EVMap not available in Android Auto when installed from F-Droid

[CubeOfCheese]

I just installed EVMap and tried to use it via android auto only to find it was not available as an android auto app.
I figured it was just not implemented yet but now I see that it is supposed to support android auto.

The only thing I can think of is I installed via fdroid instead of Google play. Could this have any effect on it appearing in android auto?

[johan12345]

Hi! Initially, Android Auto support was indeed only included in the Google Play version of the app. But since version 1.6.5, the functionality is in principle also available in the F-Droid version.

However, it seems that Android Auto itself is blocking apps that have been installed from "unknown sources". There are two possible workarounds that might help:

• Enable Android Auto developer options as described here and check the "Unknown sources" option there.
• Install the EVMap APK from F-Droid through ADB with these commands to make Android think it has been installed through the Play Store:

  adb push evmap.apk /data/local/tmp
  adb shell pm install -i "com.android.vending" -r /data/local/tmp/evmap.apk
  

But it seems that even with both of these workarounds, people are reporting problems with navigation apps, at least on newer Android versions. See e.g.:
GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker#3004 (comment)
osmandapp/OsmAnd#15400
osmandapp/OsmAnd#13514

Google also states in their developer documentation:

Important: Apps must meet the criteria listed in this page to qualify as an Android Auto or Android Automotive OS app on Google Play. Apps don't work with Android Auto unless they are installed from the Play Store or the ONE store.

So it seems this is intended behavior and there's not really anything that EVMap could do about it. 🙁

[johan12345]

closing as there's nothing we can do about Google's policies here