I came across this nice article via some security friends:

https://hufman.github.io/stories/bmwconnectedapps

It's a neat writeup on the reverse engineering process, for anybody here that enjoys reverse engineering network protocols. He built some documents on how Connected apps callback to your phone/tablet, and stored them here: https://github.com/hufman/BMWConnectedAnalysis .

I'm guessing Android users have come across this already, but the author, Walter Huf, also released an unofficial Android Auto for iDrive app (complete with MINI theme), on github: https://github.com/hufman/AndroidAutoIdrive . The Android Auto app even supports Google Maps, although the author notes that it is not compiled by default (you have to manually select to compile it, which technically violates the software license for the Google Maps API, since this is a 3rd-party app that is displaying google maps).

All of the above require an NBT EVO head unit to take advantage of. It's nice to see some cool reversing made public.

 

Thank you very much for the support I'm glad other people like it too!

 

@hufman

I've been working all morning on adding the GoogleMaps API to your app -- I'm a complete novice to all of this so it's been an interesting morning! So far, so good.

I was wondering though, for users who aren't as code savvy, if you could perhaps write some more detailed instructions for use once you have the app installed. I installed your app, I plugged in my phone to my car, nothing changed on my screen at all but I was able to see the music apps through the Mini Connected screen that is already there. Was my screen supposed to change? I'm just not entirely sure what I should be seeing if everything is working correctly.

Also; just a question; if I add the Google Maps API -- will that enable it to be cast to my screen? That's the goal I'd like to achieve, at any rate.

Thanks so much for this wonderful work you're doing!!

 

Good morning!
My goal was to make the app entirely automatic and reduce or remove any manual steps for initial setup. If the Mini Connected adds itself to the Connected Apps menu in your car, my app should use the same connection and similarly add itself. The screenshots in this section should show what you should expect to see: The Connected Apps menu in the car should show the Connected app, the Calendar app, and my Audioplayer. The Book icon (for notifications) will show up if you enabled it, and when you get Google Maps enabled, it'll add a Samsung Smartthings icon to this menu. The Media screen in the car should additionally show the Audioplayer and any supported music apps.
The "Waiting for Connection" panel in the phone UI is tap-able, and it will bring up a screen with some connection tips and advanced status details. Perhaps it holds a clue to what's going on with the phone's connection to the car.

Can you clarify what you mean by "Able to see the music apps through the Mini Connected screen that is already there"?

Have you gotten MINI Connected to connect, first of all? My app relies entirely on the official app to build the connection to the car, and it's somewhat finicky. Since you said "plugged in", this tells me that you have a MY2015-2017 Mini. Look for a Connection Assistant screen, and tell the USB Connection to switch to Accessory mode, like so:

Hopefully that helps!

However, the Google Maps support does not enable casting your screen: The app runs a Google Mapview within itself that is shown in the car, as opposed to the regular Google Maps app, which has a few implications: It has no access to your location searches or history, it does not have turn-by-turn navigation (strictly against the EULA to copy the Google Navigation Experience), and it does not carry over any ongoing navigation from the main Google Maps app like how Android Auto behaves. Due to its legality, it's more of a proof-of-concept and has not been developed to a full featured experience. A Mapbox-based solution is on the roadmap, which will provide a fuller experience, but the performance of the solution will unfortunately remain poor because of the method of sending the map screen to the car.

Thanks for your suggestions! I'll plan on building a better Developers' Guide section as part of the website revamp that is planned for the next release, and the app itself will get some more helpful features to help set up the initial connection.

 

Why can't MINI just release AA for the MINI already, jeez. It's embarrassing that my wife is jealous of my 2015 $20K Focus infotainment system over her $50K 2021 JCW Vert infotainment system. Apple is crap (my opinion), majority of the world uses Android, so sure let's not support it.

 

Agreed.

Android Auto is a lot more difficult to integrate than Car Play. At one point, I was willing to accept that MINI didn't have the resources to allocate to that task.

BMW announced not long ago that it will be (finally!) adding Android Auto. MINI was then quick to counter announce that this does not include them.

Why does MINI have such a deep down hatred of Android, to the point of even blowing off customer comments/requests ?

 

From what I know it's a contractual/legal thing. MINI did some research and found that most of its owners (80%+) were Apple sheep (I mean users sorry).
MINI got a better licensing deal from Apple by having their Auto solution exclusively in their cars. This is also why you have never had to pay for CarPlay in MINIs, but you did with BMW when they first introduced it.
I am starting a major complaint with MINI Australia about this because recently (in 2021) the Spotify integration from Android phones has been removed, which means the only way to have music in your MINI with an Android phone is by plain old vanilla Bluetooth. No track control, or searching, not even via the steering wheel.
Its a complete f$%king joke to be honest and it may ultimately mean I return my car...which I don't want to do, but not having AA makes it really ****.

 

That's some horsepucky -- I love my JCW, I do - even if it is having some brake sticking issues right now LOL

But I would really love some integration, I love Google Maps on my screen instead of my phone, for instance.

By the way -- jailbreaking your Android phone (just turning on Developer mode, it's not hard, google it) and downloading an open source app on github called Android AutoIDrive does its best -- I think I found the instructions for that by the app author here on this forum somewhere!

 

I believe the issue is that BMW switched primary development to their IDrive 7.0 version, and so only afforded development time to add Android Auto to that version (notably 2 years after it was first released in 2018). Mini, on the other hand, is still on the IDrive 5/6 generation (with the 2022 LCI and its home page live widgets especially reminding me of IDrive 6), and is mostly inheriting IDrive directly from BMW with a theme change and so can't make the big development investment to bring this feature to the older OS.

Relatedly, Toyota used to object to including Android Auto in their cars, claiming the Google wanted more information than they were comfortable sharing. I'm choosing to believe that BMW had the same concern and so delayed the implementation.

I'm also very intrigued by the different pricing strategies for BMW vs Mini. From a pragmatic viewpoint, Mini gained the cloud connectivity required for subscription services later than BMW. There could also be a volume factor, with fewer Minis on the road perhaps meaning that the cloud infrastructure for subscription management isn't as worth it.

 

Do you happen to have any info (from MINI ?) to back up the 80%+ Apple ???

In the real world, outside of a MINI dealership, Android is around 80% of the market and IOS is around 20%. What sometimes confuses it, is that Apple has 100% of that 20% market share. Whereas, the Android 80% is split between many companies, with Samsung having the lions share.

 

NO it's just what said in a conversation with an executive from BMW/MINI.
I wouldn't be surprised it it was true.
Plus this 'research' would have been conducted about 5 years ago or more so that sets them on a path...