UnknownAuto

An open, offline tool that lets a self‑built or sideloaded Android Auto app actually run in the car. It installs an APK the way Android Auto requires — as if it came from Google Play — entirely on the phone, no computer. No internet, no account, no payment, no analytics. A free, open alternative to the proprietary AA Enabler.

Why it's needed Android Auto won't run an app built with its Car App Library unless Android thinks the app was installed from Google Play. The developer "Unknown sources" switch doesn't change that. A normal sideload — adb install, a file manager, or Shizuku — is recorded as not from Play, so Android Auto quietly refuses the app. UnknownAuto fixes that record so the car accepts it

How it works Android remembers who installed each app, and that "installed from Google Play" mark can only be set when the app is installed — you can't change it afterwards, and a plain sideload can't set it at all.

UnknownAuto uses Shizuku — which runs with the phone's "shell" privileges, the same ones a connected computer's adb has — to drive Android's own package installer and mark the install as coming from Google Play. The car then treats it as a real Play install. It's the same trick the proprietary AA Enabler uses, done openly and for free.

Some Android 17 builds do it the other way round: they keep the mark only when UnknownAuto starts the installer itself. When an install comes out without the mark, UnknownAuto tries once more the other way (one more tap on Update) and remembers which way works on that phone. Start Shizuku so both ways are available.

If the install doesn't go through at all, for example a newer version or one signed with another key is already installed, UnknownAuto says so, and Show details includes the installer's own log lines, which is the most useful thing to paste into an issue.