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Google is updating Android Auto to fit all screen sizes!

Thanks! Is there anything in particular in the listing that suggests to you this one is better able to do the job of spoofing CarPlay to get fullscreen Android Auto? Is it the line stating that wired CarPlay is required?

There are numerous options like that, so I'm looking around to hopefully land on one that might have better support. Seeing the ones you have getting delisted one after another isn't encouraging.

Side note: I called the RAM customer service number mainly to bug them and hopefully they bug uConnect. The person I spoke to had no idea this issue exists. Her supervisor said to use wired AA with the stock cable that came with my Pixel 8 Pro and it will go fullscreen. Imagine my shock when... that didn't happen at all. I disabled wireless and tried both C ports, the cable from my Pixel's box that I haven't touched, and the cable I use for wired AA on the Kenwood in my 300M that has been the most reliable I've ever used. Nada. Not gonna bother grabbing the Anker cable from our Durango to try again, I know what the result will be.

Not surprised in the least, but clearly they're not aware of the problem and won't do anything about it. It will take someone bugging the uConnect team directly. Maybe I'll get lucky and run into Ralph Gilles or Tim Kuniskis at a local Cars and Coffee again and can bug them! Doubt it though, haven't seen Ralph or Tim at an event locally in a couple years.

Until I get my own workaround like daemonic did, I have Maps opened up in the AA half of the screen, and media controls in the lower half, bouncing between YouTube Music and Sirius.
 
g00fy said:
I wonder if that's why Uconnect won't update for full screen AA, something about the way they have the UI coded for android just won't work right if they open it up to full screen. Idk whatever the problem is, I'm sure it could be fixed if Stellantis put some pressure on them.
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It is the strangest thing! In our Mach E it is a 17" portrait mode screen as opposed to 14" portrait in the RAM. If I do native wireless AA to the Mach E, google maps works great and you can touch the screen, pan, zoom, etc. Everything is correct ratios, scaled perfectly. If I use the AI box in the Mach E, everything still scales perfectly but the google maps touch does not work, just like in the Ram.

So it is something having to do with the way google maps passes through the AI box. It isn't the aspect ratios or anything not being compatible but perhaps that it has to translate protocols. I fully believe that if Uconnect just advertised the correct display size to AA on the phone, it would scale perfectly and touch would just work in the native AA (it does in the half size mode). It's gotta be the box's issue and the translation.

But that is the only app I have found have an issue (unfortunately its my most used haha). Waze is not quite as good but it works.
 
Post #93 has a link to Change.org asking Stellantis to make UC5 compatible with full screen AA. Unfortunately, it only has 81 sigs but it probably needs hundreds/thousands. I've even contributed a few dollars to raise it's visibility. It's a long shot but if Stellantis sees there's a demand for this feature, maybe they will make it a priority and we won't have to look for a workaround. Thanks.
 
So far I think I have a solution to this problem that RAM refuses to fix.

There is another AI android streaming box from a company called AutoSky. I have the "Lite" version of their product from Amazon that cost about $70. It works in much the same way as the other boxes do by spoofing uconnect into launching a wired CarPlay session and loading it's own interface into it. From there you can stream Netflix and whatnot, or launch wireless CarPlay or Android Auto. AA launches in full screen AS GOD INTENDED, and so far with no functionality issues. Google Maps works 100% like any native Android Auto session.

When I plugged the box into my USB C port, it took a minute or so to do a handshake with the truck and figure out the correct resolution. Initially AA wouldn't launch, but restarting my phone made it work. It also made me restart the phone every time I got in, but I discovered I needed to change how the truck handled the phone in its device manager by changing it to "charge only".

After that setting change in the truck and changing the setting within AutoSky to automatically launch wireless AA, it now starts up every time with no input from me after about 30-40s. Just enough time on a cold start to build oil pressure and back out of the driveway.

Only issue so far is I can't tell the truck to set the AutoSky as the primary device. So when my spouses Apple phone connects to the truck it immediately launches their CarPlay instead as default. I have to go into the device manager and switch it to CarPlay from the AutoSky.

I haven't used the phone dialer yet, but so far Google Maps and YouTube Music work just like before.

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B4ZINGA said:
So far I think I have a solution to this problem that RAM refuses to fix.

There is another AI android streaming box from a company called AutoSky. I have the "Lite" version of their product from Amazon that cost about $70. It works in much the same way as the other boxes do by spoofing uconnect into launching a wired CarPlay session and loading it's own interface into it. From there you can stream Netflix and whatnot, or launch wireless CarPlay or Android Auto. AA launches in full screen AS GOD INTENDED, and so far with no functionality issues. Google Maps works 100% like any native Android Auto session.

When I plugged the box into my USB C port, it took a minute or so to do a handshake with the truck and figure out the correct resolution. Initially AA wouldn't launch, but restarting my phone made it work. It also made me restart the phone every time I got in, but I discovered I needed to change how the truck handled the phone in its device manager by changing it to "charge only".

After that setting change in the truck and changing the setting within AutoSky to automatically launch wireless AA, it now starts up every time with no input from me after about 30-40s. Just enough time on a cold start to build oil pressure and back out of the driveway.

Only issue so far is I can't tell the truck to set the AutoSky as the primary device. So when my spouses Apple phone connects to the truck it immediately launches their CarPlay instead as default. I have to go into the device manager and switch it to CarPlay from the AutoSky.

I haven't used the phone dialer yet, but so far Google Maps and YouTube Music work just like before.

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So you're saying Google maps works properly with this ai box? Can I have a link please?
 
I feel Ram is in bed with Apple to only allow them to have the full screen.
 
B4ZINGA said:

Correct, everything functions when tapped on, so far.
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Ok, the google maps touch working MAY be enough for me to switch to this box... Or at least test it and return if not. Waze is good, but google maps is superior (sorry, waze crowd).

Everything you describe is the same experience I get (startup in roughly 30 seconds, set to charge only, wife's phone connects before the box does, etc)

You even placed yours in the same spot I do, with the short power cable.
 
Oh! One more thing that I do miss from native android auto, was that the physical mute button acts as a "pause" button when playing android auto media. When I use the box, it does not. Can you check that functionality? Between quick pause and correct google maps there is nothing more I could ask for to get everything as God intended!
 
Xflight29 said:
I feel Ram is in bed with Apple to only allow them to have the full screen.
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It's all about consumer demand. As much as I hate it, you have to realize Ram is a business, and they are only going to spend time on stuff that results in sales. It's short sighted but there is no value in updating old trucks, and the new potential buyers aren't demanding it in enough counts to make it worth their while.

I for one wouldn't run out to buy a new 2025 even if it was the only way to get AA full screen. So here we are. I hope they surprise me, especially with the new head of Ram being back. That said, they have a lot of work to do to correct the ship. They need a new cab to stay competitive (I don't care about it, but it's got to be the number one comment against them), they need to update their interior and exterior a bit more than their latest refresh, which to my eyes was a horrible misstep in line with what GM did with their previous redesign prior to the refresh. On that note, Ford and GM have seriously stepped up their game with interior design, and at this point I think I slightly prefer the Ford or GM interior over the Ram.

The biggest thing that Ram can do to get me to buy a new truck, that is probably also the least likely, is to give me a proper 4500 pickup. I want a bed, I want the ease or registration and insurance, but I want the larger brakes, and I want the 10 lug wide axle.
 
UglyViking, I agree about demand for full screen AA. Last time I checked the change.org petition, it only has about 86 sigs. I wish it had 8600, but here we are. And like you, I'm not going to trade my truck for a newer model with full screen AA. It also comes down to difficulty in programming. Coding for CarPlay is dead-simple, there is only one phone manufacturer...who also writes the software. Whereas Android has many phone manufacturers who then put their own overlay on Android. Having said that, Subaru figured out how to make AA full screen on their vertical display.

I still have a slim hope that Stellantis updates UC5 for full screen AA. After all, it's 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025.
 
UglyViking said:
It's all about consumer demand. As much as I hate it, you have to realize Ram is a business, and they are only going to spend time on stuff that results in sales. It's short sighted but there is no value in updating old trucks, and the new potential buyers aren't demanding it in enough counts to make it worth their while.

I for one wouldn't run out to buy a new 2025 even if it was the only way to get AA full screen. So here we are. I hope they surprise me, especially with the new head of Ram being back. That said, they have a lot of work to do to correct the ship. They need a new cab to stay competitive (I don't care about it, but it's got to be the number one comment against them), they need to update their interior and exterior a bit more than their latest refresh, which to my eyes was a horrible misstep in line with what GM did with their previous redesign prior to the refresh. On that note, Ford and GM have seriously stepped up their game with interior design, and at this point I think I slightly prefer the Ford or GM interior over the Ram.

The biggest thing that Ram can do to get me to buy a new truck, that is probably also the least likely, is to give me a proper 4500 pickup. I want a bed, I want the ease or registration and insurance, but I want the larger brakes, and I want the 10 lug wide axle.
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Other than the screen, I feel Rams interior particularly for its high quality materials, comfortable sears and refined design.

Ford along with Chevy also offers a comfortable and spacious interior. I find the materials and design to be less upscale than the Ram.
Chevy has made strides in its interior quality, but I find certain features and materials less appealing compared to Ram.

We were in the market to replace our 2020 Longhorn with 100 K miles and looked at Ford and GMC and found our way back to Ram as it just seems much more to our comfort level.
 
Just got this new AIbox and can confirm Google maps functions 100%. Great find @B4ZINGA thank you!
 
2024RAM0wner said:
UglyViking, I agree about demand for full screen AA. Last time I checked the change.org petition, it only has about 86 sigs. I wish it had 8600, but here we are. And like you, I'm not going to trade my truck for a newer model with full screen AA. It also comes down to difficulty in programming. Coding for CarPlay is dead-simple, there is only one phone manufacturer...who also writes the software. Whereas Android has many phone manufacturers who then put their own overlay on Android. Having said that, Subaru figured out how to make AA full screen on their vertical display.

I still have a slim hope that Stellantis updates UC5 for full screen AA. After all, it's 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025.
Click to expand...
Sadly, development for AA doesn't even require interfacing with multiple different manufactures. AA is functionally it's own sandbox that developers interact with. It's the responsibility of the phone OEM (ie. Samsung, HTC, etc.) to integrate correctly with AA.

I really have no clue what it's still not a thing. Perhaps there is some oddity in how they built out AA in the initial phase that has caused issues in the longer term here.

Xflight29 said:
Other than the screen, I feel Rams interior particularly for its high quality materials, comfortable sears and refined design.

Ford along with Chevy also offers a comfortable and spacious interior. I find the materials and design to be less upscale than the Ram.
Chevy has made strides in its interior quality, but I find certain features and materials less appealing compared to Ram.

We were in the market to replace our 2020 Longhorn with 100 K miles and looked at Ford and GMC and found our way back to Ram as it just seems much more to our comfort level.
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A buddy of mine recently purchased a leftover 2024 King Ranch F-350. I won't lie, I'm smitten with the thing in every way. It's exterior looks great, it's interior has made amazing strides from the plastic feel prior. The buttons are nicer to touch, the layout of the buttons was sensible and even with their large screen Ford still figured a way to give physical knobs for the HVAC, Heated/Cooled seats and wheel, etc. I've not been in a modern GM, but they do look amazing.

I recently started a business, so all my funds are going into equipment, materials, etc. to make it a success, but if I had the cash I'd strongly consider purchasing a F-450 over a comparable Dodge 3500/4500 as of this moment. The only thing that Ram currently has over Ford is the engine bay has more space. The Ford is absolutely slammed in there. That said, the thing moves for being such a large truck.

I'm my mind, as much as I hate to admit it, I think Ford is currently building the better truck. Here is to hoping that Tim Kuniskis can right the ship at Ram.
 
UglyViking said:
Sadly, development for AA doesn't even require interfacing with multiple different manufactures. AA is functionally it's own sandbox that developers interact with. It's the responsibility of the phone OEM (ie. Samsung, HTC, etc.) to integrate correctly with AA.

I really have no clue what it's still not a thing. Perhaps there is some oddity in how they built out AA in the initial phase that has caused issues in the longer term here.


A buddy of mine recently purchased a leftover 2024 King Ranch F-350. I won't lie, I'm smitten with the thing in every way. It's exterior looks great, it's interior has made amazing strides from the plastic feel prior. The buttons are nicer to touch, the layout of the buttons was sensible and even with their large screen Ford still figured a way to give physical knobs for the HVAC, Heated/Cooled seats and wheel, etc. I've not been in a modern GM, but they do look amazing.

I recently started a business, so all my funds are going into equipment, materials, etc. to make it a success, but if I had the cash I'd strongly consider purchasing a F-450 over a comparable Dodge 3500/4500 as of this moment. The only thing that Ram currently has over Ford is the engine bay has more space. The Ford is absolutely slammed in there. That said, the thing moves for being such a large truck.

I'm my mind, as much as I hate to admit it, I think Ford is currently building the better truck. Here is to hoping that Tim Kuniskis can right the ship at Ram.
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It's difficult to definitively say if Ford or Ram builds a better truck., as both offer strengths and weaknesses. Trucks nowadays depends on individual needs and preferences. Both Ford and Ram particularly interims of ride quality and handling. We have Fords GMC and Rams at work and all three are awesome trucks, but the Rams ride is nicer, and interior finishes are second to none. Ford has 30% more moving parts on their motors, Hense the crowed engine bay.
Both Ford, Ram and GMC offer strong utility and performance, so to say Ford builds a better truck is a compelling argument to the contrary.
 
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daemonic3 said:
Oh! One more thing that I do miss from native android auto, was that the physical mute button acts as a "pause" button when playing android auto media. When I use the box, it does not. Can you check that functionality? Between quick pause and correct google maps there is nothing more I could ask for to get everything as God intended!
Click to expand...
I've never used the mute button since I've never had one in a vehicle before (came from 9 years in my Wrangler, Journey and Charger before even that), so I checked. It does not pause YouTube Music. That would be nice, but I'm used to mute buttons not doing that on other devices so I don't consider it a problem.

With it now being full screen, it's a lot easier than it used to be to just hit pause in the YTM widget.
 
B4ZINGA said:
I've never used the mute button since I've never had one in a vehicle before (came from 9 years in my Wrangler, Journey and Charger before even that), so I checked. It does not pause YouTube Music. That would be nice, but I'm used to mute buttons not doing that on other devices so I don't consider it a problem.

With it now being full screen, it's a lot easier than it used to be to just hit pause in the YTM widget.
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The first month of my truck I didn't even know that the mute button acted as a pause during phone media (BT or AA) playback, I found it by accident. I don't like mute because if it is a podcast or audiobook I am missing that content while going through the drive through or loud car wash or whatever the case may be. The controls on the touch screen may require 2 touches in specific spots, or if you have the widget control option at the bottom (during full screen maps) its a small 1 touch button. It absolutely is not the end of the world but the physical button is definitely my preference! Oh well!

I did order this new AI box just to get my google maps back. I will now have TWO surplus AI boxes, both work great, with the exception of google maps. Any Waze users that want my older boxes hit me up in DM! The new one surprisingly was same day arrival in only 6 to 11 hours from order. It should be here any minute!

-T
 
I found today that the next/prev track on the screen and the buttons on the back of the steering wheel act as the 15s forward and back for podcasts in Spotify.
 
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