m2497

We have a couple of unused Galaxy phones around the house - an S5 and S6 edge. Neither have active cell service, but apps that just use wifi run just fine. I was thinking about dedicating one of them to my (hopefully) soon to be arriving SQ5 for Android Auto. Has anyone done this and, if so, how did it work?

AndroidRobot

It should work fine using only wifi, the S6 will be better than using an S5. I've used a Pixel XL, S7 Edge, S8+, Note 8, V20 etc on AA without any problems.

scoopman

Yeah this will generally work well, with two caveats:
1. You'll need to take the phone out of the car and charge it every so often. Having it charge only when you have your car on might not be enough.
2. The only problem you'll have is with telephony. You won't be able to place or receive any phone calls in your car, or text messages. You also can't connect a secondary phone via Bluetooth when AA is connected to your car, this is disabled.

Note you get 6 months free of hotspot date on a new car from Audi so your data would be free for this time.

AndroidRobot

The phone will be plugged in since he will be using AA; charging shouldn't be an issue. You can have 2 devices connected, one for calls and another for media from what other members have done.

scoopman

Hey there -- charging can be an issue because you're only going to be charging when the car is on. Depending on how often and for how long you drive -- and also the efficiency of the phone's standby and the apps you have on the phone -- your dedicated phone will probably not have enough standby battery after a little while. Note that older versions of Android before Android M were much worse in terms of standby system health than the newest stuff.

As for a secondary phone, our Audis have this option when you're using Bluetooth for both, but you will see that this is disabled when Android Auto is running. Unfortunately, this is part of the requirements that only the Android Auto phone be allowed to do telephony when its connected. This might change in the future, but if it does, it would require an update to the car's software, not just the apps running on the phone.

I've confirmed this on my car, but let me know if it's different on the Q5.

AndroidRobot

yes, standby time is a concern .I suppose if someone is doing this they could charge the phone once every few days. As for the telephony operations while using AA with 2 phones you're probably correct; I have not tested the method yet . AA streams all audio over Bluetooth based on using it for 1.5 years now .

U-2

I have a dedicated phone for Android Auto (and OBDeleven), but I think I'll only use it on a longer trips, too much hassle to use it everyday.

scoopman

Note that AA only uses Bluetooth for telephony, audio is sent over the USB connection. This is due to technical limitations of Android phones.

AndroidRobot

If so, the implementation is strange. When I toggle bt off no music will play from my phone in AA .only when BT is only will it work .

scoopman

This is totally how it is done.

Let me see if I can repo what you describe, if so it's a bug I can report to the "right place".