How To Add Apps To Weblink Pioneer

With the help of a modified app, we were able to open up AppRadio mirroring of the entire Android interface. Antuan Goodwin/CNET

The Pioneer AppRadio is one of our favorite car stereos thanks to its ability to display and control certain car-axial apps with its vii-inch touch screen in your dashboard. While the list of supported apps is long, it's far from all-inclusive. The AppRadio app on your smartphone powers the on-screen interface for the auto stereo and acts every bit the gatekeeper, deciding what apps on your phone can be displayed. Merely what if y'all want to utilise a navigation app that isn't on the supported list? If yous're an Android user and don't mind tinkering with your telephone's software, you're in luck.

AppRadio Unchained is a modified version of the default app that throws that gate broad open and (for ameliorate or worse) allows users to admission whatever app on the paired phone via the AppRadio's touch-screen controls, greatly increasing the usefulness and user-friendliness of this already dandy hardware.

Beware, here exist dragons: The steps described below involve installing modified software on your handset to unlock questionably legal and unsupported operation of the Pioneer AppRadio hardware. Do caution before proceeding at your own gamble.

Here'southward what you'll need:

A rooted Android device that is compatible with the AppRadio hardware
The Pioneer AppRadio 2 or AppRadio 3 hardware
AppRadio Unchained, a replacement for Pioneer's AppRadio app

Find the latest AppRadio Unchained beta release .apk from the developer's thread on the XDA Developers forum and download it to your phone.

AppRadio Unchained requires all of the same permissions as the stock AppRadio app, plus superuser permission on rooted phones. Screenshot past Antuan Goodwin/CNET

If you've already been using your AppRadio hardware as prescribed, yous probably already accept the standard AppRadio app installed on your phone, which you'll now demand to uninstall. In its identify, install AppRadio Unchained past launching the .apk file from your Downloads list. During the installation, you lot may exist prompted to enable installation from unknown sources. Y'all'll also be prompted to give the app superuser permission. AppRadio Unchained can't work its magic without that permission, so if your telephone isn't rooted (or if you have no idea what I'm talking nearly) but stop at present and reinstall the standard AppRadio app.

Once installed, launch AppRadio Unchained and follow the instructions. You lot'll run into that on the surface it looks and behaves identically to the stock app, and you lot'll exist prompted to download the Pioneer'southward Car Keyboard app (if it's not already installed) to enable touch-screen communication betwixt the phone and the in-nuance hardware.

The AppRadio Unchained interface is identical to the stock app, until you tap the Home button on the screen'southward edge. Screenshot by Antuan Goodwin/CNET

If you haven't already, pair your compatible handset with the AppRadio hardware via Bluetooth, then make the physical video connectedness via HDMI, MHL, or MirrorLink. Once again, just follow the instructions that came with your AppRadio for your detail handset. At present, just burn up the AppRadio hardware's mirroring as you usually would by pressing the Apps button on the receiver's main card. You'll be presented with the standard AppRadio interface with shortcuts to the launch and install the officially supported Android apps.

Yet, if you now tap the Domicile button on the screen's border, you'll be presented with your phone'southward habitation screen in a mural orientation, rather than the standard "unsupported video source" warning screen. From there, one may estimate that you'll then be able to pop into the app menu and launch, mirror, and command pretty much whatsoever app on your phone via the AppRadio's touch screen.

Running unsupported apps from a phone that's likewise not officially supported? What blasphemy is this!? Antuan Goodwin/CNET

Now, y'all'll exist able to utilise unsupported sound apps similar Spotify, Doggcatcher, or Aural. Unsupported navigation apps such as Google Maps Navigation, Lookout man, or CoPilot will be at your fingertips. I noticed that unsupported audio apps aren't able to prevent the screen from locking unlike officially supported ones, and so yous'll want to set your phone's screen timeout to "never" when connected to the AppRadio 3. Unsupported GPS apps aren't able to take advantage of the AppRadio'due south more accurate external GPS antenna and will take to rely on the phone's internal A-GPS receiver. However, installing the developer's ARUnchained GPS Injector companion app, which is available in the Google Play Store for nearly $7, fixes this last hiccup.

Now, I'one thousand able to launch, for case, a podcast player from the AppRadio's bear upon screen. Antuan Goodwin/CNET

Even so, considering this modernistic unlocks unrestricted app mirroring, you'll also be tempted to display Netflix videos, play Minecraft PE, or flick through your Twitter feed. Don't. At best, you're risking a ticket; at worst, yous're risking your life and the lives of others on the road. Wield this peachy power with dandy responsibility.