browse music library - no go it seems.

[chenks]

so i just got an android auto device.
i take it you can't browse your entire music collection on the device from google play music?
it only gives me playlists and instant mixes etc.

it suggest i use voice control instead, but i'd rather not spend 15 minutes shouting at the headunit trying to get it to understand and pick the particular album i want to play (assuming i can even remember the exact title of it).

 

[ireknole]

so i just got an android auto device.
i take it you can't browse your entire music collection on the device from google play music?
it only gives me playlists and instant mixes etc.

it suggest i use voice control instead, but i'd rather not spend 15 minutes shouting at the headunit trying to get it to understand and pick the particular album i want to play (assuming i can even remember the exact title of it).

No, you can't browse your whole collection while the car is not in park. It's a safety measure to avoid distracted driving. You can browse everything while in park, however. Voice controls are actually pretty good unless you have album or artists with odd characters.

 

[chenks]

that's what i'm saying, i can't see it even when in park.
all i can see is just playlists and instant mixes.

 

[ireknole]

that's what i'm saying, i can't see it even when in park.
all i can see is just playlists and instant mixes.

Oh, you're looking for song/artist/album browsing? Sorry, I misunderstood. Unfortunately, it's not there in Android Auto. I'm assuming for the same safety reasons. They haven't made any changes to the interface since it was released and the "browse while parked" feature has been out for a few months.

The only thing you can do is shuffle offline songs if you have "download only"mode turned on.

 

[chenks]

so what can you do whilst parked and what can't you do?
you said "You can browse everything while in park"

and the flaw with voice controls is that you need to know the name of the album you want to play.

 

[ireknole]

so what can you do whilst parked and what can't you do?

you said "You can browse everything while in park"

You can browse everything in the Android auto interface while parked. It doesn't add anything new, so no album, artist or song browsing at all. I originally thought you were asking why you can't freely browse the interface.

 

[chenks]

but i can browse everything in the interface while parked or not parked, so i guess my wiring allows me to do that.

so, assuming it was wired to restrict stuff, what couldn't i do when not parked?

 

[ireknole]

but i can browse everything in the interface while parked or not parked, so i guess my wiring allows me to do that.

so, assuming it was wired to restrict stuff, what couldn't i do when not parked?

That's odd, it will normally stop you after 5 presses if the system detects you are not in park. So anything that involved more than 5 presses (scrolling through pages of playlists or radio stations) would be locked out at the 5th press with a warning that said "to continue browsing, please park." (Or something to that effect)

 

[chenks]

but how does it know if the car is parked?
is it basing it on GPS movement or the fact the hand brake is applied?
if it's the hand brake being applied then that is easily by-passed by wiring up that wire appropriately.

 

[ireknole]

but how does it know if the car is parked?
is it basing it on GPS movement or the fact the hand brake is applied?
if it's the hand brake being applied then that is easily by-passed by wiring up that wire appropriately.

I believe it's handbrake. I have an oem head unit, so I'm not sure how it's wired, but I have heard of people bypassing the lock by changing how it's wired. No idea how well that works though.

 

[chenks]

either way, i've got to say that Android Auto is pretty ****!
music player that is essentially useless.

 

[ireknole]

either way, i've got to say that Android Auto is pretty ****!
music player that is essentially useless.

I've been happy with it. The voice commands work well and aside from some missing features (no FF or RW most notably), it's much better than Bluetooth or the OEM unit.

What are you trying to do that you can't with voice commands? If you're parked or stopped, you can always pick up your phone, press the recent apps button and access the phone version of Google Play Music to pull up what you want.

 

[chenks]

well i'm driving and i want to play an album by an artist.
i know the artist name but not the album name.
there is no way to get to that album without stopping, picking up phone, finding the album, playing it, then re-connecting the phone and driving off again.

if i simply say PLAY ARTISTNAME then it does nothing.
i can say PLAY TRACKNAME which then plays that track from the album, but then it only plays that one track and won't then continue to play the rest of the tracks in that album.

and that's when it decides to understand what i'm actually saying, of even acknowledge that i've said OK GOOGLE.

 

[ireknole]

well i'm driving and i want to play an album by an artist.
i know the artist name but not the album name.
there is no way to get to that album without stopping, picking up phone, finding the album, playing it, then re-connecting the phone and driving off again.

if i simply say PLAY ARTISTNAME then it does nothing.
i can say PLAY TRACKNAME which then plays that track from the album, but then it only plays that one track and won't then continue to play the rest of the tracks in that album.

and that's when it decides to understand what i'm actually saying, of even acknowledge that i've said OK GOOGLE.

Gotchya. The album thing bothers me as well, there is no "go to album" voice command and there is no text field for the album name.

The artist command does work ("Play <artist> on Google Play Music") but I'm also only pulling from my downloaded library, it may function differently using their online service.