Disclaimer: If you plan to do this, you assume the full risk of damaging your infotainment and voiding warranty. There are also security implications if you choose to download APKs from random websites. Please proceed only if you know what you are getting into. Otherwise, wait for the official SQBR6 or UQBM OS update that unblocks entertainment apps on Play Store. No outsiders know if or when it will come to ZDX, though.

Steps

1. Download "AnExplorer" from the Play Store in the car. Free version works well enough, but there is a paid Pro version with good features.
2. The app comes with 7-day trial for Pro features. There is supposedly a WiFi share feature to air-drop files, but I somehow could not get it to work.
3. Therefore, I simply connect the app to cloud storage. The choices are OneDrive, DropBox, and Box.
4. The UI of AnExplorer should be self-explained, and the developer has help pages on his website. To add cloud storage, go to Home>Cloud>"+" button on top-right, and so on.
5. The infotainment is Qualcomm ARM-based. For APK, I highly recommend extracting APKs from a trustworthy Android phone. Be aware that random APKs on the internet can contain maleware. Most popular file managers can extract APKs for apps installed on the phone, AnExplorer included.
6. Save the extracted APKs to cloud storage, then from AnExplorer in the car, move the apks to the infotainment. I prefer putting them into the Download folder.
7. Enable developer options by multi-tapping the infotainment version field under Setting>About, then enable "USB debugging." It is required for sideloading APKs, and if you don't do it now, the app will ask for it later.
8. If you go to the Download folder from Home and click on the APK, the app shows "Installing APK" but eventually aborts with "cannot connect to USB debugging" message.
9. The trick is to go to the Download folder from "Internal Storage" on the left-side menu. Internal Storage>Android>Data>Download. The app will ask for permission, grant it. You should see your APKs sitting in the folder, with a circle on the top-right of the icon. Clicking on the circle to trigger the installation.
10. If your Google account has Advanced Protection activated, it blocks sideloading. The protection stays on in the infotainment even if you turn the feature off. The trick is to log out, then re-login for the system to pick up the updated setting. Or you can simply log out, and do the dirty works without distractions.
11. Apps that have been green-lighted for SQBR6 OS and up should all work on our SQBR5 system. That means YouTube, Prime Video, Chrome, and more.
12. However, I think it is better to skip the browser for now. The car's network traffic obviously go through GM's proxy server or even VPN, but having browser running without Play Store actively updating the app is potentially a bigger security risk than video apps.
13. Like mentioned in my long-term story thread, I tried Prime Video and YouTube, but somehow only Prime Video installed successfully. Prime Video plays fullscreen which is nice, and sound quality is cinematically good. Maybe not truly multi-channel, but with good separation like in a theater.
14. The sideloaded apps can be uninstalled normally if you need them to disappear.

Special thanks to the developer of AnExplorer for providing guidances.

 

After further testing, I think this app/flow is not ready for prime time yet. Better use the old Amaze file manager way through internal testing from Play store.

 

Related discussions:

https://www.equinoxevforum.com/threa...6-update.6065/

So it can work, just somehow not 100% on my ZDX.

 

Looks like the key points are:

- For USB disk, format to FAT32 if NTFS does not work. Be aware that the infotainment seems to only recognize FAT32 partition up to 32GB. You will need disk partitioning utility (e.g. disk part on Windows) to create a primary 32GB partition on a large-size USB disk.
- Find the right APKs: AAOS seems to have certain requirements for apps. Therefore, most APKs pulled from a phone simply fail the sanity check during installation. Prime Video is apparently built to be cross-platform, but YouTube for AAOS is a dedicated version that can only be found on APK mirroring websites.

 

Again, kudos to the developer. He really cares about delivering a good app. Worked with him to resolve the installation error issue. Starting from 5.9.1, clicking on APK file directly triggers the native file manager, from which one can install the APK.

It appears to be something to do with the native File app, somehow GM use different configuration/version of the File app in different vehicle software packages.