Creating a 3rd party android automotive application - android

I am looking to create a 3rd party android automotive of our currently existing android mobile application. The application will not be listed on the play store it is just for internal use. The issue that I am facing is that the SDK is limited and it seems that I can only create applications from a set of templates (Navigation, Media, Messaging). My mobile application uses its own custom map and functionalities. I checked that people used to create 3rd party apps before but google revoked access to this 3rd party sdk and that I have to ask google for access.
Can I make any apps for Android Auto?
Also, by going through the docs it's stated here "In order for your app to run on a real head unit (not the desktop head unit we provide), your app must be distributed through the Google Play Store."https://developer.android.com/training/cars/apps/auto#car-head-unit
If anyone can shed light on this whether custom apps are possible now for Android Auto and whether we have to go through the play store in order to use the app in a real head unit.

There are some issues with the wording of this question, so let's first clarify the differences between Android Auto and Android Automotive.
Android Auto is basically the projected mode. This means apps run on your phone and show on the head unit display (assuming your phone is connected to the car head unit).
Android Automotive is referred to the embedded mode. It is actually Android running as an independent OS in the head unit of the car.
So, with this in mind:
if you want to add support for Android Auto to your existing app, you can do so by using the androidx.car.app library. It provides you with some templates to build the UI/UX. This is the only way to get your app published on Google Play and distribute to other users. Even if you don't want to distribute the app on Google Play, I believe using templates is the only way to build an Android Auto app at the moment.
If what you want is to target Android Automotive, I bet you can run your current mobile app in the Android Automotive emulator. Again, here the only way to publish your app on Google Play is by relying on androidx.car.app. If you build your own UI without using those templates, your only possibility at the time of writing is to distribute it via third party app stores (or convince Google, ;p).

Related

How best to deploy android apps and allow updates

We have an android app all ready to go to our customer however it cant be installed on the google play store cause it is a corporate app,so what are my options to enable remote updates to the apk file obv I can enable developer mode on the devices but as its only two handsets do we need to go to the expense of a provisioning tool what do other people do in relation to this.
We are developing in xamrian forms but I guess this is a general Android question as well.
You can try out Hockey app by Microsoft for internal distribution.

Is there any Android app in Play Store that supports the dynamic delivery feature?

I want to develop an android app that supports dynamic delivery feature. Although this feature was announced last year, it's still on beta and I couldn't find any real app that uses this technology. Does anybody know any real android app on Play Store that has an on-demand module?
There are lots of news about app bundle, but it's limited to CPU architecture, the display density, and the languages.
Previously developers used to to build multiple APKs to target different API versions & device types.
But with Android App Bundle I just upload the single artifact with all of our application resources and the tooling takes care of what needs to be built and delivered to the app user base. I was able to reduce app size by nearly between 60% to 70%.
Nowadays many famous apps like Airbnb , LinkedIn, Twitter use dynamic app delivery for its users.
Have a look at this amazing post on Dynamic App Delivery by Joe Birch
Android developer guide on Dynamic App Delivery
How to use App Bundles to reduce the size of the app
Google Samples Android Dynamic Feature Modules
There are some apps using dynamic features, including some big names you'd recognize, but I'm not sure they have been publicly announced yet. I'd keep an eye on the press around Google I/O 2019 if you are curious, it's only a month away.
It seems Netflix app has a dynamic-feature module. Its customer service feature is a dynamic module that is not installed by default. By clicking on the "Help" button, it will download and install the customer service module.
I've heard that Facebook has a dynamic module but I didn't check that myself. I will update this answer if I found any other apps that have dynamic modules.
Adobe Acrobat also supports that: https://developer.android.com/stories/apps/adobe-app-bundle

Multiple Android application install from Google Play

I have two different Android mobile application. One is already developed and One I am developing. Now what I want Whenever anyone wants to install my developed application from the Google Play than both the application should be Installed.
Please suggest how it will be possible.
You would have to acquire Alphabet (Google's parent company), then order the developers of the Play Store to add this capability. Otherwise, what you want is not supported.
If you want all of this functionality to be installed, put it in one app, not two.

Android app without instalation?

Last time I've heard about running android app without installing it.
Like "demo app" or something like that.
What doest it mean?
Generally you have to go to Google Play in order to install the app and run it.
It isn't via a browser, because you can supposedly use the android app functions
Instant Apps are the next step in app evolution, a universal Android solution that brings the speed and power of a native app with the ease and immediacy of a web app. They look and operate just like one of the apps that are installed on your phone, but you don’t need to download anything.
Android Instant Apps allow you to use native Android apps in a form that doesn’t even require installing. Which means the users get to experience interactive and smooth interfaces with the tap of a finger.
Note: Android Instant Apps only work on Android devices running on Android 5.0 (API level 21) or higher.
For further info about instant apps you can refer to following link
https://developer.android.com/topic/instant-apps/overview.html#apps-features
An instant app is a portion of your app that will be executed in response to an Url. This was introduced by Google year.
Google play store will download the code necessary to execute the task it is supposed to and it will dispose of the code after the user is done.
You would create an Instant apps if you mean to provide specific feature of your app that does not require the user to download the full app. Ex: watch a video on vimeo by clicking a link on social media
This apps are built using the same process you would use to develop a regular android app but instead of developing all of the features in the same module you divide the features in different modules.
This modules should be very small and have a size limit of 4MB.
Instant apps are currently limited to a few countries, so if you are thinking of developing one and putting in production check the link below for this information and others documents on how to get started.
https://developer.android.com/topic/instant-apps/overview.html
It's Instant App.
Here you have Google documentation

Is Android Instant App different from app streaming?

As from Google I/O 2016 key note, Google has Introduced Android Instant Apps
This is pretty clear from the description that it is going to be possible to download a part of application (that is stream?) when it will be out for the developers to try it.
Couple of posts like This one quotes about Instant Apps :
While this is different from Google's efforts to do app streaming inside search, it's in the same spirit — and gives Google similar access to previously walled-off data inside apps.
I am wondering how it is different from app streaming if the app is going to be installed partially with Android Instant Apps?
Any additional information about this new leap in android development will be helpful.
A module of the app gets downloaded inside a sandbox. As the user navigates to the boundaries of the app more app modules will be downloaded. You as a developer will need to determine when to prompt the user to download the full app. Note that the app state inside the sandbox will not automatically be transferred over when the user downloads the full app. Furthermore, whilst the instant app module(s) will be cached inside the sandbox there is no guaranteed persistence.
Android Instant Apps enables native Android applications to run in response to launching a URL, without installing the app. Instant apps can use many Android APIs and you use Android Studio to build them.
How do they work? When Google Play receives a request for a URL that matches an instant app, it sends the necessary code files to the Android device that sent the request. The device then runs the app.
Note: Android Instant Apps only work on Android devices running on Android 5.0 (API level 21) or higher.
Reference Android Instant Apps

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