Head unit controlled by Android app?

[dstarr3]

Hello, all! I'm looking for a new head unit for my car, and I want something really specific, and I'm not sure if it exists. So, hopefully someone here can point me in the direction of something!

Basically, my end goal is having a head unit that I can plug a large flash drive into (128gb, likely) that contains all of my music. Which is a simple request. However, I then want to be able to control playback from an app on my phone (Android). Chiefly, browsing through albums or artists to find particular songs. So if I wanted to change albums, I would open the app on my phone, browse all the music on the flash drive, find the first track, and have it start playing.

I don't know if this exists, but if it does, I want it. I know Bluetooth streaming from my phone is an option, but that seems too cumbersome, considering I'll have to connect and disconnect and start and stop the playback all the time, not to mention the additional battery drain and perhaps drop in audio quality. I just... I don't think Bluetooth streaming is what I want. However, connecting to a head unit via Bluetooth to navigate the contents of a flash drive via app seems reasonable.

Let me know if this exists! Thank you!

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[hispls 5,000+ posts]

Sadly there's really nothing good that integrates with Android. There's simply too much variety of devices for it to be anything but a horror show for anyone to try it. There's only 6 iPhones now and even that's messy with integration with the apple-ready head units between different version phones. AFAIK Bluetooth shouldn't lose any signal quality if you have something that will let you stream music to your HU.

Also you'll find that the HUs that read thumb drives take a while to read the stick if you have too much on it. You'll get better performance if you stick to 16G and smaller sticks (and they're a ton cheaper). I use some 32's but only for audiobooks or other really large files... it seems to be the number of files can bog down the menu functions after a point.

 

[dstarr3]

Hmm. That's a bit of a shame then. What I'm used to is just plugging my iPod classic into the head unit via aux, but that's cumbersome as I need to have two cables coming out of the iPod, the aux cable and a charging cable (battery's giving up the ghost). And essentially, the iPod does what I want. It contains all my music, and acts as a handy remote for music selection. Problem is, Apple discontinued the Classic, so there's no iPod that can hold all my music at once (which is a priority). Since I'm getting a new head unit, I was hoping I could avoid having to remain dependent on my iPod that never leaves the car anyway. Maybe Bluetooth streaming isn't as cumbersome as I'm imagining, but I really like the idea of music that stops and starts automatically with my car, and I don't feel like Bluetooth streaming will do that.

 

[bradl79 10+ year member]

Pioneer AVH-4100NEX

 

[trumpet 5,000+ posts]

Maybe Bluetooth streaming isn't as cumbersome as I'm imagining, but I really like the idea of music that stops and starts automatically with my car, and I don't feel like Bluetooth streaming will do that.

This is very, very common. Get a name brand new model head unit and you will get your auto-resuming BT audio streaming.

 

[Seicane]

you'd better tell us your car model so that we can give you more useful informations //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[dstarr3]

I omitted that just so I'd get an idea of all the products out there, instead of just what works with my car. But, my car is pretty versatile besides. 1996 Camry.