Headunit Revived: Android Auto Headunit / Receiver Emulator

Apps & Core Settings
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As I don’t have a car with built-in Android Auto, and my main car isn’t compatible with a 3rd party aftermarket Android Auto headunit, I keep a casual eye on various “Android Auto Headunit Emulator Apps”. But most of them are closed source and hard-coded to Google specific apps, etc. such as “AutoZen” or “Headunit Emulator Reloaded” so they just haven’t been something I have been wanting to try.

Today, however, I stumbled across Headunit Revived:

“Headunit Revived is an Android app that allows you to turn your Android tablet or phone into an Android Auto receiver.”

Basically it is a continuation of a previously abandoned project (credit to the original project is linked in the Readme).

I have an old Lenovo Tab 4 8 (tb-8504f) that I have unlocked and installed LineageOS on (Android 10 base as it is the best performing option … newer versions were not performant enough). Even without Google Play Services or even microG I can run Headunit Revived on the tablet and set it up as a wifi hotspot. Then I installed the Wireless Helper app from the same developer on my iodéOS phone (that has Android Auto installed and the 3 Android Auto Google stub apps). Tapping “Start Wireless Mode” in the Helper App and voila Android Auto starts! Navigation apps and media apps just work™ :slight_smile:

I don’t have STT (“speech to text”) set up on my phone, TTS for navigation with for comaps, etc. so will need to do some more setup, but this may possibly work.

Making phone calls: When opening the Phone App on the tablet it says “No Bluetooth Connection” and thus placing a call on it only uses the speaker from the phone (so this wouldn’t tie into my car stereo yet connected via an AUX cable). So this may explain to some users that are confused why traditional Android Auto takes a wireless (or wired) connection AND a bluetooth connection: bluetooth seems required for voice calls to pass through to the Android Auto Headunit. I see some discussion on XDA Forums from the Headunit Revived developer about bluetooth, but this may take a bit more to understand what is needed where to get voice calls to passthrough to / from the tablet (so can use mic from the tablet and speakers of the car). This is next weekend’s problem though :slight_smile:

Probably a lot of papercuts / shortcomings may match what users of “real Android Auto headunits” report in threads like this one: Anyone using Android Auto?

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Well, even with “full Google Play Services” on another test phone (Pixel 3a XL with LineageOS 22.2 + “MindTheGapps”) I still don’t have calls routing through the “headunit” (tablet) or voice commands, etc.

When Android Auto connects the first time, it gives a message that it will establish as Bluetooth connection, but none is ever established. If I manually try to Bluetooth pair the tablet to the phone, it will connect then instantly disconnects.

So I guess all this shows so far is that “Play Services or microG” both have the same shortcomings (phone calls only use phone for mic and speaker not the “Android Auto Tablet headunit”). Is this the same with a “real Android Auto headunit”? Not sure, I don’t have one :slight_smile: Now I need to go commandeer a friend’s car again :slight_smile:

Here is the issue I created for “Headunit Revived” not working with voice input / phone calls in case you want to follow along.

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