Extend your media app to Android for Cars

Bring your app to vehicles running either Android Auto or Android Automotive OS. Use one app architecture that works for both cases so every user can enjoy your app.

What is Android for Cars?

A media app for cars can provide a way for users to connect their digital lives seamlessly with their cars. By extending the same apps for phone to be available for automobiles, you create a better user experience. You can accomplish this by integrating with Android Auto, or Android Automotive OS.

Android apps for cars must avoid driver distraction above all else. You can minimize distractions by following best practices such as using voice commands and a very practical visual design. In this way, your media app can show timely information to the driver only when it's relevant and use predictable patterns for common tasks.

Android Auto

Android Auto provides a driver-optimized app experience for users who have an Android phone with the Android Auto app and a compatible car or aftermarket stereo system. They can use your app directly on their car's display by connecting their phone. You enable Android Auto to connect with your phone app by creating services that Android Auto uses to display a driver-optimized interface to the driver.

Android Automotive OS

Android Automotive OS is an Android-based infotainment system that is built into vehicles. The car's system is a standalone Android-powered device that is optimized for driving. With Android Automotive OS, users install your app directly onto the car instead of their phones.

Supported app categories

Media apps let users browse and play music, radio, audiobooks, and other audio content in the car. For more information, see Build audio playback apps for cars. Further information is also available at Build media apps for cars.

Media apps are built using MediaLibraryService and MediaSession. On Android Automotive OS, you can also build sign-in and settings screens (for use while parked) using Views or Compose.

Video apps let users view streaming videos while the car is parked. The core purpose of these apps is to display streaming videos. These apps are built using Views or Compose. For more information, see Build video playback apps for Android Automotive OS. Further information is available at Build video apps for Android Automotive OS.

Build audio playback apps for cars

This guide assumes you have a basic media playback app already. If you don't, to get started, go to Create a basic media player app.

This guide gives you information on what you need to do, including links to further resources with specific guidance.

Playback components

Media3 offers several key components for playback use-cases. The classes that make up these components are familiar to you if you have worked with previous Android media libraries.

The following diagram demonstrates how these components come together in a typical app.

The different components of a media app that uses Media3 connect together in several simple ways owing to their sharing of interfaces and classes.
Figure 1: Media app components

For more information, see Playback components.

Implement a MediaLibraryService and MediaLibrarySession

A MediaLibraryService provides a standardized API to serve and allow access to your media library. This is required when adding support for Android Auto or Android Automotive OS to your media app, since these platforms provide their own driver-safe UI for your media library. For more information about implementing and using a MediaLibraryService, see Serve content with MediaLibraryService.

For playback controls, use a media session. The MediaSession API provides a universal way of interacting with an audio or video player. The Jetpack Media3 library includes MediaLibrarySession, which extends MediaSession to add content browsing APIs.

Connecting a media session to a player lets an app advertise media playback externally and to receive playback commands from external sources such as Android Auto, Android Automotive OS, or Google Assistant. For more information, see Control and advertise playback using a MediaSession and Use a MediaLibrarySession.

At minimum, your media session should declare support for the following player commands:

The Enable playback controls guide describes the ways you can customize your playback controls in cars.

When Android Auto or Android Automotive OS connect to your app, they request a content library to display, which triggers the onGetLibraryRoot() callback method. You can quickly return a root media item to allow access to your library. The onGetChildren() callback method is called when Android Auto or Android Automotive OS are trying to browse deeper levels of your content library.

These platforms enforce additional limits on how your content library is structured. For details on customizing how your content library is displayed, see the Create your media browser service guide.

Declare support for Android Auto

Use the following manifest entry to declare that your phone app supports Android Auto:

<application>
    ...
    <meta-data android:name="com.google.android.gms.car.application"
        android:resource="@xml/automotive_app_desc"/>
    ...
</application>

This manifest entry refers to an XML file that declares what automotive capabilities your app supports. To indicate that you have a media app, add an XML file named automotive_app_desc.xml to the res/xml/ directory in your project. This file should include the following content:

<automotiveApp>
    <uses name="media"/>
</automotiveApp>

Declare support for Android Automotive OS

You need to create an automotive module as not all of the logic in your app can be shared with an automotive app. Some components of Android Automotive OS, such as the manifest, have platform-specific requirements. Create a module that can keep the code for these components separate from other code in your project, such as the code used for your mobile app.

Follow these steps to add an automotive module to your project:

  1. In Android Studio, click File > New > New Module.
  2. Select Automotive Module, then click Next.
  3. Enter an Application/Library name. This is the name that users see for your app on Android Automotive OS.
  4. Enter a Module name.
  5. Adjust the Package name to match your app.

  6. Select API 28: Android 9.0 (Pie) for the Minimum SDK, and then click Next.

    All cars that support Android Automotive OS run on Android 9 (API level 28) or higher, so selecting this value targets all compatible cars.

  7. Select No Activity, and then click Finish.

After creating your module in Android Studio, open the AndroidManifest.xml in your new automotive module:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.media">

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" />

    <uses-feature
        android:name="android.hardware.type.automotive"
        android:required="true" />

</manifest>

The application element has some standard app information as well as a uses-feature element that declares support for Android Automotive OS. Note that there are no activities declared in the manifest.

If you implement settings or sign-in activities, add them here. These activities are triggered by the system using explicit intents and are the only activities you declare within the manifest for your Android Automotive OS app.

After adding any settings or sign-in activities, complete your manifest file by setting the android:appCategory="audio" attribute in the application element and adding the following uses-feature elements:

<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    package="com.example.media">

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:appCategory="audio"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:roundIcon="@mipmap/ic_launcher_round"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme" />

    <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="false" />

</manifest>

Explicitly setting these features to required="false" ensures that your app doesn't conflict with available hardware features in Automotive OS devices.

Use the following manifest entry to declare that your app supports Android Automotive OS:

<application>
    ...
    <meta-data android:name="com.android.automotive"
        android:resource="@xml/automotive_app_desc"/>
    ...
</application>

This manifest entry refers to an XML file that declares the automotive capabilities that your app supports.

To indicate that you have a media app, add an XML file named automotive_app_desc.xml to the res/xml/ directory in your project. Include the following content in this file:

<automotiveApp>
    <uses name="media"/>
</automotiveApp>

Intent filters

Android Automotive OS uses explicit intents to trigger activities in your media app. Don't include any activities that have CATEGORY_LAUNCHER or ACTION_MAIN intent filters in the manifest file.

Activities like the one in the following example usually target a phone or some other mobile device. Declare these activities in the module that builds the phone app, not in the module that builds your Android Automotive OS app.

<activity android:name=".MyActivity">
<intent-filter>
<!-- You can't use either of these intents for Android Automotive OS -->
<action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
<category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
<!--
In their place, you can include other intent filters for any activities
that your app needs for Android Automotive OS, such as settings or
sign-in activities.
-->
</intent-filter>
</activity>

Further steps

Now that you have an app for Android Auto and Android Automotive OS, you might want to take additional steps to optimize your app to be more safely used while driving. For more recommendations to help ensure a safe and convenient user experience, see the technical guides for Voice actions, Distraction safeguards, and Error handling.

Build video playback apps for Android Automotive OS

Since video apps are categorized separately from media apps in cars, you need to be aware of some specific requirements for video apps, as described in Build parked apps for Android Automotive OS, and Build video apps for Android Automotive OS. You need to use the following instructions.

Mark your app as a video app

To indicate that your app supports video, add an XML file named automotive_app_desc.xml to the res/xml/ directory in your project. In this file, include the following content:

<automotiveApp>
    <uses name="video"/>
</automotiveApp>

Then, within the application element of your manifest, add the following meta-data element referencing the XML file:

<meta-data android:name="com.android.automotive"
    android:resource="@xml/automotive_app_desc"/>