Brian5647andClaude Opus 5.5
6156da4b67
Car apps are now bound as a foreground service, so they keep network access when Gearslip isn't the top app on the phone. Before, an app bound in the background could lose network under Doze: its map and GPS kept working while search and routing went dead. The app surface is also recreated whenever the map area changes size, the way Android Auto does it, instead of being resized in place. Apps that draw through their own VirtualDisplay rebuild it on the reused surface, and the old display's teardown then cuts the new one off, freezing the map for good. Found with Flitsmeister after picking a route. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Gearslip
Bring any app to your car screen.
What Gearslip is
Gearslip is an Android Auto client for the phone. It speaks the Android Auto protocol directly to a car head unit over USB, with no Google software in the path. Gearslip acts as a Car App Library host: an app that ships a car interface hands Gearslip a template, and Gearslip renders that template natively on the car screen. Nothing is mirrored from the phone. For apps without a car interface, Gearslip offers a separate screen-sharing mode.
Features
- Phone calls. Dial from a keypad, or search your contacts, then confirm before the call goes out.
- Navigation. Gearslip hosts real Car App Library map apps on the car screen; Organic Maps and OsmAnd both work today.
- Music. Browse, play, and queue tracks from a car-enabled media app, with a Now Playing view, an Up Next queue, and lyrics.
- The web. A browser template with its own on-screen keyboard, for anything that doesn't ship a car interface of its own.
- Weather and the day ahead. A dashboard screen shows the week's calendar next to the current and coming weather.
- Notifications. Read and reply to notifications from the car screen, using the same on-screen keyboard.
Status
- The connection is wired only, for now. Plug the phone into the head unit's USB port; Gearslip does not yet offer a wireless option.
- Setup walks you through it. First launch asks for the Android Auto certificate, then one permission at a time, each with a plain reason and an Allow or Skip. A help screen inside the car answers anything setup didn't cover.
- Templated apps work. Gearslip renders all 16 template types that the Car App Library defines, and it draws its own keyboard for search, sign-in, and text fields. It has been tested against several real navigation and media apps.
- Gearslip works with LIVI, LIVI, used in open source car dashboards, is fully supported by Gearslip.
- Audio reaches the car by capturing playback, not by mirroring the screen. Android requires a screen-share style consent dialog and indicator for this, even though Gearslip never reads the screen; that grant is the only way a non-privileged app can tap another app's audio. The consent normally repeats every drive; two optional adb commands in the setup guide reduce it to a one-time grant.
- Gearslip needs no adb, root, or Shizuku. Every feature relies on an ordinary Android permission or an on-device consent dialog. The two adb commands mentioned above, for audio, are the sole exception: both are optional, and both only remove a dialog that the driver would otherwise see once per drive.
Building
./gradlew :gearslip:assembleDebug
The APK lands at build/Gearslip-debug.apk.
A release build needs a signing key. Copy keystore.properties.example to
keystore.properties, fill in your own values, and run
./gradlew :gearslip:assembleRelease. Git ignores both the properties file and the
keystore. Without them, the debug build still works.
Writing apps for Gearslip
docs/BUILDING_APPS.md specifies how to write apps that Gearslip can render: templated apps, media apps, and the Gearslip app protocol.
License
Gearslip is licensed under AGPL-3.0; see LICENSE. The author offers a separate commercial license for private use outside the AGPL's terms; see NOTICE.md.