Car Infotainment Integration for Sailfish OS (CarPlay / Android Auto Bridge)

Feature Requests
1

Today, most modern cars support Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard infotainment solutions. Unfortunately, Sailfish OS currently lacks a practical way to integrate with car head units, which limits daily usability for Sailfish users.

Jolla already has strong experience in the automotive space through Seafarix, which shows that the technology and know-how already exist in the Sailfish ecosystem. However, Seafarix is mainly targeted at OEMs, while Sailfish phone users still have no practical car integration option.

Proposed Solution

I would like to suggest that Jolla consider an official or community-supported hardware bridge device, similar in concept to products like Carlinkit:

  • Connects to the car via USB
  • Emulates a CarPlay or Android Auto client
  • Mirrors the Sailfish OS UI onto the car’s screen
    The idea is:

Use a small external hardware adapter that speaks the CarPlay / Android Auto protocol to the car, while streaming and controlling the Sailfish OS interface.

Why a Hardware Bridge Makes Sense

Such a solution would:

  • Not require any modification of the car
  • Work with most existing vehicles
  • Avoid dependence on car manufacturers
  • Allow reuse of existing Seafarix UI/UX and know-how
  • Open a realistic path for Sailfish OS to enter the in-car domain

Possible Technical Approach

At a high level, this could be achieved by:

  • Rendering the UI on the Sailfish device
  • Real-time H.264/H.265 encoding of the screen
  • Bi-directional control channel for touch, steering-wheel buttons, and audio
  • Using the bridge device to emulate CarPlay / Android Auto towards the car

Similar technical solutions already exist in the Android ecosystem, so this is not purely theoretical.

Why This Matters

A proper car integration solution would:

  • Greatly improve the daily usability of Sailfish OS
  • Make Sailfish more competitive as a mobile platform
  • Create new commercial and community opportunities
  • Allow Seafarix experience to benefit the wider Sailfish ecosystem

Conclusion

I hope Jolla would consider either:

  • Providing an official solution
  • Or publishing enough documentation to allow the community to build one
  • Or extending AppSupport to enable Android Auto–level functionality within Sailfish OS

Car infotainment integration has become a basic expectation for modern mobile platforms, and Sailfish OS deserves to have a strong position in this area.

This post was polished with the help of ChatGPT.

16 Likes
2

While I’m one of the people lucky enough not to own a car that needs either, it would be interesting to learn how CarPlay/AndroidAuto actually work and if it maybe could be somehow implemented without additional hardware.

This post was polished with the help of mk1 eyeballs.

4 Likes
3

Surely this is something to work on and I would look forward to have SFOS-Auto instead of Android Auto. Have you checked this thread and at bottom what Vige (from Jolla) posted?

4

It would be great but their Seafarix is mainly targeted at OEMs.

Can you point me? I can’t find what he said.

5
4 Likes
6

can someone explain the problem here to me - a person that drives a dacia with a bluetooth stereo that works fine with his SFOS 10iii?

are we saying that modern apple/android carplay/auto-bridge solutions won’t allow a SFOS phone to connect at all, or, simply won’t integrate fully with the cars entertainment system the way a apple/android phone will…

7

We can only use Bluetooth via sailfishos, no UI like Carplay/AndroidAuto via iOS/Android.

1 Like
8

Carplay and Android Auto allow for displaying on the car’s display the GUI some of the applications running on the phone - as well as interacting with them .
Ex, run a navigation app on the phone, have its GUI on the car’s headunit display, interact with by using car’s features (touch screen, steering wheel buttons, etc) and integrate with car audio (ie: mix voice instructions over car onboard audio etc). Its more comfortable and secure than a phone hanging there (IMO).
I’d like SFOS apps, like PureMaps, displayed on my car’s screen :slight_smile:

I think Seafarix intervene more on the headunit side. Still their expertise on the matter should help steering such an effort for SFOS phones (even though that’s a NDA over NDA world )

CarPlay seems more locked down than AA.
See this post from Vige for some AA details:
Sailfish phone usage in cars (like Android Auto or Car Play) - #5 by vige

4 Likes
9

@rtr2001 explains the features of Android Auto well, but there may be another reason why it may be required.

I have use of a 2024 Mercedes EQE, which i think may contain Seafarix technology in the MB.OS powering its multimedia setup - while I can’t find any reference to Seafarix in any of the licensing docs, there is an ability to run a select number of ‘apps’ (eg Spotify, Youtube, Tidal), once a subscription has been paid.

Sadly their OS only seems to allow media to be played from iPhone and Android devices, just the phonebook and calls work from Sailfish. I don’t think the vehicle has an audio jack input, all the ports seem to be Usb-c, through which audio doesn’t seem to be routed.

If more manufacturers drop the previously standard Bluetooth audio support, then something like Andriod Auto or CarPlay will become and essential requirement.

3 Likes
10

Kept your good „old” Dacia, newer ones have only Android-Auto/Apple-car and you’ll be lost with a SFOS device. Only calling via BT is possible, so like in any other modern car.

2 Likes
11

Yes we can but just BT (for calling functions), nothing else… .

12

If I could win the lottery, I think I would ask the manufacturer (Renault, in my case) to remove the Android system and, instead, either:

- install a Seafarix system

- or, if that’s too complicated, just a basic FM/Dab+ car radio with Bluetooth capability and one or two USB ports.

Everything else is superfluous to me! My Xperia 10iii smartphone, and soon my Jolla 2, are more than enough for me.

For GPS, I like the maps installed locally on my smartphone.

PureMaps + OSMScout Server would be more than enough for me, but unfortunately Rinigus is struggling to keep up with map updates and I don’t have enough skills to help him.

So, as a supplement, I use OSMand+.

I find these large screens dangerous when driving because they are too distracting. I like physical buttons and yellow headlights because they are more effective than the latest generation of LEDs, which dazzle you, especially when it rains, and are impossible to change yourself :wink:

Thanks to DeepL.com (free version) that help me to write this post.

1 Like
13

Out of curiosity.

Does anyone know how car manufacturers implement support for car play and android? AFAI understand it both solutions run on the phones.

How they “send“ the content to the car system? Is there a way to hack around this and use it on SFOS?

14

AFAIK it’s just steaming the phone screen as a video feed and presenting the screen events back to the phone.

15

are you saying that I won’t even be able to do a bluetooth connection to stream podcasts to the car stereo on a Duster 3?

16

Is there some sort of special “encoding” or security measures to this streaming.

If it is as simple as you describe it what stops someone from sending a SFOS stream on the screen?

17

Well, closed source for instance.

There is two parts, the car terminal (“Head” Unit) and the mobile device (“Client” unit iirc).

For the Head unit, see here, there is emulator available. So one would need to be able to make a client app for SFOS, which is compatible with this emulator. Then. maybe it could work on a real Android Auto.

This is based on rpi3.
But, then again, the Head part is all closed-source. So why bother?

18

Because someone capable enough wants to scratch an itch. :squinting_face_with_tongue:

We’ve seen all sort of reversed engineered projects by people. Hell, even google reversed engineered airdrop.

2 Likes
19

That’s true; then again the problem is on the phone; where most of the magic happens.
So a different compositor / layout for instance..plus, encoding and bluetooth / usb.

20

AFAIK (dilettant here):

  • they use either WiFi or USB for video
  • Bluetooth is used to initiate the connection, maybe negotiate further parameters and keys.
  • Video is streamed as a h264 stream.
  • Audio may pass through Bluetooth, with probably some signaling, so that the head unit can mix voice instructions over radio, for instance. I can’t rule out wifi/usb for wider bandwidth audio.
  • the car passes interaction events back(buttons, touch screen, etc) back - low bandwidth so could be Bluetooth