Tapping into Android Auto

I just recently got into a '21 trd off road coming from a '17 sr5. One nice upgrade is that I now have android auto (AA) in the car when I plug into the USB. The only bad thing is that it makes the already tight center console area, tighter with a wire hanging out and then your phone sitting in one of the cup holders.

I have a ram mount system and tapped into the cigarette lighter and ran it behind my head unit in my sr5 and I just had a wire hanging out on the top to charge my phone. It was a very clean set up, and I'd like to have that setup again but be able to use AA at the same time. Is there a way to tap into AA and still have the clean set up?

 

With Android Auto and CarPlay, why do you need to have our phone up in our face? Just plug it in and toss it out of sight/out of the way. Having everything run through our head unit is kind of the purpose of these apps.

 

It's where I like to put it, but I have bought another arm to drop it down a little more. But it gives me a spot where I know my phone will be easy to grab/place every time. I also like the benefit of having a cleaner center console (wires, phones, glasses, keys, etc.) so I can use both bottle holders.

 

Solution: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2020-trd-sport-media-usb-relocate-non-jbl.719577/#post-28545593

 

I just run the cord along the console, under the parking brake lever, through the notch under the armrest , and toss my phone in the bin. Clean enough.

 

I just went with the wireless dongle solution and a small strip of VHB tape. AA connects automatically on start, phone stays in my pocket and no cables to mess with. If I am on a long trip, I just have a separate charging cable from the center console for that.

 

When y'all are wired into Android Auto, do notifications appear? Mine will not and I haven't been able to figure out what's going on.

 

Initial setup, once you plug the USB cable, you will get a notification in your drawer telling you to continue setup through screen. At that point if you just press "MAP" on the nav it should just work.

If for some reason it's being iffy, go to your Android Settings > in search bar type "Android Auto" and find the Android Auto settings. I believe first or second item in that list is all vehicles your phone has been connected to. You can attempt to delete the car and re-add it to see if that solves the problem. I do remember receiving a request to allow messages/contacts to be read by the Tacoma and I accepted that.

For the wireless route, its the same steps except at the very beginning, you need to manually connect to the dongle via bluetooth, but once that's done, its more or less the same procedure. Afterwards it should just work. Set it and forget it type deal. Hope this helps!

 

Thanks!

Everything works perfectly wirelessly via bluetooth, but for some reason when plugged into AA everything works (including phone calls and sending messages via voice text) but new incoming messages don't show up at all. I'll try re-pairing the phone and seeing what happens.

 

The only other thing I can think of is making sure the Notifications are turned on in AA:

 

Had some time today and figured it out.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/android-auto-not-alerting-new-messages.783345/