Now, so that no one comes at me, you shouldn’t be watching videos as you drive.
With that out of the way, there are many scenarios where you’ll want to unwind with a video or two in your car. When you’re in a basement parking waiting for someone. Or when taking a break at some motel parking lot when doing a long-distance drive. Or when you need to entertain your co-driver.
Playing YouTube content in the car has become so common amongst a section of Kenyan drivers and car owners that it’s almost normal. Note that I said “almost normal” before you come crucifying me. You might not be looking at the display panel to your left but you still want to listen to the latest ‘Wake Up Call’ or ‘Lockdown Session’ set from Grauchi just like you would normally listen to music. That’s our new normal. Especially since, unlike other services like Spotify and Apple Music, you don’t need to do much to get going on YouTube.
For many, the ability to play music from YouTube when out and about has been the key decider between an infotainment unit from the likes of Sony, Pioneer and Kenwood that offer the basics – audio-visual playback from compatible USB drives – and that from other (mostly no-name Chinese) brands. The latter tend to be fancy slates that offer all the apps that one is accustomed to on their phone and TV like YouTube while still doing everything the former does. While the former does have Android Auto (and Apple CarPlay), itself a big draw because of everything you can do with it, of what use is it if you just can’t entertain your child with Cocomelon from the back seat?
That’s where CarStream comes in.
CarStream is an app that you install on your phone so that when you connect your phone to your car/car’s infotainment system, it is one of those apps that will be mirrored on the display. Read here on what Android Auto is and how it works.
Once you click on it from the display on your car’s infotainment system, it automatically loads up YouTube.
Now, before you get to that point, you need to download and install CarStream first. Since you can’t find it on the Play Store (obviously), that’s where the Android Auto Apps Download (AAAD) comes in. Download the APK from here, install it, give it the necessary permissions and look for CarStream once the app has loaded.
It should be the first app under the ‘Multimedia Apps’ section. Click to download and install it. Again, grant any needed permissions for this process to complete. While AAAD has lots of other nice apps you’ll be tempted to try, in order to avoid running into the “one app per 30 days policy unless you pay”, make sure CarStream app is the first one you download. You can indulge in the rest later.
With CarStream downloaded and installed, you need to enable desktop mode so that it looks nicer on the infotainment system’s display and not look like a blown phone app. So, click on the three dots in the top right corner and select ‘Desktop mode’. Then sign in to your YouTube account if you so wish and, the next time you connect your smartphone to your car, you should be able to watch YouTube content as soon as you open the CarStream app from the Android Auto app drawer.
The biggest upside to CarStream is that it displays a browser window that you can use beyond YouTube content. You can have other streams there. You are only limited by the strength of your network signal and data bundles.
The only downside with CarStream at this point is that it doesn’t work with the “Coolwalk” split-screen user interface that has been available since the start of the year. Then again, you should concentrate on your driving and only indulge in some YouTube bingeing when off the road.
