Hey guys, Getting our new Mini S next week sometime and decided to check on connectivity and applications which may differ from the 2015 MCS I owned before.

Best I can tell from reading is MINI and BMW ignore Android users and only support Apple (which is a shame considering many other companies support both).

I am not part of the Apple "herd" mentality, so I am firmly in the Android camp. Can any Android users who have a 2018/2019 MCS give me a quick rundown of what I can expect when I pair my phone to the car?

Are there any apps like Spotify that are built into the car that I can access from the center stack to play music (or are all those icons I see in pictures and videos) just for Apple?

I've read that BMW (and I assume Mini by default) will support Amazon Alexia (articles stating so go back to 2017).. Does it? We have Echos and Dots at home and find them useful for music, podcasts and other streaming options.

Interested in getting access to thing like my music on Amazon or Spotify from the center stack by Idrive/touch screen or by voice rather than fiddling w/ a cell phone to stream via Blue Tooth.

Amazed that there is so little information that covers this online for Android..

I saw that Mini/BMW offers connected apps for android, but these appear to extremely limited in their focus and are associated with vehicle info and road side assistance than anything for entertainment purposes.

I lived with thumb drive music in my 2015 99% of the time and very rarely used my phone to stream Amazon, Spotify or Tuine-in. Was hoping that the 2019 would make that easier, but cannot find anything definitive.

Thanks for any responses.

 

Basically zero support. I occasionally play music through Google Play Music, but I control it through my phone, not the car. 99% of the time I play music off a thumb drive.

 

Well, that certainly sucks. I still read where BMW and Mini support Amazon Alexia, which would be okay for me. But have yet to confirm anything. Guess I will get all the
"Poop" when we take delivery of ours next week sometime. From the videos, it looks like Mini has a bright and readable center stack screen now. That's an upgrade from the 2015.

 

Did you get the upgraded bigger screen (8") or the standard 6" screen?

The smaller screen doesn't have Apple carplay, touch screen nor nav.

 

I got the 8.8 screen w/ Nav. and touch screen. Was hoping that included something for us android folks.

Back in 2017 news was starting in MY 2018 and newer would be getting car play, android auto and Alexia. I'll find out what's in the car when we pick it up next Friday.

 

Sooooo...what did you find out so far? Could you please give us your experience. I just got my 2019 f56 JCW with bigger screen, touch screen and navigation and I already can't play videos from my USB stick that I used in my old 2016 Cooper S. Tried finding the options in Bimmercode and did find a few but some of them were missing so I couldn't enable video that way. Someone mentioned here that some headunits might not support playing videos and that would be a bummer. When I play video files I can only hear music, no video.

 

I'm not sure what size my screen is, but in my 2016 Cooper S F55, I can not control next/prev on the steering wheel controls except for volume. My Mini is at the dealer getting work done (yay) for a ton of issues, so I ended up with a 2020 Cooper S loaner. Same screen size, newer software and menu, which I'll be asking if that's anyway updatable on mine, but I noticed I can actually change tracks with next/prev buttons on the steering wheel. I'm an Android user, too.