So I've been using smartlink with my iPhone 6 happily for 18 months until now...

 

I've just upgraded to a galaxy s8 and can't for life of me work out how the hell to use it, I expected it to just work right out of the box like iPhone do but it doesn't.

 

Firstly should I be using mirrorlink or android auto?

It seems to force me to use Samsung Car Mode but that won't let me access Spotify?

There is an app called android auto but it still kicks me back to Car Mode... I'm going round in circles and all I wanna do is get damn Spotify on the screen 

Yep, you'll need to use android auto on the handset and the head unit. The mirror link is a bit rubbish. You might need to go to "select device" on the head unit to pick your phone.

 

And obviously it needs to be connected via USB, as per your Apple Carplay.

 

cheers

 

sorted it... no idea how but it works now and thats all that matters

Is Smartlink activated on new Octavias now or does it have to be paid for?

3 hours ago, YMe said:

Is Smartlink activated on new Octavias now or does it have to be paid for?

Comes as standard. 

Plugged in my Motorola with Android Auto on it and everything worked straight away.

I ve just got a Karoq with smartlink+. Since i have a Samsung S8 i can only use CAR MODE (AA is not available in my country).

The problem is that although i select from the app (on the phone) Google maps to be my navigation app, when i connect it to the smartlink, the option does not appear in the apps.

Sygic does but not maps.

Any ideas of how to fix this?

My understanding is Samsung “Car Mode” works via Mirrorlink and I think by default Google Maps won’t work via Mirrorlink, instead an app like Sygic would usually  be used. I know in he past there have been hacks to get non Mirrorlink apps working via Mirrorlink but I’m not up to speed there.  

Edited 24 June, 20187 yr by uchuff

On 6/23/2018 at 23:48, fidelio said:

I ve just got a Karoq with smartlink+. Since i have a Samsung S8 i can only use CAR MODE (AA is not available in my country).

The problem is that although i select from the app (on the phone) Google maps to be my navigation app, when i connect it to the smartlink, the option does not appear in the apps.

Sygic does but not maps.

Any ideas of how to fix this?

 

You can sideload Android Auto even if it is not available on your country - just go to this link and download the latest APK that matches your phone architecture (most likely arm64)

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/android-auto/

 

You might have to change some security configs on the phone to allow installation of APKs from other sources than play store, but this is a safe download.

 

Cheers and enjoy AndroidAuto (waaaaaay better than Mirrolink crap...)

11 minutes ago, Jaco2k said:

 

You can sideload Android Auto even if it is not available on your country - just go to this link and download the latest APK that matches your phone architecture (most likely arm64)

https://www.apkmirror.com/apk/google-inc/android-auto/

 

You might have to change some security configs on the phone to allow installation of APKs from other sources than play store, but this is a safe download.

 

Cheers and enjoy AndroidAuto (waaaaaay better than Mirrolink crap...)

 

Thanks for the advice but i have already tried that. It seems to be an S8 issue, when i open the app (after successfull installation) i get an error message that " Google play services doesn't seem to be working at the moment". So back to 0 :(

59 minutes ago, fidelio said:

 

Thanks for the advice but i have already tried that. It seems to be an S8 issue, when i open the app (after successfull installation) i get an error message that " Google play services doesn't seem to be working at the moment". So back to 0 :(

 

Via the same link you can also grab the latest version of Google play services (if it doesn't match your installed one)

In the end, when i connected my phone to the car and chose android auto, the application worked!