Would it be possible to make the Android Auto screens configurable? At least I am missing “Genre” in the library view 
There’s no configuration and Auto is not meant for full browsing, you should use the voice commands.
Google have very strict validation on Auto to avoid distraction and risk of accident, so I can’t have too deep navigation menu hence no genres.
Scrolling through the very long artist list is even more distracting 
But I understand it is restricted what can be done there, and that voice command is preferred. Calling specific albums might be difficult though, if they have strange names. From what I saw Google also expects you to speak your native language, so mixing the German command with English titles is not always recognised too well.
For large list a letter selection is inserted. And if you scroll too much the screen is locked for a few seconds.
And yes Google have issues with multiple languages 
But not much I can do here I only get the strings after Google analysis (And in all cases audio transcription is way out of my league :p)
I’m the developer of AAIdrive, a project to replicate Android Auto on Minis and older BMWs that don’t support Android Auto, and so I am delighted to see that Symfonium doesn’t enforce an allowed clients list and automatically works with my project!
Currently the Library list doesn’t allow access to several valuable organization methods, such as the Moods, Styles, or Tags options. I totally understand wanting to conserve the click budget on Android Auto by showing the most popular options, but different people may prioritize different organization options. So, I’m adding another vote for a customizable Android Auto Library view
Browsing by directory would be especially handy for me, since AAIdrive does not enforce a click limit. Other apps provide this in various ways: DSub and Rocket Player just hope your library is shallow enough and give access to the full tree, while Musicolet directly shows a folder list of the leaves of the tree.
Thank you again for this wonderful app, providing modern access to our home media libraries!
There won’t be configurable views, too much work and complexity for nearly no gains, while I can add some more nodes, file mode will not be added as does not work in offline mode and some features like pre cache would not work correctly in some cases due to no match with the library data.
Just purchased the app. Works great.
+1 to adding a genre button for Android Auto (doesn’t even have to be configurable, just being there would be a huge help). I rarely know what I want to listen to so manually navigating to a specific album in the car is cumbersome.
Slightly related - when browsing e.g. the album list, it takes three taps to go to a specific letter - once to open the letter selector, once to select a letter, and then instead of going to all albums under that letter, it displays a list of… just that one letter. Which you have to tap to get to the list. Removing that last step would be more intuitive.
But I guess I’d better create two different specific issues for that
You’re right open issues, specially the second one is not normal.
And for the record Google wants you to use voice commands on Android Auto as clicks are not safe
I have been looking for a solution for my Android Auto head unit so I can play music and use navigation side-by-side. The built-in USB audio player doesn’t allow for that, but Symfonium does!
After learning that this app works with Emby, I was excited to use it! On the phone, it is everything I could have dreamed of. Works fantastic!
But then I went into my car. And was a little underwhelmed (no offense). I do understand the restrictions you mention. The only feature I was looking for is file mode navigation. The app itself has this and executes it perfectly. I would assume any off-line limitation in Android Auto also applies to the app.
I organize my music into folders, by category, decade, etc. I don’t know or remember albums or genres, nor remotely interested in voice commands.
Is there really no way of adding folder navigation to the Android Auto display?
No there’s none, too many levels of navigations against Google rules, non safe interactions, …
Android Auto is really made for voice commands.
Thanks for the quick reply!
One alternative that I did try was to create a playlist for each folder. For example, playlists:
1970s
1980s
1990s
And then another playlist “pop” that contained those 3 playlists.
It works, but the playlist view in Android Auto is sparse. It only lists the song title, not the artist. It’s sorted by song title - I prefer sorting by artist.
Could the Playlist view in Android Auto be augmented to also include the artist? Another Android Auto app does this that I was trying out yesterday (I’m not sure if it’s Emby or VLC). The song title was in a bigger font, and artist was under it in a smaller font.
Also, If I sort the playlist by artist on the phone, will that sort carry over to Android Auto?
Thanks again…
Playlist sorts are applied of course, but Symfonium does not list the playlist content in Android Auto so not sure what you are referencing here.
Thanks again for the quick reply!
I went back into my car (with a aftermarket Kenwood DMX957) to double check I’m not insane.
Home → Playlists → (select playlist) → Play → Queue (top right)
That will show the queue of songs (ie. list of song) to be played. That list doesn’t show the artist. It also doesn’t show the entire list when scrolling. It shows only the first 25 songs in the playlist. So that had me thinking: What happens if I play the 25th song and then go back to the queue. I did that, and the queue then only shows songs 25-49. The playlist I was using has 318 songs.
Two requests (specific to Android Auto):
- Playlist queue showing song & artist
- Playlist queue shows the entire queue
Are either of these possible?
Thanks…
Ok so this is the now playing queue not the playlist content, if you only play a playlist it match but if you queue anything there or change shuffle or many other things then it’s no more the playlist content.
- It depends on the content of your playlist
- No
Thanks again.
Interesting - I didn’t expect the Queue button while playing a playlist to be something other than what the playlist queued up.
Is it an Android Auto limitation of 25 songs to show in the queue?
The queue is the queue of what will be played, if you start the playlist in random order it will list the song on random order so it’s already different from the source playlist.
The 25 is a safe value that won’t crash, show enough data without triggering the scroll security and dit 99% of the needs.
You still have not described exactly what playlist you build that does not show the artist.
Thanks.
The playlist within the Android app is fine. It shows title, artist, etc. When looking at the queue on Android Auto after selecting a playlist, the artist is not shown in the queue list.
If the limit of the viewing queue is 25, then it makes this workaround to folder selection pointless for my use. The goal was to replace folders with playlists, but if playlists can’t show the entire list (like folder navigation would), I’ll have to think of other workarounds.
I’m sure I’m in the far minority for how I want to use the app. I like to manually organize my music by decade and want to play specific songs, and jump around to pop, rock, etc., unlike modern streaming apps that play songs based on genre or popularity.
The app is perfect on my phone, and I am considering purchasing for use when I’m not in my car. But with these limitations (mostly from Android Auto), I’ll stick with a usb stick and using the built-in receiver USB player.
Thanks…
You again mix playlist and queue. To see the queue go to now playing then swipe up or click the queue button.
The playlist content list have a description field that contains a string that have album, artist … But the actual queue resolve the actual data when needed for performance reasons.
Anyway yes file mode for Android auto is bad and goes against Google rules for AA apps if they decide to be annoying (ans they are very often)
Your need is possible in many ways can in app, but AA is a separate concept with it’s limitations.
Hi,
would it be possible to add the paused title Tab into AA? I like your App very much, but I would like to switch between my podcast titles. When I listened to a playlist only with music, I can’t find any last played albums from my podcasts.
Is this a possible solution?
I have no idea what you mean. You can access the last played albums from AA.