Entertainment Apps
planned
Mark Kiefert
Add apps for entertainment while charging: YouTube, Netflix, etc. Video streaming, local video over USB, games and more are all options. Having local storage powered options would make sense and be on brand to the adventure vehicle market.
Or, to stay on brand, a digital version of the Parks or Wingspan board games.
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Felix Preisler
As a start, playing music from USB (e.g. the same drive many already use for gearguard) should be a low-hanging fruit!
Trevor Mack
Not quite all of the entertainment options mentioned in this ticket, but with https://stories.rivian.com/google-cast that Rivian and Google announced yesterday together at Google IO Google Cast is coming to Android Automotive OS that Rivian's OS is built on top of. Allowing Google Cast support will enable most if not all of the video entertainment options one would want.
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Jacob Baron
Trevor Mack What we want, is to not have to cast them from our phone.
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Irfan
Trevor Macki think this solves a lot. I don’t care if it’s direct stream or cast. This is great news.
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Irfan
Jacob Baron eh, some of us are very happy streaming. It’s fast and easy to search on my phone and just click the cast button.
Trevor Mack
Irfan: Cast is a direct stream... The Rivian is pulling down the content directly from the source (Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc) vs the phone relying it over on the local network connection.
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Jacob Baron
Irfan It is definitely good news, but doesn't let me work independently on my phone without connecting it to the hotspot while my family watches shows of their choosing.
I generally use my phone and a VPN to work remotely. The Rivian wifi hotspot is 10x slower than my phone, and doesn't always play nicely with my VPN.
Having to put my phone on the hotspot to stream via cast is not giving me the freedom I have expected as a standard in EV's for several years in our other vehicles.
Trevor Mack
Jacob Baron: native apps will take much longer to build, test and support... Google Cast (a bit dissimilar to Apple's Airplay due to support for iOS and Android devices) however is a one and done.
I'd take the vertical space on the left side of the infotainment screen pictured in the Rivian blog as signal they do want more native providers... that will just take time. This is a way to get nearly every large stream provider and some local app streaming to work immediately for all owners.
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Irfan
Trevor Mack ah. Ya actually I’d rather use my phone data.
Trevor Mack
Jacob Baron: Once the cast is enabled you can turn off your phone... it isn't needed once the native stream is loaded on the Rivian (just like any other TV or Connected Speaker system in the world)
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Irfan
Jacob Barongotcha ya I was mixing things together in my head. I’d rather use phone data as well.
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Jacob Baron
Trevor Mack Don't confuse my indignation with the SLOW progress on my EXPENSIVE vehicle's infotainment updates with genuine excitement for the updates we are soon getting. I'm happy for this incremental improvement, but it is NOT a huge leap forward by any means.
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Jacob Baron
Trevor Mack That's not how cast works on any of our other cast-enabled devices. If I shut off my phone or change networks it stops working - UNLESS the device to which I'm casting has it's own native app already.
Trevor Mack
Jacob Baron: It opens streaming potential of 100s of vendors content in one go. Not sure how that isn't a large leap - where it isn't very large to me is it didn't take Rivian much to build since Google did the heavy lifting of the Cast Receiver (which the implementation is open source anyways, I've implemented it in less than an hour myself).
In comedy the phrase is "yes and" meaning we want both options - to cast to it for non supported media apps and native for those that are built in.
Trevor Mack
Jacob Baron: all my devices work without my phone attached unless the phone is setting up a local webserver to stream the content from for offline casting support
The sender (phone) is purely an initiation and control interface. The receiver (Rivian) actually performs the streaming of the content: https://developers.google.com/cast/docs/overview
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Jacob Baron
Trevor Mack "yes and" we want parity with other vehicle manufacturers. It wasn't a big leap because it was implemented by google. I'm not sure Rivian did much at all.
Worse, I expect this to be a situation with Rivian may decide to cut costs and rest on their laurels, effectively slowing/stopping any future infotainment streaming improvements.
This is a lot of good PR for Rivian, and I do look forward to the cast features, but as a long time android user I have experienced it's limitations first-hand and worry this is a more like a workaround that prevents a real solution.
Trevor Mack
Jacob Baron OG Droid user here too.
Hopeful it is a stopgap solution while the ecosystem is built to allow non Rivian created apps. Though I can understand that won't be available for some time.
Beau Smith
Jacob Baron (Update: I hadn't read the full thread. Feel free to ignore me. 😁) While native apps are useful, I'll gladly accept the ability to cast because it will allow me to use my Rivian screen for many apps that have the ability to cast an which Rivian will likely never offer native support for.
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Dan Gould
Trevor Mack thanks for the update! I’m not familiar with Google Cast, seems it’s a little different than Chromecast and might work with some apps that don’t support Chromecast today (e.g. Apple TV+)?
Trevor Mack
Dan Gould Chromecast is a device that Google sells that supports "Google Cast" (communication protocol).
With regard to what streaming providers work, it really is hit or miss. Most major ones not owned by a large tech company (Google, Apple, etc) work cross platform, unfortunately or fortunately depending how you look at it Apple has a walled garden and works flawlessly when within said garden. Though there are work arounds I've had luck with getting non supported apps to stream over the Cast protocol (leveraging a chrome browser and casting that from chrome vs the native app for example).
We shall see when this functionality lands on our R1S "soonish".
kent ma
Please add these to make the vehicle more fun and entertaining while you wait
Jim Elliott
Try checking to see if a feature requests already exists instead of submitting an obnoxious all caps request.
Abijah Perkins
I don't want a Rivian app for these services. If it's Netflix, someone else will want Hulu. If it's Hulu, someone will want Fubo. Personally, I want video phone calls and Plex. Maybe no one else does, but no problem. Rivian should offer a chromecast feature (if that's technically feasible) and we all will have the app we want. Any video service mainstream enough to be considered already supports casting in their phone app - why reinvent the wheel? I mean, besides preparing for a revenue stream... 🤦♂️
Jose Castillo
planned
Wassym's Q&A provided: "Video and audio entertainment being worked on. The long pole for video is developing digital rights management in the software."
No eta given coming s00n
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Tim Towell
Jose Castillo: Do you know if it is envisioned that third parties will be able to write applications that could be submitted to Rivian for certification and distribution via a Rivian App Store, as that is the only model that I can envision where you have the ability to satisfy all the random requests for "My Favorite App". Rivian could then focus on the SDK, and an automated certification test suite that could be ran by the developers, and simply submit the test results to Rivian for admission into the certified apps Web site.
Jay Joson
Merge with post, "Entertainment Apps"
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