Android Auto wireless dongle - anyone use one and is it any good?

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Caporegime
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Warwickshire
Hi all

My 2018 car only supports wired Android Auto and I'd rather it was wireless, for convenience basically.

I've recently heard about dongles you can plug into the car that integrate with the factory system and then automatically connect wirelessly to your phone, giving you wireless integration even if not supported by the car.

Do people recommend them, or are they all buggy and more trouble than they're worth?

Thanks.
 
I can tell you in a few days :p

I've picked up an AAWireless dongle for my MG4 which I'm picking up tomorrow before going to see the family.

From what I've read that one at least seems pretty good, but we'll see...
 
It seemed like a bit of a rabbit hole the last few times I checked for devices - AAWireless did crop up but I think it was still in the initial funding stages. I've just pulled the trigger as they are sold through Amazon (discount applied at check out FYI for £68).

Hopefully this solves the issue I have in the Merc whereby it is super picky about cable and often freezes/crashes - I have presumed because of overheating due to error checking on the dodgy cable connection (either the Merc side, phone side, or cable side).
 
I tried one in my wife's 19 plate fiesta and it only worked correctly if you unplugged the dongke each time which she couldn't be bother to do so she sent it back. Once connected it worked fine. I assume it was some form of handshake issue as with a wired connection it is likely you won't leave a phone in the car so it naturally gets unplugged each time.
 
I have been using this in 2 Hyundia I10 with no problems at all. It is great as I can use Spotify and Waze or Google maps. I do not disconnect the dongle and leave plugged in.
 
Well, so far, the outcome has been... mixed.

I couldn't get it to connect at first, until I went through the troubleshooting steps within the AAWireless app (which are actually pretty good) and found I had to enable developer mode in Android Auto and then enable wireless projection in the developer settings.

After doing this it connected straight away, and Spotify and Waze both opened - all good. After doing this, so far it has connected automatically and flawlessly the 4-5 times I've tried it.

However, after the first time it started working I drove to the supermarket, and when I got back to the car and turned it back on, Android Auto connected fine, but my phone had no internet connection (it connects to the dongle via wi-fi, but of course the network has no internet as it's just a hotspot). I tried a couple of things, but no luck, so drove home again to do some more research. Found a few things to try, went back to the car earlier this evening, and *touch wood*, it all seems to be working, managed to get music streaming from both Spotify and DI.FM, and searches in Waze work.

Basically, looking promising, but I can't say for sure without testing it more for the rest of the week.

Hardware wise, I was impressed how small it is, I've managed to find the perfect spot to tuck it out of the way, so you don't even notice it's there.

My phone is a Huawei P30 pro, running Android 10, so I don't think AA wireless is actually officially supported (hence needing to enable it in the developer options), which may be partly to blame for the hassle - of course maybe this is the excuse I need to get a new phone? :cry:
 
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Haggisman said:
I drove to the supermarket, and when I got back to the car and turned it back on, Android Auto connected fine, but my phone had no internet connection (it connects to the dongle via wi-fi, but of course the network has no internet as it's just a hotspot)
Click to expand...
don't understand - if the phone can't connect to 4g/internet (for spotify, yt music ...) that's probably not the dongles fault - does phone work usually ?
(you suspect dongle comunication has caused problems with your 4g phone)
 
I have a Carsifi dongle, and really I don't have anything but praise for it. Bought it a couple of months ago, plugged it into the car's USB port, and then paired it with my phone, and I've rarely thought about it since - which I think says a lot about how seamless it's been. I get in the car, the phone connects and Android Auto comes up on the headunit. If you didn't know the dongle was plugged in, you'd just assume the car supported wireless AA from the factory. And the dongle itself is tiny, so it's easy to forget it's there. About the size of a matchbox, but thinner, and it was provided with sticky pads and a short USB cable. I have it mounted neatly in the cubby under the armrest, right next to the USB ports.

It comes with a companion app (not mandatory) which enables some advanced features. You can set adjust the DPI value which used to be useful for fooling AA into thinking my car's screen was bigger than it was, which in turn forced it to display in split screen - however, since Coolwalk, this isn't necessary anymore. There's also a feature to suppress the regular safety taps from being required, and the app will also allow firmware updates. The dongle also has a physical button which will allow you to switch between multiple AA phones connected to it (I haven't used this yet).

So far, no reliability issues. No disconnections, hangs, or failures to connect. No noticeable lag. Really, I am struggling to find any fault with it. The only "downside" I can think of is that it takes a little longer to connect than when plugged in with a physical cable. But even that is being really picky - we are talking maybe 10-15 seconds at most for AA to load. It's generally ready to go by the time I've got comfortable and have plugged my seatbelt in.
 
jpaul said:
don't understand - if the phone can't connect to 4g/internet (for spotify, yt music ...) that's probably not the dongles fault - does phone work usually ?
(you suspect dongle comunication has caused problems with your 4g phone)
Click to expand...
Android can be a bit funky sometimes with WiFi connections that have no internet. And depending on the user the funkiness can compound e.g. I often connect to WiFi networks without data such as my dash cam. It means there is a bit of clicking about sometimes to get the phone to act appropriately with the right network.

Edit: but yes, you're right. Just a quirk of WiFi networks that don't have internet goodness and Android phones.
 
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I want to get one of these but can they do both apple car play AND android auto wirelessly? We have a car that is shared among 3 drivers; 2 x android and 1 X iPhone. Is that asking for hassle?
Also what happens when android auto gets updated in the future and it breaks the devices protocol or something? Are you in the hands of the Chinese manufacturer of said device to update it? Coz that's potentially not gonna happen ever on some of these devices I would assume.
 
jaybee said:
I want to get one of these but can they do both apple car play AND android auto wirelessly? We have a car that is shared among 3 drivers; 2 x android and 1 X iPhone. Is that asking for hassle?
Also what happens when android auto gets updated in the future and it breaks the devices protocol or something? Are you in the hands of the Chinese manufacturer of said device to update it? Coz that's potentially not gonna happen ever on some of these devices I would assume.
Click to expand...
Carsifi only supports Android Auto. I'm guessing AA Wireless is the same.
As for future updates, who knows. The Carsifi dongle does allow for firmware updates via it's companion app, so you'd hope support will be there.
 
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jpaul said:
don't understand - if the phone can't connect to 4g/internet (for spotify, yt music ...) that's probably not the dongles fault - does phone work usually ?
(you suspect dongle comunication has caused problems with your 4g phone)
Click to expand...

The phone thinks it is connected to the internet via wi-fi, so it tries to use the internet via the wi-fi connection, apparently this has been fixed in later versions of Android, but because of the sanctions against Huawei (and the fact the P30 Pro is now a 4 year old phone), I don't believe my phone will ever actually get updated past Android 10 :/

Hit & miss again this morning - started the car and my phone wouldn't connect at all, but I was faffing around unplugging the car and putting the cable away, so might have just been because the phone wasn't actually in the car and so was too far away for a stable connection.

Dropped off the kids, and when I got back in the car it connected first time, no internet issues.
 
ok thanks

jaybee said:
I want to get one of these but can they do both apple car play AND android auto wirelessly?
Click to expand...
had watched below dongle comparisons off back of discussion, including dual device, but I'd want to check it is not compromised on lossless audio quality say

AAwireless one(teardowns) does look well engineered though, I assume is supports latest multi-panel Android Auto enhancements
 
jaybee said:
I want to get one of these but can they do both apple car play AND android auto wirelessly? We have a car that is shared among 3 drivers; 2 x android and 1 X iPhone. Is that asking for hassle?
Also what happens when android auto gets updated in the future and it breaks the devices protocol or something? Are you in the hands of the Chinese manufacturer of said device to update it? Coz that's potentially not gonna happen ever on some of these devices I would assume.
Click to expand...
I've been looking around for the same thing as me and the wife have Android/Apple.
They do exist but reviews seem to comment on the sound quality being a bit poor which has put me off getting one to try as that's the main thing I want the phone connected for.
 
dLockers said:
It seemed like a bit of a rabbit hole the last few times I checked for devices - AAWireless did crop up but I think it was still in the initial funding stages. I've just pulled the trigger as they are sold through Amazon (discount applied at check out FYI for £68).

Hopefully this solves the issue I have in the Merc whereby it is super picky about cable and often freezes/crashes - I have presumed because of overheating due to error checking on the dodgy cable connection (either the Merc side, phone side, or cable side).
Click to expand...

I gave my Carplay one to my mother in law for her GLA which was picky on cables and she's had no issues since.
 
tom_e said:
I've been looking around for the same thing as me and the wife have Android/Apple.
They do exist but reviews seem to comment on the sound quality being a bit poor which has put me off getting one to try as that's the main thing I want the phone connected for.
Click to expand...
That's a massive no for me if the SQ is compromised but then, it seems silly if it is. Surely the wireless connection should be perfect being so close and have more than enough bandwidth for even lossless stuff. Not sure I understand why that would be.
 
jaybee said:
That's a massive no for me if the SQ is compromised but then, it seems silly if it is. Surely the wireless connection should be perfect being so close and have more than enough bandwidth for even lossless stuff. Not sure I understand why that would be.
Click to expand...
I think some earlier Mercs had a thing where the Bluetooth audio codec was garbage compared to wired. Possibly the fact has become a myth...
 
Picked up my car today and initial impressions of the AAWireless are ok... Gonna be testing it much more over the next could have days.

Went through the first setup and it wasn't initially working but the troubleshooting in the app was really useful/easy and quickly got it working again. I also had the 'issue' that the car doesn't turn off the port power so it was staying connected but there's a 'start-stop' option seemingly based on BT connection that I enabled and seems to do the job for that but we'll see.
 
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