Pixel...Android Auto...Audio...Flac...Ugh.

[RickInHouston]

I am trying to decide between my car's infotainment system vs Android Audio.

I have a small 5.7 non-touchscreen in the car (2017 Mercedes). I have Sirius FM free for 6 months, then after that will probably drop the subscription. I mainly use a USB stick in the center console to play music in my car (and the dealership says I'm about the only one that does that - most people use Bluetooth, but to him it sounds inferior).

The most negative aspect of using the infotainment system is Mercedes Navigation is a bear to input. And a far second, no flac support in this car.

So, I'm giving android auto a try. Navigation, I think I've got under control. Music - not so much. I have uploaded my music collection to Google Music. Wouldn't using files directly on my phone be better so I don't have to use data? If so, I would download files to the music folder of the phone. Can that folder support flac I now read it tries to convert to mp3, but I said 'no'. Therefore, what does that do? Does Google now play the flac file? I must say, navigating Google Music is just as clunky as trying to navigate Mercedes Navigation.

Any input on this would help. Anyone rely solely on Android Auto? Do you use music from the cloud or on your phone???

RickInHouston

 

[jleakey]

You could try Poweramp. The paid version is awesome.

 

[RickInHouston]

How do you access other apps within Android Auto? It only gives me nav, music, phone, home and exit.?. I don't see a grid of icons. It's doesn't really 'mirror' my phone?

 

[kuykendallc]

If another app is android auto compatible, the music icon will have a little indicator that you can long press and select which app you want to use.

https://support.google.com/androidauto/answer/6348327?hl=en

 

[muzzy996]

I use music from the cloud and have some favorites saved on the device through the app, not manually loaded as you described.

I have an appreciation for lossless playback but I don't bother with it since most of my listening is in uncontrolled environments like the car or while on the go.

Perhaps going with high quality download in Google Music would acceptable audio quality wise for you to gain the convenience you desire. My suggestion is give it a shot. Connect to WiFi and then load the Google Music app. On the upper left side click the menu and select settings. Scroll down in settings to the bottom and verify that download quality is set to High (if you only want to do downloads while on WiFi now's a good time to set that switch to on as well). Now go back into settings and select Music Library, then locate an album that you've uploaded to Google Music and tap on it. Once the album pops up you'll see a little gray downward arrow to download the album to the device, tap it and give it time to download (it will turn fully orange when done). Test playback of that album in car to see how it sounds. To ensure you're playing only tracks that are downloaded you can always toggle the "Downloaded only" toggle in the menu.

For what it's worth, I started out with free at first using my own library as described above for a while. Once I started subscription though and taking advantage of the "radio" function in Google Music it was hard to go back to free. YMMV but the automatic playlists generated by the app using the radio function is a great way to explore other music and develop mixed playlists of stuff that you don't own.

 

[N4Newbie]

I copied all of my music (well, the stuff I want to listen to) to a MicroSD card and use it (with an SD adapter) in one of the two slots available in my car's audio system.

I spend about 80 minutes in the car each day and I find this is the simplest way to get at my stuff when I want to hear it, which is about half the time; the rest of the time is spent listening to Sirius XM.

 

[Varuna Janardanan]

I have android auto in my car and a google pixel, I just solved this issue this week.
The only android auto compatible music player that support flac is Doubletwist.
Next playing the flac files on android auto using doubletwist, the quality was still poor.
I found that by default the music is streamed via bluetooth. To get better quality, you have to disable the "Media audio" profile in bluetooth settings of the car paired device.