[abhatt]

Finally I have a car with Android Auto and being a geek myself I am trying to get the best out of it.

Use Cases

1. Select playlists and songs using the screen to play the songs using your app of preference
2. Voice search a song or a playlist
3. Play songs stored on your phone

I am yet to try #3 but some of the apps have an ability to read the local storage and hence I am assuming they would be accessible via #1 in such cases.

I am stuck getting optimal experience with #1 and #2 and hence seeking support from friends here.

Apps Tried: Wynk Music, Gaana, YouTube Music, Spotify, Amazon Music

Phone Used: Google Pixel 4a
Android Version: 11
App Versions: Latest Available

Wynk Music

I am an Airtel user and hence a heavy Wynk user. However Wynk does not support Android Auto. This was the first set back.

Amazon Music

Since I am an Amazon Prime user, I often using Amazon Music as well. This works really well for Use Case 1. Use Case 2 sucks. Cannot do a voice search using Google Assistant.

YouTube Music

Had never using YT music in the past but thought since this is "Android" auto and I am a Pixel user I should give it a shot. Unfortunately, YT Music does not work on Android Auto if you are not a Premium user which means Pay more which I won't. I was OK with Ads.

Spotify Music

All the major forums I read through suggested this works well and it looks like the majority of the users were US based. I was unable to voice search and since I had never used it before I don't want to create new play lists unless my voice search gets resolved.

Gaana

Ganna resolves my voice search issues. Surprisingly, it works really well too. Has support for Android Auto as well. I haven't checked the screen experience but I am sure that would be fine too. Worst thing is Music is not HD quality. Seriously??? That's their way of demanding money for quality.

Now before I end up paying for a service I wanted to get the feedback of my driving community.

What app works for you?

Finally, it would be fantastic help if you can raise your requests on this Tweet. I really would love to see Wynk get the Android Auto support.

Soon, I will start playing with Apple car play.

Feel free to share any other interesting use cases with Android Auto barring Maps and Whatsapp.

Looking forward to a nice discussion.

[TrackDay]

Originally Posted by abhatt

3. Play songs stored on your phone

Thanks for starting this thread & sorry for interrupting here, but can others also comment the players they use from the Play Store for playing music via android auto. The default music player on my android phone somehow is not reflected in the android auto screen on my car unit. I currently have a player called AIMP which is used to play music files stored in my phone on the car unit. It gets the job done, but still not that satisfactory.

[goandude]

I am using Amazon music and VLC for music on Android Auto. I have made a playlist in both these apps and chose them before starting off. So question of requiring voice command for choosing a particular track is not there.
But as far as internet radio goes, I haven't found a compatible app. Radio.net doesn't work

[kalpeshc]

Youtube Music premium works best for me and it's worth the monthly payments. One feature which i like best in YT Music is the recommendations and generation of an unending playlist. I've not faced challenges using it via Android auto however the voice search at times acts funny which may be due to the HU software in my Creta

[Gannu_1]

When I was using Android Auto when I had the Mi A2, I used Amazon Music for listening to music. It worked well - free, no ads, has a good library of songs online, works with music downloaded on the phone. Sometimes the songs/album would vanish from the library maybe because their validity expired; don’t know.

The Music app on CarPlay works seamlessly. It can listen to voice commands and play content from the library if Siri can recognise the track and the voice. I stick to the music copied to my iPhone instead of the paid library access. CarPlay on the whole, is a much more polished and intuitive app on the system compared to Android Auto. I can vouch for this based on my experience.

[vaisakhr]

I have used Amazon Music, Gaana and YT Music, based on that here is my take on each

Disclaimer: The following observations are based on my usage

Amazon Music
Pros:
+Easy to use interface
+Decent playlists
+Stable app, less buggy compared to other two
+Since almost everyone has a prime membership, the cost works out to be less

Cons:
-Library not that great compared to the other two, especially for regional contents
-Voice commands doesn't work well all the time, ex: if you search for the same song in YT Music and Amazon via google assistant the former one gives better results.

Gaana
Pros:
+Very good library with latest regional content
+Excellent playlists. I have had the best song and playlist suggestions in this. Almost never needed to make my own
+Online radios like Mirchi FM and many more, There are some pretty good international ones too. Lovey experience.
+The interface I felt to be the best among the three. Easy to navigate and operate

Cons:
-Biggest issue I had was the heating of the phone.
-App crashes in between while using AA, need to unplug the phone for it to reset
-The sound output, especially while playing from a bt speaker seem to be over saturated, the volume and the tones are little too much for my liking with the EQ turned off.

YT Music
Pros:
+its YouTube, it has everything. Anything you find on YouTube can be played.
+Videos can be played as audio, works best for interviews, speeches and songs which you cannot as an audio
+Works well with AA in my experience, may be it's more optimized. But it crashes less compared to the other two.
+Best of the best when comes voice searches

Cons:
-Even after having such a huge library the playlist suggestions and default playlists are the worse of them all. Had to search/make custom playlists even for newer songs.
-Voice searches are little too aggressive sometimes that it shows wrong results
-App interface is confusing and cluttered.

I have used these apps on my Ciaz and the Baleno. Former one has the Pioneer F80BT and later one has the Built in player, Both has AA built. Baleno being a new product works more efficiently.

Note: Clarity of the track feels way higher through AA than the direct BT streaming from the phone across all the app in both cars. Songs are set to play only on Hi-res all the time.

[abhatt]

Originally Posted by vaisakhr

I have used Amazon Music, Gaana and YT Music, based on that here is my take on each

Disclaimer: The following observations are based on my usage

Amazon Music
Pros:
+Easy to use interface
+Decent playlists
+Stable app, less buggy compared to other two
+Since almost everyone has a prime membership, the cost works out to be less

Cons:
-Library not that great compared to the other two, especially for regional contents
-Voice commands doesn't work well all the time, ex: if you search for the same song in YT Music and Amazon via google assistant the former one gives better results.

How do you manage to get voice search working on Amazon music with Android Auto?

I don't have an option under Google Assistant settings for Amazon music nor does it work when i say "Play XYZ on Amazon music" it detects the command but just doesn't do anything with it. I have ensured the microphone permissions for the app are granted.

[haisaikat]

While the voice search is something I have not utilized and I do not have android auto in my car, I can advocate for Spotify for the following reasons
1. Good autio quality
2. I listen to pre selected songs added to playlists, so once the song is played Spotify caches the song for fast playback later on
3. Spotify automatically adds similar genre songs and continues playback if playlist runs out of songs, saves you from stopping car and selecting other songs
4. Good amount of podcasts in library
5. Wides collection of pre made playlists which gets updates regularly, gives you a starting point if you do not have time to create playlists
6. A good library which is second to only youtube
7. Quality better than amazon music and Youtube but second to Apple Music

[JoshMachine]

Originally Posted by abhatt

What app works for you?

Amazon Music it is, for all of my acoustic needs in the car, courtesy Amazon Prime subscription.



I have a RCD 340G head unit in my Vento and it plays both android auto and Apple CarPlay seamlessly.




I have documented various details here (My Vento's super RCD340G headunit : Perspectives of an owner), just in case you are interested.

[vinu_h]

Originally Posted by abhatt

3. Play songs stored on your phone

Unless you meant songs stored offline via YT music etc, this will play via your car's infotainment system only. Has nothing to do with AA.

I'm quite happy with YT music. Family plan/6 users costs just ~180 something per month. Worth it. What I love about this app is its ability to build a playlist around a song you had it play for you.

[rahulananda]

I juggle between Spotify and YouTube Music premium. Advantage of YouTube music premium, you can literally play anything(not sure about music stored in phone)and voice command friendly.

[adityagurjar]

Out of the list spotify and YT Music are definitely the best.

IMO YT music is the best option if you can get a group of 5 people and buy the family which comes to around 30rs/month per personn, Which is quite VFM since you get both YT Music and YT Ad free with offline playback.

I bought it with a group of friends, we contribute 179 each every six months to recharge my play balance which gives us access to 6 months of YT Premium.

Its also the app which works the best with Google assistant.

[BobbypinsGuy]

Lovely topic. I'll just add that for Spotify and YT Music, for voice commands to work flawlessly, your default language in google assistant settings need to be ENGLISH (US). I mean on your phone. Without this, some hurdles do come up. Also select either of Spotify or YT music as default music app. Then you can use voice commands, I use this most often "play my liked songs". Or play "Playlist"... It'll play without a hitch.

[subhro1988]

I have used both Android Auto and Carplay and found carplay to be much more smooth and refined. I use Amazon Music (Prime paid version), Spotify (free version) and Gaana (free version).
As you correctly pointed out, the quality of songs in Gaana is inferior compared to the others. The quality of song can be improved for Spotify upto High (160kbps) whereas for Very High (320kbps) you need Spotify Premium. The quality of song in Amazon Music is by default set to "Highest possible based on the connection speed"
For voice commands, both Amazon and Spotify works fine for me. The only problem I face is that Amazon sometimes displays blank white screen on the car ICE.
So for me I keep on switching between Amazon Music and Spotify as per my mood.

[vredesbyrd]

PowerAmp. The best that is out there. Really customisable interface and self-repairing ID3 capabilities. Also, one of the best EQs out there. It is a paid app but totally worth it.

Absolutely flawless. But it's only on Android.