I've rented a Citroen C3** and the radio seems sufficient to launch
missile strikes on Iran, but all I want to do is look at google maps on
the car's screen. I can get a simplified version, no landmarks,
restaurants, gas stations, traffic, and when I do that, it says
expicityly I can't use google maps on the phone itself.

The manual, assuming I'm looking in the right part of the right one,
does mention Carplay and Mirrorlink. But there are 5 Android apps
calling themselves Mirrorlink. Which one is it?
Some are rather unpopular but none is very popular. Are they all
meant to fill the same niche with the same handshaking?
(Something made me tentativly reject Carplay, but that's a fallback
option, maybe.)

BTW, when I first plug the phone into the car, via a USB cable, it gave
a message, roughly, You cannot use blahblah****, but we are turning on
bluettooh, starting Android Auto, and connecting you. And that's what
go me google maps lite.

****Is this because it's truly incompatible, or only because I haven't
installed the software it wanted. I think there is agood chance it's
the second one. I already had Android Auto installed.

***This seems to be the manual, 440 pages!!!!
https://www.libble.eu/citroen-c3---2016/online-manual-802520/?page=331
The radio manual is separate and starts about page 250. But the rest of
the car is complicated too.

**There seems to be no way to tell what year the car is, but it's recent
because the radio is more complicated than a space ship. And Wikipedia
for Citroen C3 says based on the doors that it's 3rd generation, from
after 2016.

micky wrote:

> when I first plug the phone into the car, via a USB cable, it gave
> a message, roughly, You cannot use blahblah****, but we are turning on
> bluettooh, starting Android Auto

I think Android Auto installed on the phoine should be all you need (carplay is
for apples and mirrorlink should talk to android auto).

Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
> micky wrote:
>
> > when I first plug the phone into the car, via a USB cable, it gave
> > a message, roughly, You cannot use blahblah****, but we are turning on
> > bluettooh, starting Android Auto
>
> I think Android Auto installed on the phoine should be all you need (carplay is
> for apples and mirrorlink should talk to android auto).

I'm not sure about that - Mirrorlink is a car manufacturer's implementation
to do the same thing, ie a third option on top of Android Auto and Carplay.
I know there are different versions of Mirrorlink and you may need the
version matching what the car supports, and depends what support is in your
phone (Samsung previously had their own stack).

Last time I looked at this for 2016 Toyota which has 2013 radio firmware,
which needs Mirrorlink v1 that's only really supported by Samsung on the
Galaxy S4. Everyone later moved to Mirrorlink v2 which is supposedly
better, but doesn't work on that car. I concluded Mirrorlink was a waste of
time. In theory the radio could be upgraded to 2016 firmware, but
apparently the radio is a bit slow for that (and it's unclear if you can go
back).

I'd look for a Citroen forum where people have got it working, and they can
tell you what app you need. It may not be obvious or straightforward.

Theo

On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 09:24:36 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

>> when I first plug the phone into the car, via a USB cable, it gave
>> a message, roughly, You cannot use blahblah****, but we are turning on
>> bluettooh, starting Android Auto
>
> I think Android Auto installed on the phoine should be all you need (carplay is
> for apples and mirrorlink should talk to android auto).

I'll almost always defer to Andy's greater Android knowledge,
and especially in this case where I admit I am completely ignorant
of these "mirror link" apps that the OP is asking about.

Still, I can help a bit given I know how to search,
where all I did to add value (as always) was purposefully helpfully
run an Aurora search for a free, gsf-free, ad-free, google free app
using the keywords "mirror link."

> > But there are 5 Android apps calling themselves Mirrorlink.
> > Which one is it?

It is rude (more like uncaring) when people just give a name for an app,
so I sympathize with micky in that it was rude (or uncaring) of them to
just give him the name, since, on Android, _many_ apps have the same names.

That's why you'll see I'm _not_ rude or uncaring when I list apps by both
the name and I provide the URL to the app on Google Play, which is unique.

> Some are rather unpopular but none is very popular.

It shouldn't be hard to search for "popular" apps, as shown by how I do it.

I ran a default Aurora search for a free, gsf-free, ad-free, google free
app using the keywords "mirror link", just to see what shows up overall.

More than a page of apps showed up, so I upped the ante with a 4+ rating
& 100K+ downloads. Now only _one_ app showed up in the Aurora search results
but it was for a mirror, so I need to loosen to allow gsf-dependent apps.

As Andy has already advised, Android Auto popped up to the fore, so I'd
mirror Andy'd suggestion, but just in case more are needed, these exist
and are rated highly with many downloads and (always) no ads pop up.

Shown in the order presented to me by Aurora:
*Car Launcher Free*, by apps lab studio, rated 4.3
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.autolauncher.motorcar.free>
Unfortunately, that's just an app launcher designed for use in a car.

*AirDroid Cast* screen mirroring by Sand Studio, rated 4.3
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sand.aircast>
Unfortunately, this is to mirror to the PC.

*Agama Car Launcher* by altergames.ru rated 4.3
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=altergames.carlauncher>
Drat. It's a 30-day trial (that shouldn't have been in the search results.)
However, if micky is renting the car for less time than that, it may still
be useful as it purports to be for "multimedia control in your car."

*Mirror Lab*, by Llixa, rated 4.7
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ilixa.mirror>
This is a photo editor so it's useless for our purposes.

*Bluetooth GPS Output*, by Meowsbox, rated 4.2
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.meowsbox.btgps>
All this does is share your location to a nearby bluetooth device.

Of course, if I open up the filters, an avalanche of apps predictably result
but opening up the search is tantamount to running a search on Google Play.

Only an idiot does that.

Nonetheless, within that cavalcade of unfiltered results (which were still
filtered on being free and google free) here's an app called "exactly"
the "Mirror Link" name that was in micky's instruction set, if it helps.
*Mirror Link* by Flavapp (ad supported) rated 3.8
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mirror.link>
They even have "com.mirror.link" as the unique name, and they do what the
OP seems to want them to do, so "maybe" this is what the instructions were
referring to perhaps?

As always, every post to Usenet should strive to add on-content new value.
--
Ignorance is the direct result of the lack of ability to comprehend details.

Theo wrote:

> Mirrorlink is a car manufacturer's implementation
> to do the same thing, ie a third option on top of Android Auto and Carplay.

The citroen page claims mirrorlink should talk to android auto (or carplay).

<https://www.citroen.co.uk/about-citroen/mirror-screen.html>

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> I'll almost always defer to Andy's greater Android knowledge,
> and especially in this case where I admit I am completely ignorant
> of these "mirror link" apps that the OP is asking about.

I only know android auto from a single car manufacturer's PoV, it mostly works
for me, would be nice to have the wireless rather than USB version.

On Sat, 12 Feb 2022 15:26:38 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

> I only know android auto from a single car manufacturer's PoV, it mostly works
> for me, would be nice to have the wireless rather than USB version.

Well, I know even less than that, but I use each Usnenet thread to add to my
knowledge base, where I just looked up Android Auto and found, first this:
*Android Auto for phone screens* by Google LLC
<https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.projection.gearhead.phonescreen>

I tried to _understand_ what it does, but this first sentence confused me!
"This app lets you use Android Auto on your phone screen with a phone
running Android 10. If you have Android 10 and an Android Auto compatible'
car, you can project to your car display without downloading this app.
Simply plug in your phone to get started."

WTF?
Does that make any sense?
It's from Google so it must make sense, but it doesn't make sense to me yet.

Googling, the next hit is this:
*Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app*
*in favor of Google Assistant*
<https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/20/22633755/google-android-auto-for-phone-screens-shutting-down-android-12-google-assistant-driving-mode>
"Android 12 will mark the end of the stopgap app"

If that's correct, then it might not be worth all that much to learn what
Android Auto does, after all, is it?

Andy Burnelli wrote:

> *Google is shutting down its Android Auto mobile app*
> *in favor of Google Assistant*
> <https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/20/22633755/google-android-auto-for-phone-screens-shutting-down-android-12-google-assistant-driving-mode>
> "Android 12 will mark the end of the stopgap app"
>
> If that's correct, then it might not be worth all that much to learn what
> Android Auto does, after all, is it?

What they've ditched is the app that shows android auto on your phone's screen,
e.g. if you had a windscreen sucker mount for the phone, but what most people
think of now is where the phone "projects" android auto onto your car's
entertainment screen.

In comp.mobile.android, on Sat, 12 Feb 2022 15:26:38 +0000, Andy Burns
<usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

>Andy Burnelli wrote:
>
>> I'll almost always defer to Andy's greater Android knowledge,
>> and especially in this case where I admit I am completely ignorant
>> of these "mirror link" apps that the OP is asking about.
>
>I only know android auto from a single car manufacturer's PoV, it mostly works
>for me, would be nice to have the wireless rather than USB version.

In the Citroen manual I posted** it said that Carplay only connected via
wifi*** and Android auto only connected via cable.

And when I unplug the cable, the map on the screen disappears.

**at least for that year of Citroen (and the online manual doesn't give
specific year (except it has to be recent because the radio it describes
is so recent) and I don't know what year the car is. )

***I don't have an apple phone but I still wonder how one would connect
a phone and a car with wifi when my router is back in Baltimore. I
guess the phone can be made into a hotspot. I tried to go through all
the radio's options and I saw nothing about wifi.

In comp.mobile.android, on 12 Feb 2022 13:54:56 +0000 (GMT), Theo
<theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:

>Andy Burns <usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:
>> micky wrote:
>>
>> > when I first plug the phone into the car, via a USB cable, it gave
>> > a message, roughly, You cannot use blahblah****, but we are turning on
>> > bluettooh, starting Android Auto
>>
>> I think Android Auto installed on the phoine should be all you need (carplay is
>> for apples and mirrorlink should talk to android auto).
>
>I'm not sure about that - Mirrorlink is a car manufacturer's implementation
>to do the same thing, ie a third option on top of Android Auto and Carplay.

Well, I didn't run controlled experiments, and I wish I could, but it
seemed like both Android Auto and Mirrorlink were needed.

I would definitely try it with only one of these first, to get an idea
of what does what, and if both are needed.

But evenafter installing mirrorlink, I eventually saw (was it there
before?) the android auto trademark symbol on the bottom left row of
symbols, on the car.

I've made a lot of progress since 2 days ago.

I'm sorry that I can't reproduce the history now but I'll give the
status at least. I picked the version of Mirrorlink that had imo the
combination of most used, most liked and least disliked, and that was
the one by Boss,
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.connection.wireless.wirelessconnectortv

Now it will 'cast' google map, open map, spotify, tunein, C-span, about
18 things, all of which I have apps for. Of course I have somee apps
like utilities for which there is little or no use, and I didn't compare
my phone list with the screen list, but I did notice that map.me didn't
seem to appear on the car. (Of course maybe it was right in front of me
and I missed it.)

The problem continues that googlemaps on the car is an abridged version,
only the map. Not only does it not have museums, restaurants so you can
got to them or look at their webpage or call them on the phone, just
using it as a map makes those places worth having as landmarks. When you
see a football stadium on the left or even a gas station with a big
sign, it's easier than figuring out what the street map means, even when
the arrow shows your location, on the map. But if this is how it
works, so be it.

But then it continues to say explicitly that I can't use it on the phone
when using it on the car radio. So I switched to Open Map on the car
and then I did have all the benefits of google maps on the phone. Great
except OpenMap just isnt' as good imo.

And the last time I rented a car, 3 years ago, it came with a phone
magnet on an AC vent (two actually). I didn't know what it was for a
day or two. they had the Hertz logo, and I thought it was some kind of
advertising. When I figured out it was to hold the phone, I had no
metal in my phone to hold onto. But for dinner I had had a can of corn,
and I took the lid from that, bent it back and forth till it broke in
half (but it had no upturned lip when it did that, or I pounded it down
with a rock) and put that inside my case, and it worked well. Later I
added a second one on top of it because some big bumps had caused the
phone to fall off. I dont' think the second lid helped much.

This time I brought my own magnet, but it's damaged and I couldn't get
it on yet and the cupholder etc. are not good places where the phone can
be seen, largely because the car radio screen is so big it gets in the
way. I brought a suction cup thing also from 3 years ago, but I'd
forgotten that it never worked very well. I was reminded when a saw a
piece of plastic I'd put in around the tightening-lever to make it
tighter but it still isnt' tight enough, plus the car's console is not
meant to be smooth and is curve a bit in most places. Maybe I'll go
shopping for still another one.

>I know there are different versions of Mirrorlink and you may need the
>version matching what the car supports,

The citroen manual made no mention, but your suggestion of a forum is
good. Even though it's working pretty much now I will ask for advice
there.

>and depends what support is in your
>phone (Samsung previously had their own stack).

The A30 was cheap as phones go, and wasn't listed in the list of phones
the software works with but those lists dn't seem to be very thorough.
>
>Last time I looked at this for 2016 Toyota which has 2013 radio firmware,
>which needs Mirrorlink v1 that's only really supported by Samsung on the
>Galaxy S4. Everyone later moved to Mirrorlink v2 which is supposedly
>better, but doesn't work on that car. I concluded Mirrorlink was a waste of
>time. In theory the radio could be upgraded to 2016 firmware, but
>apparently the radio is a bit slow for that (and it's unclear if you can go
>back).

I don't think Hertz wants me upgrading their radio's firmware!

I was unnerved that the car kept stalling and I kept restarting it,
putting it in neutral, turning the key off, putting in the 4-digit
anti-theft code, while the car behind me is waiting, until I noticed by
accident that if I pressed the gas after the car stalled, it started by
itself!! They didn't warn me about that. I turned that feature off, I
think, on the radio, but i think it still does it, and I know it bumps
like it's lurching sometimes. Havent' figured out when yet or why.
Plus the gas doesn't make it move at first, but the brakes are so
powerfl the laptop bag went off the pass. seat onto the flor once. The
laptop was not hurt. (Actual laptop bag with padding, maybe that helped.
Bought at hamfest for $5. Later at a yard sale someone practically
begged me to buy an identical one for $1 or 2. So now I have two.) This
laptop is bigger than the one that overheats and I coudl not disassemble
it enough to replace the fan, and this new one barely fits it the bag.
A half-inch longer and it wouldn't fit. I didn't know this until the day
before the plane left. I'm lucky it fits.

Well, I've strayed from the topic.

>I'd look for a Citroen forum where people have got it working, and they can
>tell you what app you need. It may not be obvious or straightforward.

I wouldn't be surprised.

>Theo

Thanks Theo and Andy and Andy.

In article <qs2h0h5v8dp552bk1uffifjvq0ivlkd1p0@4ax.com>, micky
<NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:

> In the Citroen manual I posted** it said that Carplay only connected via
> wifi*** and Android auto only connected via cable.
>
> And when I unplug the cable, the map on the screen disappears.
>
> **at least for that year of Citroen (and the online manual doesn't give
> specific year (except it has to be recent because the radio it describes
> is so recent) and I don't know what year the car is. )
>
> ***I don't have an apple phone but I still wonder how one would connect
> a phone and a car with wifi when my router is back in Baltimore. I
> guess the phone can be made into a hotspot. I tried to go through all
> the radio's options and I saw nothing about wifi.

the wireless versions of carplay and android auto use bluetooth & wifi
directly between the phone and vehicle, no router or hotspot needed.

micky wrote:

> In the Citroen manual I posted** it said that Carplay only connected via
> wifi*** and Android auto only connected via cable.
> And when I unplug the cable, the map on the screen disappears.

True on my Audi too, but newer models have Wireless Android Auto.

In comp.mobile.android, on Sun, 13 Feb 2022 10:22:14 +0000, Andy Burns
<usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

>micky wrote:
>
>> In the Citroen manual I posted** it said that Carplay only connected via
>> wifi*** and Android auto only connected via cable.
>> And when I unplug the cable, the map on the screen disappears.
>
>True on my Audi too, but newer models have Wireless Android Auto.

I still have a lot of the manual to read. It's 450 pages. And it's
bound to be older than the car, because I noticed this afternoon that
the car has only 9000 miles on it. And it's a rental car and a lot of
the time people who rent cars want to get their money's worth. I think
it's 2022 or 2021.

You're in the UK.. American cars used to emboss the 2 final digits of
the model year in the taillight lens. I don't think they still do that,
I wish they did. I don't think non-US cars ever did. Even if they
don't change lenses every year, it would be close,

micky wrote:

> I still have a lot of the manual to read. It's 450 pages.

You read the manual for a car you're renting? I've not read much of mine since
I bought it.
> You're in the UK.. American cars used to emboss the 2 final digits of
> the model year in the taillight lens. I don't think they still do that,
> I wish they did. I don't think non-US cars ever did. Even if they
> don't change lenses every year, it would be close,

Have never noticed years on light clusters, I'd say we have less emphasis on the
model year of cars over here.

On Tue, 15 Feb 2022 16:22:47 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

>> You're in the UK.. American cars used to emboss the 2 final digits of
>> the model year in the taillight lens. I don't think they still do that,
>> I wish they did. I don't think non-US cars ever did. Even if they
>> don't change lenses every year, it would be close,
>
> Have never noticed years on light clusters, I'd say we have less emphasis on the
> model year of cars over here.

In the USA, unless the exterior safety-related lights are all replaced, the
permanently stamped markings would never be later than the year the vehicle
was manufactured, so, as far as I know, any date is only a starting point.
<https://www.city-data.com/forum/automotive/142645-anyone-else-remembern-when-you-could.html>

BTW, I just recently went through a California certification process for a
rebuilt vehicle which must meet all federal and state current brake and
exterior light rules before the DMV will title the rebuilt vehicle.
<https://www.cvse.ca/vehicle_inspections/PDF/2009_Vehicle_Lighting_Protocol.pdf>
"Lights and reflectors meeting the U.S. SAE/DOT regulations,
the European ECE regulations, or the Japanese JIS/JASIC regulations
are allowed."

Note: Truck requirements are even more stringent:
<https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/393.11>

The lights need to meet DOT safety standards, the proof being they're
_permanently_ stamped with the standards they meet as explained here:
<http://www.carlightings.com/What-is-DOT-SAE_ep_42.html>
--
Every post to Usenet should strive to add unique technical value.

In comp.mobile.android, on Tue, 15 Feb 2022 16:22:47 +0000, Andy Burns
<usenet@andyburns.uk> wrote:

>micky wrote:
>
>> I still have a lot of the manual to read. It's 450 pages.
>
>You read the manual for a car you're renting? I've not read much of mine since
>I bought it.

LOL. I read the parts I need to understand. I've done this for at least
3 other cars, although maybe one of those I couldn't find an online
manual.

The car radio has gotten far more complicated. I don't khow how to
lock the doors from inside. The remote I guess, but i"m used to their
being a buttton. (In my last two cars the remote won't work if the car
is running.)

Whether the seat reclines, and this time, how.

How to turn off Stop and Start (I found it myself and I've turned it off
3 times. Twice it rstored itself, probably when I restarted the car
(maybe they have it set up that way for a rental. It doesnt' change
back from Miles to KM each time I start the car.) but maybe I can stop
that from changing back. Probably not.

Where is the AUX port. Just where I thought it would be, btween the
cig lighter and the USB port, but it's not there on this car.

What does the 3rd stalk on the steering column do?

What do all those strange symbols on the stalk and the speedo window
mean.

What exactly do the buttons on the streering wheel do (I figrured out
volume and I haven't tried the rest, but it's quicker to read about
them.)

>> You're in the UK.. American cars used to emboss the 2 final digits of
>> the model year in the taillight lens. I don't think they still do that,
>> I wish they did. I don't think non-US cars ever did. Even if they
>> don't change lenses every year, it would be close,
>
>Have never noticed years on light clusters, I'd say we have less emphasis on the
>model year of cars over here.

Yes, I'm sure. 20 years ago a proper person bought a new car every
year. Or 30.

Now to improve mileage, they look the same every year, every make and
every model almost. But that's no reason not to buy a new one every
year. I own a 2005. I'm waiting for my year.