[Osteon206]

Spotify works well on Android auto. Amazon music is also fairly good, but loads very slowly in comparison with Spotify. So I prefer Spotify. But the wife prefers Amazon music.
But the one reason I miss my old iPhone over my OnePlus is that the connectivity of Apple carplay was very seamless and voice assist worked well on carplay. Android definitely has to work on the voice assist. Also many a times the voice assist turns on randomly during conversation.

[bluestreaks]

I recently upgraded to a car with Android Auto and have been using the Gaana app for music (paid version). The voice integration with google assistant is reasonably good - I also use Gaana on Google Home at home, so the experience is the same. The UI is pretty basic, but I do not use it much anyway while driving. Since it is the paid version, the sound quality is also very good. There are some minor niggles (like the song restarts if I unlock the phone!), but one can live with those.

[dpaul]

Originally Posted by 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

Even I have this app. Purchased it from the Google play store. It is my favourite mp3 player for files stored in my device. But nowadays, I mostly stream music hence no longer using this app. If only there was a way to integrate this with my streaming subscriptions it would make me really glad.

[Dr.AD]

I must be the odd one out here who uses Android Auto as a standalone phone app. My car does not have Android Auto, but I still like it and my only option is to use it as a standalone phone app.

On that standalone AA version on my phone, I use YouTube Music. I was earlier a premium user of Google Play Music and then by transition became the premium user of YouTube music later. Works quite well, and I have not seen any reason to move on to some other music app on Android Auto.

The voice commands work quite well too. I use the voice commands a lot to select different artists or genre or playlists while driving.

[anandhsub]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

I must be the odd one out here who uses Android Auto as a standalone phone app.

+1. I too use it as an mobile app. I like the clean interface and large buttons and also how it hides most notifications while on a drive.

I use spotify, primarily because I interchange between podcasts and music and spotify is the best way to handle that.

[saratjyo]

Originally Posted by abhatt

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


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

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

Below are my experience.

Amazon music - Seems to be buggy nowadays. Takes time to load and sometimes doesn’t show options to browse songs from headunit.

Spotify - Easy to use and connect and browse. I don’t mind the ads so still using it free.

YTmusic - Prefer this as we can play anything from YouTube. I would like to hear different versions of the songs by different people that they upload. But the phone should be open with the app and screen on if you want to use it for free. Rarely use it as I don’t want to burn my phone battery. Will get premium if we start travelling to office frequently.

Mod Note : Please quote ONLY the relevant bits of a post. Quoting a full, long post inconveniences our mobile readers.

Thanks!

[jeetumg27]

No wonder Apple CarPlay is well ahead in this game too! Music, Phone, YT Music, Spotify, etc. all are supported and the UI, button sizes etc. work really well, especially the touch friendly XXXL icon sizes.

[bj96]

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

.. tons of music ripped from CDs, or downloaded as mp3/flac and stored on personal devices...

I am in a similar boat. Tons of offline music collected over ~20 years. This is my companion on my solo rides on motorcycle (Harley Boom! Audio setup). In the car, family brings their own playlist (amazon prime, gaana, spotify). X3 has 30GB HDD. Brio has a 16GB pen drive. My favourites are saved there. So I don't bother with Android Auto / Car play.

I use Pulsar+ (paid version) and VLC Player for my mp3 / m4a collection. Pulsar+ is very lightweight with a nice material UI however, it is not able to play some m4a files which I have. They play fine on VLC though, but, latter lacks a friendly UI.

Originally Posted by KiloAlpha

... lightweight app I found was Musicolet ...

Originally Posted by vredesbyrd

PowerAmp. The best that is out there. Really customisable interface and self-repairing ID3 capabilities...

Are these players able to play m4a too?

tia,
-BJ

[vredesbyrd]

Originally Posted by bj96

Are these players able to play m4a too?

tia,
-BJ

Yes. It can play a whole host of formats - mp3, mp4/m4a/alac/aac, ogg, opus, wma, flac, wav, ape, wv, tta, mpc, aiff, dsd (dff/dsf), mka, mpga, tak, flv (audio). I mean, who would have thought about ogg? I've never met a single person in my life who has used ogg (other than myself).

[invidious]

I raised a ticket with Airtel in 2017 requesting them to enable Android Auto on Wynk. Got some generic reply about constantly improving their product offering.

There is a workaround to use Wynk. You can download the apk for AnyAutoAudio on your phone and it will allow you to play Wynk or indeed any music app.

[rapid_fire]

I am using Amazon prime music and Spotify. My head unit doesn’t support AA or CarPlay. I use simple Bluetooth connection and keep my phone in the central cup holder. The voice commands used to work nicely with Amazon music App’s built in Alexa support. Just say “Alexa, play (song name) by (artist name) / from (movie name)”, it will start playing.

[07CR]

Originally Posted by dpaul

There is another hack for YouTube non-premium users to play YouTube minimized in Android devices.

Open YouTube in chrome browser in your phone. Then go to settings by clicking on the three verticle dots in the upper right corner and select the oprion Desktop site. Then play the video, pause the music and then minimize Chrome browser. Now we can see that YouTube will be visible as a notification in the notification bar. We can play, pause and select the next and previous track just like any other music app.

I used to use this trick before becoming a paid subscriber of YouTube.

I tried this today. And it works! Thanks for another hack

[HarshV10]

I personally do not have AA or ACP in any of my cars. But I can have a satisfactory experience using Bluetooth/AUX cable & Google assistant in my Moto One Fusion+. The Voice recognition is spot on in a stock android phone.

Originally Posted by abhatt

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.

I have experienced similar issues- Google assistant can just open the app, identify music requests, but cannot somehow execute the request. It just accepts the command & doesn't do anything. We have to manually open the song. And that is strange because with YT Music or even YT for that matter, it can open even the most difficult videos you can ever ask a voice recognition-based assistant to search.

Amazon Music has:
1) A good-enough library,
2) Great song recommendations for me (great music discovery algorithm) and
3) An easy to use interface

The main reason why I use Amazon Music is that I have a Prime Subscription, like almost everyone nowadays, and the ad-free experience is something of a true blessing. I am done listening to "Me and the band have known each other since we were kids.....", and all other targeted ads , and also don't want to pay premium, when you have an equally good alternative with Amazon Music.

If money no object, then Spotify has the best user interface, whereas Youtube has the best collection of songs/videos and a great discovery algorithm as well. Atleast that has been my experience so far. I have not explored Gaana or Wynk or any other app for that matter.

But if the voice recognition issue is resolved, then Amazon Music may very well be the best all round option for all.

[Shiftlock]

I personally have never used Android Auto or Apple Car Play until now. I do however use the Bluetooth connection in our Ecosport and the two music applications I use the most are Spotify and Apple Music. Spotify has a great UI and a good library, but I just love the Apple Music interface because it is so clean. Even on an android phone, it still looks brilliant and I love the lyrics implementation.

I even have Youtube premium and use it occasionally while driving, but mostly it is to get past the ads while browsing on my laptop and not while on the road.

[zing007]

Originally Posted by 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.

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I would like to add that Poweramp Pro is worth the money. The Equalizer and filters that it provides are pretty efficient and accurate. The audio that comes out is really nice.
If your car doesn't have a subwoofer or good quality speakers then it is probably your best option.
The only downside is that you have to keep the mp3 files in your mobile.