Android Auto

If you have a car that supports Android Auto, HD+ will let you control your Hubitat devices from the car screen.

Requirements

  • To start, this feature requires a car that supports Android Auto and an Android device connected via USB or wirelessly

    • NOTE: There's something similar called Android Automotive or Android Auto OS.. this is when a car runs a full Android OS and can install apps which can be run without a connected phone.

    • I might look into supporting Android Auto OS in the future if there's enough demand

  • You'll also need the HD+ app. The production version can be found here but today you'll also need to subscribe to the beta version since I haven't released it to production yet.

    • Make sure you have version 1.0.1984 or greater

    • NOTE: Android Auto requires the app to be installed from Google Play so you won't be able to use the sideloaded apk version

Usage

  • First, make sure you can login to HD+ with your phone and that you have some devices displayed

  • Next, connect your phone to your car (USB or wirelessly)

  • You should see HD+ show up as an app. Open it!

  • By default, HD+ will only show device types that can be controlled or viewed in a car interface -- switches, lights, locks, doors, HSM, thermostats.

Configuration

  • Once your device has been connected to an Android Auto car, a new setting shows up in HD+ called "Android Auto". This lets you control what devices and what order they should display in.

  • To add or remove devices from the list, use the little red "+" button

  • You can also re-arrange devices by touching and dragging the little icon on the right side

Here's some other notes:

  • I'm only supporting (showing) devices that I can display in some way with the very limited options that I have. Generally speaking any kind of switch or sensor.

  • By default I'm showing all switches and sensor-type devices but you can configure it using the phone app

  • I don't handle every possible device type just yet. I started with the simple ones (lights, switches, valves, locks and similar)

  • I'll try to handle any other useful device type one by one.. for example, HSM lets you 'arm' or 'disarm'; The thermostat device type lets you send UP/DOWN commands

  • It'll continue to evolve.. my wife's car has Android Auto support but I don't so I won't be using it that often.. so feel free to give feedback or suggestions!

  • In order to use an app with Android Auto you must be using the Google Play version. This is something built-into Android Auto

Links

Future Plans

Google supports a 'tabbed' UI navigation but it's not available until V6 of the car API. I can't even test with it. But, I'll be ready to add it when it is.

Last updated