TIDAL Now Works On Android Auto

Roon Software Discussion TIDAL
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Ok, so this is not about TIDAL on ROON, and it is specific to those who have an Android phone AND use Android Auto…whew, that is a specific group…but…Real Nice!

I was on the fence about continuing to pay for TIDAL, as I was juggling playlists that I created in Google Play Music for the car and TIDAL ones that created just for ROON. I had seen discussions elsewhere wishing that TIDAL would add Android Auto capability, and it seemed (at least wherever I saw it) that TIDAL was not interetested.

I got an update to TIDAL last night, and I checked what was new, hoping, but doubting, that Android Auto would be added, and to my shock it was! Searching today I see that it was announced yesterday.

Anyway, I thought I would share this with my fellow ROONies in case those of you intrerested may have missed it.

2 Likes
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Have you had a chance to try it in the car yet?
I am doing 8+ hours in the car over the weekend so will be able to test it… perhaps too much!

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Yup, gave it a try this morning. Under “Playlists” was a recent playlist I created, played no problem.

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I spoke to soon. TIDAL works with android auto, but not very well. Every time you get back in the car it starts whatever track you were listening to from the beginning. Weak.

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Mine has picked up a bug. Half the time now it only shows the google apps.

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I’m very excited about being able to use Tidal in my car. Makes the subscription cost much more valuable. I just tried it today for only 20 minutes on my ride home from work. Saw my saved album list, selected an old John Prine album that I had recently added via Roon in my home, and it sounded very nice. I have the phone app set to stream at 320 kb/s and it worked perfect for the small amount of time I used it. I like that I can stream the music; do not have to download songs to the phone. MUCH better sound quality than Sirius Satellite Radio (which I find SQ is too low for my music enjoyment). Even though I do not drive a lot, I think I’m going to love this. Hopefully any software bugs get resolved in reasonable time.

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For anyone that doesnt have CarPlay there’s also a good alternative that I use in the car.

I have an Android tablet magnetically mounted infront of my car headunit via a CD slot magnetic mount.
I run a program called AutoMate on a 10" Android tablet that is setup in hotspot mode.

Whenever I jump in the car, I cast via chromecast audio to a line in on my headunit (neatly hidden away in the center arm rest) The Chromecast audio is paired with the tablet so automatically joins the hotspot and I have a shortcut App setup to start casting.

I’ve already asked the developer of AutoMate to add support for Roon that they’ll do on the next release. I asked for them to add JRemote support that they added about 4 weeks after I asked which is pretty good!

The AutoMate interface is similar to Android Auto but it has a lot more options and flexibility.
The best part is the support for swipe for track skip. I have it setup this way because my phone is setup for Bluetooth to make calls and the headunit automatically switches between Phone Bluetooth and the line in and back again. (line in has the chromecast attached)

I use it for Tidal, Spotify and JRemote. I guess one day I will switch to Roon as my main audio player in the car if they start supporting offline files and remote playback.

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Thanks for the head’s up on this. I had almost given up…

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Hi @Hilton_Kelly -
Thanks for the the idea, but I think I must have misunderstood. How is what you’re doing different than connecting the headphone-out from your tablet to the line-in in your car?

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@Kenneth_Price
Thanks for passing that along! Do you have to do anything special to get your TIDAL content to appear in Android Auto?

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Click the headphone button at the bottom of the screen and usually your default music app will open, then you may have to click it again and you will get a list of apps that play audio and work in Android auto.

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Yup, it works. Thanks!