If you haven't seen it there is a very much improved interface available. Sort of mirrors Apply Car Play. You have to be in your vehicle to install it.

 

can you do a better job explain this? I have android auto, 3 years now , since new. my wife has apple car play and it does not work as well as the AA (in the navigation department).,

 

What I believe the OP is saying is; you need to be in your car with Android Auto on. Then on your phone go to Settings and you will see a "Try new Android Auto" toggle. Turn it on and then I believe the install will take place. It is for the car's screen only. There is another thread on here about this. Search "Android Auto. Good Luck

 

You don't need your car to do this. You can update from your phone. You will need the car when your done to see if the new interface is working though

Simply update Android Auto to version 4.5.59

Open Android Auto and under settings turn on "try new Android Auto". If the option does not appear you will need to go to your App settings on your phone, clear the Data and cache for Android Auto and force stop it. Re opening it will prompt you to set it up from scratch again but it should now be updated

Your done. Connect to your car and it should now have the new interface

 

Clearing the Data and cache for Android Auto is key, must be done.

 

Best feature is that whatever AA app you were using last comes up again automatically if you restart the car! Worth the cost of admission!

 

Is 4.5.59 the latest version? It seems I've been at this version for awhile.

 

Yes, just make sure you go into settings in the App on your phone and turn on "Try the new Android Auto".

 

review from car and driver

https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a2...c=socialflowTW

 

This has the potential to be a really dumb question, but here goes. Is it possible to use Android Auto for Waze navigation at the same time you're listening to Sirius/XM from the head unit? What I don't want to do is have to suck up a lot of data by playing Sirius off the phone app, if AA can be the only thing running.

Thanks.

 

I'm pretty sure this can be done. (Of course, about 10 minutes of testing on your part would have answered your own question). I know I can listen to say the radio or my USB stick with all my music while under AA. If in AA (running Waze or GM or nothing for that matter), hit the home key on the car and then go to Audio or (I guess) Sirius/XM (don't know - don't use that) and play your music then hit the projection icon to go back into AA. You won't be able to interact with Sirius/XM or the radio or USB aside from the volume up/down and fav next/prev buttons on the steering wheel but then again that's probably all you need. Thinking about it, I think you can hit the home button again then go into Audio or XM or whatever and fudge with things.

Note, if you play media from AA then Sirius/XM or whatever will stop. Not sure if you have voice directions on and it interrupts playback, whether playback will resume as this is not how I use AA in my car. I've had unlimited data for decades now so I never worry nor consider sucking up lots of data as an issue.

Note also that if you are using Google Maps or Waze under AA and you switch to the factory Nav then GM or Waze will stop navigating. If you are navigating under the factory nav and switch to AA the factory nav will stop navigating. Sure wish it would be the case that if you switched the system would be smart enough to send the destination over to the other system to continue on your route but alas it doesn't.

 

yes, i listen to XM/sirius via the car radio and use AA at same time all the time.

 

Thanks for the input; I appreciate you both taking the time to respond.

 

I agree with Thunder22. You can listen to SiriusXM when running AA. In my case there is a "but."

May I tack on another question/observation? I'll qualify my post (as I'm not sure if I've got the new AA upgrade squared away just yet) but the AA interface doesn't show the SiriusXM feed - channel, song, artist etc. for me when that's the channel I'm listening to. It doesn't show AM or FM stations either. It does show Overdrive, an app for free audiobooks. It shows the NY Times (which I don't subscribe to) but doesn't show the Wall Street Journal (which I do subscribe to.) The other funky thing, it always ignores downloaded music stored on my phone in Google Play Music app, insisting on streamed music. Anyone else have these issues?

 

Ok, a few things here. First, AA will never show SiriusXM nor AM or FM stations UNLESS you have installed an app that is 1) provides that service (i.e. SiriusXM, AM or FM radio) and 2) is compatible with AA. The media apps you see in AA are media apps that are running on your phone. There is no interface between AA and the Chevy C7's internal apps in MyLink. I don't know if SiriusXM has an app for the phone that is AA compatible nor if there are apps on the phone for Radio (actually I do use Podcast Addict and it supports "radio like" streams but quite frankly I've stopped listening to radio stations decades ago). If they exist and are compatible with AA then install them on your phone and they should show up in AA. I recently installed the PlexTV app on my phone as I run a PlexServer at home and it now appears in AA in my car. Theoretically, I could stream my own music from my Linux systems in my house to my car!

I'm betting that Overdrive running on your Android phone. I use Audible myself. Shows up in AA. I usually use that for the long trips where I can really get into a book.

Not sure what you mean by "it shows the NY Times" - what is "it" here? AA. Is it an app on your phone? Maybe it's an app that also does podcast or audio feed and thus registers with AA such that AA will make is show up. And for Wall Street Journal maybe there's no audio content or maybe the programmers of that app decided not to interface into AA.

As fir GPM, what I do is 1) download all of my music to my phone. 2) Go into GPM (outside of running under AA) and set it such that it will only play songs that are downloaded. 3) Go to Songs and hit shuffle all. If I use GPM at all this is the way I use it - shuffle all songs - period. I mean I already have a USB stick that also has all of my songs downloaded to it. I could play that through the native car interfaces and sometimes I do. But there is sometimes some contention between AA and running media stream natively on the car so sometimes I just play a Song shuffle from downloaded only songs from my phone. Note I also place a shuffle of all songs on the USB stick. I know this is just how I do it and may not suit other people's usage model, but it fits mine. It also tells you that you should be able to set "downloaded only" in GPM - just need to do it outside of AA as AA has a much more limited set of functionality than the phone app by itself.

 

That was the trick, must have been updated but did not use the new interface. Plugged into car and new AA interface is much improved.

 

Thanks folks, I had no idea. Personally, while I like all this stuff, it gets repetitive. Sirius, Amazon prime music, my ipod, radio, ......... used to be I just left it on the Rock station lol

 

I have version 4.5.59, but I don't have the 'try new Android Auto' option in the Settings,so I'm still stuck with the old UI. How do I clear the data and cache? I really want to start using the new UI.

 

Go to settings on your phone then Apps then Android Auto then Storage and look for Clear data Clear cache. I think I had to restart the phone and return to settings Android Auto and you should have the try new Android Auto listed.

 

You need to go to your settings on your phone then go to your apps. Find Android Auto and open it. Go to storage and clear the Cache and storage data. Once this is done you should also select the Force Stop option. Go back into Android Auto and it should be asking you to allow permissions, this is normal as you have cleared your memory and Android auto is acting like its the first time you've ever started it. Once your done setting it up, click on settings and you should see the option for "Try new Android auto" at the very top.