The VideoLAN Forums

I'm having a few problems with running VLC Player as an Android Auto app on my Samsung Galaxy 8+.

1) When I exit Android Auto the app closes and has to be reopened again manually when Android Auto is relaunched. My other Audio App, Audible, doesn't do this, it returns to exactly the same state that it was in when Android Auto was closed.

2) In addition, I have to renavigate to the MP3 file that I was playing when Android Auto was closed.

3) I then have to listen to the entire file from the beginning because there's no forward or rewind feature in the app that I can find.

4) If I scroll too fast in step #2 I get this annoying "Focus on the Road" reminder that locks touch for a few seconds EVEN THOUGH MY CAR ISN'T MOVING AND IS STATIONARY.
(Why people, why? This is madness!)

5) I have to manually refresh the file list using the standard VLC Player app if newly added files don't show up or deleted ones don't disappear. Of course, this requires exiting Android Auto thus setting the entire frustrating process from step #1 into motion again.

I can see a lot of potential for VLC Player to be a really great MP3 player for Android Auto. However, in its current form, it's really pretty bad.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you.

I reproduce 1), I'll investigate, it is not supposed to act like this.

2. That's normal, this is not the same UI/browsing service.

3. Right, we did not anticipate some drivers would want to search in their tracks. Maybe relevant for podcasts.

4. This is Android Auto feature, not VLC. It's annoying for us too, it's trigger on the emulator thus we are not driving while developing...

5. How do you add files while still in Android Auto?

To add to number 4, Android Auto is unable to tell whether your car is actually moving or stationary. How it actually tries to determine this is by the parking brake. Essentially, if the parking brake is off, it assumes the car is moving; but if the parking brake is on, it assumes that the car is stationary, and removes these limitations. (As another example, Google Maps will actually let you search using an on-screen keyboard instead of by voice as long as the parking brake is on.)

I cannot figure out how to use voice commands to control VLC. Anything reasonable (at least to me) results in Google Play Music getting invoked, even if VLC is my selected media app. If I say something like "VLC play <artist's name>" Google Assistant doesn't know what to do. I am reduced to using the car's touchscreen to get anything to work, but that capability is limited while the car is in motion.

Does anyone have a list of VLC commands that Google Assistant will recognize?

TIA