Android Question ANDROID-AUTO

[Mr Blue Sky]

Hello everyone in the B4A community,

I'm developing an test app for Android Auto and I'm facing a few problem. My goal is to make the app viewable both on Android Auto and as a regular app on smartphones. Here is how I configured my manifest:

AddManifestText(
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="23" android:targetSdkVersion="33"/>
<supports-screens android:largeScreens="true"
    android:normalScreens="true"
    android:smallScreens="true"
    android:anyDensity="true"/>
   
<application
    android:allowBackup="true"
    android:appCategory="productivity"
    android:icon="@drawable/icon"
    android:label="android_auto"
    android:supportsRtl="true"
    android:theme="@style/LightTheme">
    <meta-data
        android:name="com.google.android.gms.car.application"
        android:resource="@xml/automotive_app_desc"/>
</application>

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADMIN"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_CONNECT"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_SCAN"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.BLUETOOTH_ADVERTISE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.NEARBY_WIFI_DEVICES"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.WAKE_LOCK"/>
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.type.automotive" android:required="true" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.wifi" android:required="false" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.screen.portrait" android:required="false" />
<uses-feature android:name="android.hardware.screen.landscape" android:required="true" />
)
SetApplicationAttribute(android:icon, "@drawable/icon")
SetApplicationAttribute(android:label, "$LABEL$")
CreateResourceFromFile(Macro, Themes.LightTheme)

The installation is successful, and the application appears in "System > My applications" but not in the phone's launcher. Additionally, when I add a necessary intent-filter to the main activity for visibility in the launcher, I receive an "invalid package" error message.
Also, in both configurations, the application is not visible in the Android Auto launcher either.

Do you have any suggestions or solutions to resolve these issues? Examples of configurations that have worked for you would be much appreciated.

Thanks a lot for your help !

with
android:name="com.google.android.gms.car.application"
android:resource="@xml/automotive_app_desc"/>

without

 

[Filippo]

As part of this project to integrate a B4A application with Android Auto, I am faced with a major constraint: the absence of libraries compatible with B4A facilitating this integration. To overcome this challenge, I propose the creation of a proxy application developed in Java or Kotlin. This app would act as an intermediary between our B4A app and Android Auto, receiving data and notifications from our B4A app to forward to Android Auto. Realizing this solution would require the expertise of developers specialized in Java or Kotlin, skills that I do not currently possess. This will involve sending from B4A a message of the type “MESSAGE as well as its icon”. ?

I am not familiar with Java and Kotlin.
But what I have understood is that an app for Android-Auto must be created from 2 apps (2 layouts, one for smartphone and one for Android-Auto). This is currently not possible with B4x or I don't know how it should work.

I'm still on vacation at the moment, but as soon as I'm back home, I'll start working with Android-Studio, with the hope that it will be easier/possible.

 

[Mr Blue Sky]

I am not familiar with Java and Kotlin.
But what I have understood is that an app for Android-Auto must be created from 2 apps (2 layouts, one for smartphone and one for Android-Auto). This is currently not possible with B4x or I don't know how it should work.

I'm still on vacation at the moment, but as soon as I'm back home, I'll start working with Android-Studio, with the hope that it will be easier/possible.

Yes an application with Android studio which has the Android-auto libraries even a widgets which receives messages from B4A and transmits them. in this case no need to have a specific library for B4A

 

[fbritop]

Thanks @Mr Blue Sky and @Filippo
Year ago I posted if someone was gotten any further:

Android Auto IOT

Now that Google has gone in the IOT path, it would be nice to have a wrapper or library for Android Auto, as we are not longer only restricted to Media in Cars OS https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2023/04/expanding-options-for-building-apps-for-cars.html...

www.b4x.com

It could be great in how to interact with slave devices, back in that time Google had released that IOT things were considered as part of the ecosystem of Android Auto. I never got any further with my lack of knowledge. As I did understood by that time, the car actuates as a slave App from the phone, that requiered a special layout with the restrictions that apply for.

I faced two changes by that time:
1.- How to interact with the car "keyboard", in this case the rotary knob

2.- My App is for garage remote opening, so it was quite useful to try to give commands from the car device rather than unlocking our phones to try to interact with the garage controler. In this case what I faced, was I was not quite sure how the Location works, because in my app location is only while app is in used and is in foreground. I needed the location as there is a "safety distance" between the controler and the device to be actuated. I never found and answer if the app was considered in "Foreground" when the slave has the app working.

I´ll bookmark this post as it has been the most useful post regarding slave devices.
I think this is something very needed (Also for CarPlay) as more devices functionalities are driven ny slave devices (cars, watches, etc).

 

[Robert Valentino]

have you tried adding these 2 to your manifest?

<!-- Permission for media playback control -->        <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.MEDIA_CONTENT_CONTROL"/>        
<!-- Permission for interacting with Android Auto -->        <uses-permission android:name="com.google.android.projection.CAR_PERMISSION"/>

Recommended by chatGPT - I'm sure the Car Permission is probably needed

 

[Didier9]

I have the impression that the result from the Android Auto app on my phone is projected onto my screen of an Android Auto compatible screen in my car via the USB cable or via Bluetooth.

Not every car and radio can work with Android Auto. Here you can find a list of Compatible vehicles and radios.

And here is Set up Android Auto

And below is the XML manifest file for Android Auto 11.9.641804-release (arm64-v8a) (Android 8.0+).

It is my understanding that Android Auto places severe restrictions on what an app can do when played in the car. I susect it is for safety reasons. An example is the Home Assistant app that in the car looks nothing like on the phone, and functionality when driving is much more limited than when stopped (you can change some settings while stopped but while driving, you are pretty much limited to displaying status and pressing buttons.)

 

[Didier9]

Thanks @Mr Blue Sky and @Filippo
Year ago I posted if someone was gotten any further:

Android Auto IOT

Now that Google has gone in the IOT path, it would be nice to have a wrapper or library for Android Auto, as we are not longer only restricted to Media in Cars OS https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2023/04/expanding-options-for-building-apps-for-cars.html...

www.b4x.com

It could be great in how to interact with slave devices, back in that time Google had released that IOT things were considered as part of the ecosystem of Android Auto. I never got any further with my lack of knowledge. As I did understood by that time, the car actuates as a slave App from the phone, that requiered a special layout with the restrictions that apply for.

I faced two changes by that time:
1.- How to interact with the car "keyboard", in this case the rotary knob

2.- My App is for garage remote opening, so it was quite useful to try to give commands from the car device rather than unlocking our phones to try to interact with the garage controler. In this case what I faced, was I was not quite sure how the Location works, because in my app location is only while app is in used and is in foreground. I needed the location as there is a "safety distance" between the controler and the device to be actuated. I never found and answer if the app was considered in "Foreground" when the slave has the app working.

I´ll bookmark this post as it has been the most useful post regarding slave devices.
I think this is something very needed (Also for CarPlay) as more devices functionalities are driven ny slave devices (cars, watches, etc).

"My App is for garage remote opening"
I have the same need. At the moment, this is resolved through the Home Assistant app, which is no a bad thing anyways because Home Assistant already controls a bit of my house.

 

[fbritop]

"My App is for garage remote opening"
I have the same need. At the moment, this is resolved through the Home Assistant app, which is no a bad thing anyways because Home Assistant already controls a bit of my house.

Great,
what is the flow you applied for using Home Assistant App?

 

[Didier9]

Great,
what is the flow you applied for using Home Assistant App?

I have an MQTT based device in the gate controller that reports to HA the gate status and can be controlled via HA to move the gate. It's not working from the car yet but it's working from HA and I am close. It's just a bit of pain to debug the AA version of HA because there are a bunch of controls I don't need so those I need are buried, the names have to be short to be fully visible on AA which is not the way I have setup HA, and my gate controller is not "hacker remote control" friendly....

It's actually a bit more complicated because the gate controller is at the edge of WiFi range (a bit outside of reliable wifi range) so the gate controller has a LORA module and I have a LORA-MQTT gateway in the house that supports all the devices that are out of WiFi range (gate controller, temperature sensors, the salt chlorinator for the pool, lights, etc...) The LORA-gateway-MQTT-HA part works very well though and has been in use for several months.