing that I’d look for is something that uses the SDK of Android Auto but isn’t made by Google and doesn’t send its data however anonymized to Google. And also FOSS is the goal if possible.
Unfortunately no, there are some dashboards but they run on android auto. I think only option is creating custom dashboard with raspberry pi + touch screen
There is a Magisk module for rooted phones with degoogled android rom: https://github.com/sn-00-x/aa4mg
I don’t mind using Google services but I’ve always had issues with the YouTube Music app, I use AIMP as an offline player that supports Android Auto, but like other posters have said I think there’s platform requirements that mean it’s only available on the Play store.
