Set up the CarPlay & Android Auto extension

What this help article covers:

This help article explains how to show your audio app on your listeners' car screen, with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. You'll see how to install the extension, choose the content visible in the car, add an image to each section, set up search and the Android Auto accent color, then publish your apps.

Before you start:

• Your app is a Classic app published as a native iOS app, a native Android app, or both. The extension does not apply to the PWA.
• Your app has at least one Live or Podcasts section.
• For CarPlay, Apple must first grant you CarPlay audio access. Android Auto needs no prior approval. See Enable CarPlay and Android Auto for your native apps

Expected result:

Once the new version of your app is published, your listeners find your Live streams, your Podcasts and their Favorites on their car screen, and play them from that screen.

As soon as a listener connects their iPhone to CarPlay or their Android phone to Android Auto, your app appears on the car screen. It shows the audio content you made visible:

• Home: "Continue listening", to restart what the listener was playing, then your Live streams and your Podcasts.
• Live and Listen: these two tabs appear when your app has both Live streams and Podcasts.
• Library: the listener's favorites and downloaded episodes, playable offline. This tab appears if your Favorites section is visible in the car and at least one visible Podcasts section shows the favorite button.

Sections follow the order of your app's menu. Each list shows 12 items at most: for a Podcasts section, the 12 most recent episodes.

The player uses the settings of each section, for example the skip forward and back buttons and adding to favorites.

Good to know:

• A private section appears in the car only for users who can access it in the app.
• Subscriber-only episodes stay visible, with a padlock. A listener without a subscription who plays one sees a message asking them to sign in with a subscriber account in the app, once parked.
• The texts shown in the car ("Listen", "Continue listening", messages…) are translated and edited like the other texts of your app, in Settings > App Texts.
• CarPlay and Android Auto each display your content in their own way, and the result varies from car to car. You can't change the fonts or the background colors.

The extension is free, on Classic plans.

1. Go to the Extensions menu and look for CarPlay & Android Auto.
2. Click Add. You land on the extension's settings page.

The extension also turns on background audio in your apps, which playback on the car screen needs. In the Privacy Center, this permission is locked as long as the extension is installed.

1. Go to the menu Settings > CarPlay & Android Auto
2. In Content visible in the car, turn on the Visible switch of the sections to show, and turn off the others. Each change is saved right away.
3. Click Update to send your changes to your published apps.

The table lists the compatible sections: your Live sections (Live audio and Live +, not Live video), then your Podcasts sections, in menu order, then the Favorites section. A new Live or Podcasts section is visible by default. The Members only label marks a private section, restricted to some users.

The What your listeners will see diagram, on the right, shows the tabs and images used. It is an indicative diagram, not the actual rendering of CarPlay or Android Auto.

When your changes apply: when you first turn on the extension, your apps show nothing in the car until you publish a new version on the stores (see below). After that, for an app already published with the extension, a change arrives after Update, the next time the app is launched on the listener's phone, with no new store version. An app opened only from the car keeps the settings it had in memory. Only the Android Auto accent color needs a new version (see below).

No audio content visible? The alert "No audio content is shown in the car" appears at the top of the page, and the publishing checklist blocks your iOS and Android apps as long as no Live or Podcasts section is visible in the car. Make a section visible, click Create an audio section to add a Live or Podcasts section, or delete the extension.

Each Live and Podcasts section can have its own image in the car. It replaces the section icon in the lists, and serves as the Live image in the player. It shows only in the car, never on the phone.

1. On the section's row, click Add image.
2. Choose Upload an image to upload an image from your computer, or Select from library.
3. Adjust the square crop if needed.
4. Click Update.

To modify an image, click Change image: you can replace it, crop it or delete it.

Use a square image, 600 × 600 px, with its content centered. The Favorites section has no image: the page shows "No image needed". Without an image, the car shows the section icon.

These two settings are in the Android Auto only card: they don't apply to CarPlay.

Search

On Android Auto, listeners search for a Live stream, a podcast or an episode with the magnifying glass or by voice. CarPlay has no search.

• The Search switch turns on the magnifying glass and episode search. It is on by default.
• Search uses a Search section of your app, picked automatically: the first one in the menu whose Sound tab (or the name you gave it) is active and searches at least one Podcasts section visible in the car.
• If there is no such Search section, the page tells you: click Add a Search section, or turn on the Sound tab of your Search section and check a Podcasts section visible in the car.
• Voice always works ("Hey Google, play …"). With search turned off, it finds your Live streams and your Podcasts sections by their title, but not episodes.

After Update, a change applies the next time the app is launched on the phone, then the next time the car connects.

Accent color

In Android Auto, it colors the "Now playing" button, the round button that opens the audio player, and the badges of unplayed episodes. By default, it is your theme's main color. The Android Auto background stays black.

The color is built into the Android app when it is generated: a change appears only after you generate and submit a new version of your Android app on the Google Play Store.

CarPlay and Android Auto are built into your apps when they are generated: installing the extension therefore requires a new version of your apps on the App Store and on Google Play.

• iOS: your app shows in CarPlay only if the iOS profile (provisioning profile) sent before the build allows CarPlay. Without it, your iOS app is generated and published as usual, without CarPlay.
• Android: once the new version is published on Google Play, add the Android Auto form factor in your Google Play Console. Google then reviews your app before offering it in Android Auto.

The Availability block, at the top of the extension page, shows where you stand. Every step is detailed in Enable CarPlay and Android Auto for your native apps

1. Go to the Extensions menu >My extensions.
2. Delete the CarPlay & Android Auto extension, then confirm.
3. Click Update.

The next time they launch, your apps already published with the extension no longer show content in the car, only the message "No content is available at the moment.". At their next store update, they no longer appear in CarPlay or Android Auto. Your settings are kept if you reinstall the extension.