Full Screen Carplay on Refresh

EJS2015 · August 16, 2024

As many of you know, the refresh trucks have big screens for the infotainment system. For some reason, GM has not allowed Carplay to be fullscreen but Android Auto does have fullscreen. The way I got around this is by using a Tbox Plus from Carlinkit. These boxes allow you to not only do stuff like Netflix, Hulu, etc... on your screen, but also have wireless Carplay. These devices come preset to use Apple Carplay as the connection method to the car. This means the screen still won't fit fully. To fix this, you have to change the connection method by putting the attached file onto an sd card (format exFat), put into the Tbox Plus, and a message will pop up asking to change the connection method. Click Yes and it will restart and ask to connect an android auto device. And you are done! It sucks that you have to buy a device to get carplay full screen on these trucks. Fingers crossed GM decides to send an update to make this native.

reverse.ini

rrmccabe · August 18, 2024

Thanks for the info. Glad you got it working and as you said hopefully GM will make this native. No reason they cant.

I am not an iphone user. You said "also have wireless Carplay". Do iphone users not have wireless carplay to start with like Android users?

My only gripe is you cant pull data from your phone plan so without Onstar you dont have full functionality Something else GM could have easily done

gemarsh · August 18, 2024

I use a device like this on all 3 trucks. I honestly think this hack is one reason why gm is deleting wired car play from their vehicles.

EJS2015 · August 18, 2024

6 hours ago, rrmccabe said:

Thanks for the info. Glad you got it working and as you said hopefully GM will make this native. No reason they cant.

I am not an iphone user. You said "also have wireless Carplay". Do iphone users not have wireless carplay to start with like Android users?

My only gripe is you cant pull data from your phone plan so without Onstar you dont have full functionality Something else GM could have easily done

The vehicle has wireless CarPlay. My main point was the CarPlay aspect. These devices also add wireless CarPlay to vehicles that did not have wireless CarPlay.

Pull data from phone for what? The Tbox? You can connect the tbox to your phone hotspot if that’s what your talking about.

EJS2015 · August 18, 2024

3 hours ago, gemarsh said:

I use a device like this on all 3 trucks. I honestly think this hack is one reason why gm is deleting wired car play from their vehicles.

They still have wired CarPlay. They have wired and wireless on the newer trucks. The only way this works is because the box needs to run CarPlay through Android auto for it take use of the full screen. It just so happens that these boxes use wireless CarPlay.

rrmccabe · August 19, 2024

18 hours ago, EJS2015 said:

Pull data from phone for what? The Tbox? You can connect the tbox to your phone hotspot if that’s what your talking about.

I am talking about in my configuration. There are a few features that don't work without Onstar data. As an example the posted speed limit sign the sales guy touted. Does not work without a data plan. Normally, I would not care but I have a heads up display at the posted speed limit sign is quite nice. This is different over the various years. I have heard rumors the 2025 will not be the same.

Juicedgsr95 · August 19, 2024

Quote

1 hour ago, rrmccabe said:

I am talking about in my configuration. There are a few features that don't work without Onstar data. As an example the posted speed limit sign the sales guy touted. Does not work without a data plan. Normally, I would not care but I have a heads up display at the posted speed limit sign is quite nice. This is different over the various years. I have heard rumors the 2025 will not be the same.

I use the hotspot on my iphone, and have an automation that runs. When the phone connects to CarPlay, it turns the hotspot on (and the truck will connect to that wifi hotspot) and then when the phone disconnects from CarPlay, the automation runs to turn off the hotspot. Works great for me and I can use the built in google maps.

rrmccabe · August 19, 2024

5 hours ago, Juicedgsr95 said:

I use the hotspot on my iphone, and have an automation that runs. When the phone connects to CarPlay, it turns the hotspot on (and the truck will connect to that wifi hotspot) and then when the phone disconnects from CarPlay, the automation runs to turn off the hotspot. Works great for me and I can use the built in google maps.

That is an interesting concept. I have Bixby automation routines for other things now. I might have to play with that for fun. It would have to be automated and quick. My average daily trip is 10 minutes so do not want to mess around connecting to phone, etc just to have functionality.

But that is great food for thought. Thanks!

eppieguy · August 20, 2024

On 8/16/2024 at 4:49 PM, EJS2015 said:

As many of you know, the refresh trucks have big screens for the infotainment system. For some reason, GM has not allowed Carplay to be fullscreen but Android Auto does have fullscreen. The way I got around this is by using a Tbox Plus from Carlinkit. These boxes allow you to not only do stuff like Netflix, Hulu, etc... on your screen, but also have wireless Carplay. These devices come preset to use Apple Carplay as the connection method to the car. This means the screen still won't fit fully. To fix this, you have to change the connection method by putting the attached file onto an sd card (format exFat), put into the Tbox Plus, and a message will pop up asking to change the connection method. Click Yes and it will restart and ask to connect an android auto device. And you are done! It sucks that you have to buy a device to get carplay full screen on these trucks. Fingers crossed GM decides to send an update to make this native.

reverse.ini 236 B · 11 downloads

Which one do I buy as hey all say for Android? Thanks for your help with this, looks great!

EJS2015 · August 20, 2024

8 hours ago, eppieguy said:

Which one do I buy as hey all say for Android? Thanks for your help with this, looks great!

I have the one that is (4+64G) model. I believe the difference between the difference between this one and the (8+128G) model is the latter has 8 gigs of RAM with 128 Gigs of storage compared to 4 gigs of RAM and 64 gigs of storage. You should be fine with the (4+64G) model like mine.

eppieguy · August 20, 2024

2 minutes ago, EJS2015 said:

I have the one that is (4+64G) model. I believe the difference between the difference between this one and the (8+128G) model is the latter has 8 gigs of RAM with 128 Gigs of storage compared to 4 gigs of RAM and 64 gigs of storage. You should be fine with the (4+64G) model like mine.

Thank you, ordered! Appreciate your research on this.

xranger90 · August 21, 2024

40 minutes ago, EJS2015 said:

I have the one that is (4+64G) model. I believe the difference between the difference between this one and the (8+128G) model is the latter has 8 gigs of RAM with 128 Gigs of storage compared to 4 gigs of RAM and 64 gigs of storage. You should be fine with the (4+64G) model like mine.

Good info. Thanks

AboveThePin · September 5, 2024

I’ve tried a few different devices for getting cat play full screen mode, but not the exact device you used.

All of them I’ve tried do technically get it full screen, but each has other issues. One didn’t allow the mic to work with Siri at all. She wouldn’t even read text messages. The other produced a massive echo when making phone calls.

Does this route have any issues?

Mohd · September 6, 2024

On 8/17/2024 at 12:49 AM, EJS2015 said:

As many of you know, the refresh trucks have big screens for the infotainment system. For some reason, GM has not allowed Carplay to be fullscreen but Android Auto does have fullscreen. The way I got around this is by using a Tbox Plus from Carlinkit. These boxes allow you to not only do stuff like Netflix, Hulu, etc... on your screen, but also have wireless Carplay. These devices come preset to use Apple Carplay as the connection method to the car. This means the screen still won't fit fully. To fix this, you have to change the connection method by putting the attached file onto an sd card (format exFat), put into the Tbox Plus, and a message will pop up asking to change the connection method. Click Yes and it will restart and ask to connect an android auto device. And you are done! It sucks that you have to buy a device to get carplay full screen on these trucks. Fingers crossed GM decides to send an update to make this native.

reverse.ini 236 B · 30 downloads

You are the man ,thanks .. it worked ..

EJS2015 · September 8, 2024

On 9/6/2024 at 1:21 AM, Mohd said:

You are the man ,thanks .. it worked ..

Glad I could help. Some things that are aggravating is when you turn the truck on, the truck auto switches to that sound output, even if nothing is playing. I like FM radio. When I turn my truck on, it plays then it switches sources to the device a few seconds later, so I have to manually change the source back to FM. Also, whenever carplay does output sound (Siri, navigation, etc...) it changes the source to that and doesn't switch back. I know that's a GM issue because my 2019 would change source to carplay and then not change back. If anyone knows a fix for that, that would be awesome.