10 best music players for Android Auto

Music on Android Auto is a little bit finicky. Some obvious music players don’t work on Android Auto, and we can’t figure out why. Thus, some people still look for a decent way to listen to music. You get better luck with music streaming apps such as Pandora, Spotify, Google Play, YouTube, and Amazon Music. However, support for local media is still a bit sparse and irregular. We can help! Here are the best music players for Android Auto. You can find more Android Auto apps here as well.

We’d also like to give an honorable mention to BlackPlayer (Google Play). It’s an excellent music player, and the developer is working on overhauling it. However, the app hasn’t been updated since 2021. We’ll keep an eye on it. 

AIMP is an above-average music player with Android Auto support. This one is a local music player for the files on your device. It supports most major and common file types, including MP3, APE, OGG, AAC, FLAC, MP4, M4A, and MPC. The UI on Android Auto is fairly standard fair. The actual UI on your phone is functional and has a decent layout. Some additional features include a 29-band equalizer, playback speed controls (for podcasts and audiobooks), and volume normalization. There’s a laundry list of other features as well. This one is completely free, with no in-app purchases or ads.

GoneMAD

Price: Free / $5.99

GoneMAD is an excellent local music player. It features a simple but effective UI, plenty of features, and Android Auto support. Some features include lyric support, crossfade, playlists, a custom audio engine, support for many audio formats, and a 16-band EQ. It competes very well with Poweramp, which is good because they also have similar costs. I use this one, and it hasn’t steered me wrong yet.

jetAudio

Price: Free / Up to $12.99

jetAudio is another decent local music player with Android Auto support. The app has fun tricks, like AM3D audio enhancement, audio effects, and an equalizer with 32 presets. You also get above-average file support, a decent phone UI, and support for the usual stuff like playlists, crossfade, playback speed control, and more. There is a boatload of other features that cater to various niches.

It worked well during our testing on Android Auto and performs admirably as a standalone music player. You could do worse. The free version contains ads and fewer features, while the premium version has everything with no ads. Rocket Music Player is another app that gets a lot of recommendations from Android Auto users, alongside JetAudio. It is also quite good.

MediaMonkey

Price: Free / Up to $2.49

MediaMonkey is a local music player with some neat features. The developers also have a full desktop app for Windows. You can sync your music wirelessly (over WiFi) between the mobile and PC versions. The actual Android version is quite good. The UI is super basic but functional. You also get an equalizer, playlists, crossfades, and other basic music playback features.

The Android Auto support is as good as the others on the list. We had no problems queuing up a playlist and jamming on the road. The Android version has a premium version that unlocks all the features via an in-app purchase. The desktop version is a tad more expensive, though.

Musicolet carved out quite a name among the best music players on Android. It also has Android Auto support, making it a shoo-in for this list. The app features no ads, no Internet permissions, most of the usual music player functions, and a few decent extras. The UI is minimal but simple and effective, and you also get stuff like an equalizer, headphone control support, and home screen widgets. The Android Auto support was as good as we expected, which is as good as every other app. This one rocks a 4.7 rating on Google Play for a reason. The app is also entirely free, with no in-app purchases or advertising.

Pandora

Price: Free / Up to $9.99 per month

Pandora is a shoo-in for a list like this. It’s available in most infotainment centers in vehicles anyway, and it would feel wrong if it didn’t have Android Auto support. You all know how Pandora works. You start a radio station, listen to music, skip the occasional song, hear the occasional ad, and move on with life. A premium option for $9.99 monthly adds on-demand music selection, more powerful playlists, unlimited skips on classic radio stations, and higher-quality audio. It’s a rock-solid option in music streaming, but we’re unsure if it usurps the best in the industry, like Spotify.

Poweramp

Price: Free trial / $7.99

Poweramp is one of the most popular music player apps on Android, and for good reason. It has features, a good UI, and plenty of customization. It does support Android Auto, although it was one of the later music players to do so. The Android Auto UI is pretty typical, with quick access to the music player, playlists, and library. You can also ask Google Assistant to play songs from Poweramp, which usually works. It’s a great all-around player. The free version is a trial, and the full version costs $7.99.

Pulsar

Price: Free / $3.99

Pulsar is another solid option for local media playback. The app is nothing too special. However, it has a simple UI, decent controls, and plays your music. Some features (aside from Android Auto support) include Chromecast support, an equalizer, ReplayGain, gapless playback, playback speed controls, and a home screen widget. There isn’t much wrong with this one. It won’t blow your mind, but it does the job without complaint. The free version has advertising, and the premium version removes ads. The premium version is also a separate app, and that’s a bit of a rarity nowadays. In any case, Pulsar is a good one.

Spotify is the world’s most popular music streaming service. In some cases, there’s a reason for it. One good example is that Spotify is usually among the first music streaming apps to support new technologies such as Android Auto. You all know what Spotify does. You can stream millions of songs, listen to your playlists, listen to music on-demand, and check out Spotify’s second-to-none discovery features. The Android Auto support is good, and we had no problems jamming out in the car. You can use it for free (with ads) or $10.99 monthly for no ads and extra features.

YouTube Music

Price: Free / $10.99-$14.99 per month

YouTube Music officially replaced Google Play Music in late 2020, so it replaces Google Play Music here as well. YouTube Music is a decent overall music streaming service. You can also upload your songs to the service for playback and download songs in case you drive somewhere without great cell service. The UI on Android Auto is about the same as all the others and works with Google Assistant. We wish the app were better organized, but for $13.99 per month, you can get this along with no ads on regular YouTube, and that’s a potent 1-2 punch, even if YouTube Music isn’t the best music streaming app.

Bonus: AnyAutoAudio (power users only)

Price: Free

AnyAutoAudio is a fun little solution for those who don’t like anything listed above. The app uses Android’s Notification Listener permission to access your music player and then pass it to Android Auto. It’s a little funky to use. You open your music player (PowerAmp, Neutron, etc.) and then plug it into your phone.

In Android Auto, choose the AnyAutoAudio option after hitting the music icon on the bottom navigation bar. Now you can listen to music from your native music player without downloading an extra app. This requires a sideload and some tweaks. We only recommend this to people who want a specific music player without Android Auto support and don’t mind tinkering with it a bit.

Tell us about any great Android Auto music players in the comments if we missed them.