So I thought I’d follow up her on my Android Auto install, as I’m continuing to have issues and while in theory it works it isn’t fully usable. My suspicion is its something to do with permissions and settings, and/or possibly some FOSS apps just don’t like it?
- Car is 2018 Mazda (and Car Play with iPhone worked perfectly in it FWIW)
- I have got hold of a reasonable stock android (Samsung) to test it with over weekend - as I have never used android with it previously just to verify it works as expected in that scenario - and to then compare any settings that are user accessible.
- I can play podcasts (Antennapod) and also do basic map navigation (Organic Maps and to some degree OsmAnd) and some basic navigation round the other Apps on AA screen.
- However issues are:
- Anytime a SMS message arrives the overlay pops up, playing media pauses, but whole screen locks up and doesn’t respond to nav controls from car (e.g. main selector when pressed to ‘play message’). Maybe it’s permission to overlay other apps issue or something to do with Serpa TTS?
- When i try to initiate an SMS the SMS icon in AA implies there is no SMS Message app (for some reason it doesn’t show Fossify Messages, just a generic SMS app).
- I managed to get into a new message screen once but again it immediately locked up the screen and stopped responding.
- Opening the phone app to make a call works but then it’s just either empty (no contacts) or it locks up.
- It also doesn’t respond to a couple of the basic nav control buttons even when working okay (e.g. the ‘back’ button to return to previous screen).
And others… (I haven’t got to trying out a music player yet).
But the majority of them seem to me like it’s permissions or settings and/or it doesn’t like certain apps perhaps? But I have trawled through them several times to try and find anything that might be related.
e.g. Messages seem to lock it up when the overlay pops up (which happens whenever there is a notification), but messages app has no setting for being allowed to overlay over another app. However Android Auto does and it’s on, and when a message alert arrives it doesn’t play the messages unique notification sound, it plays the Android Auto general notification sound.
Anyway if anyone has got any thoughts or suggestions or has had this type of experience I am all ears. At this stage I plan to try and fully test a stock android as mentioned to verify the unit behaves as you would actually expect and there are no idiosyncrasies because it’s a Mazda, etc… and then spend the weekend trying to work through all the setting sin AA, then anything related (incl. the key apps) to try and see if changing anything that looks vaguely related makes a difference…