Ahead of Google opening the door: a small "watch video in the car" player, 6,700 installs and 717 ratings

A small London studio published a car video player on Google Play in Oct 8. It got 6,734 installs in a month and charted in the top 50 of car categories in Vietnam, Turkey, and Thailand. It looks like it's gaining traction, but a closer look shows two things: a real demand window (Android Auto still doesn't allow video), and a very cheap way to chart (stuffed keywords plus suspicious ratings). Below: what it is, where the traffic came from, and whether you can still take this path.

A Vietnamese tutorial and a "coming soon"

In Oct 28, a Vietnamese TikTok account called @remotecartube posted a tutorial on watching YouTube on an Android Auto head unit. The account has posted several similar videos this year, and its January one got 75k views. The same month, someone in Thailand posted "Android Auto can now play YouTube!" with 17k views, and a Mitsubishi salesperson in Mexico posted "play video on any Android Auto or CarPlay screen" with 39k views (TikTok search, 11-06).

Two days later, on Oct 30,9 to 5, Google's reporting said that at its developer conference, video apps on Android Auto were still "coming soon." Google had announced in May that some cars would let video apps like YouTube run on the head unit while parked this year. With the year-end deadline two months away, there's still no beta. Cars running Google's built-in system (Android Automotive) can already install video apps, but most people use Android Auto, which mirrors the phone to the car, and that route isn't open yet.

Lots of people want to watch video in the car, and the official route isn't ready. Car Cast : Car TV Player was published into that gap.

What it is

It's a player: it plays videos on your phone and video links, imports your own M3U / M3U8 / Xtream playlists, and connects to Jellyfin and Emby media servers. Then you cast to the car screen over Miracast wirelessly or via USB-C to HDMI, and on supported Android Automotive cars you can install it directly.

The store listing has two parts that were clearly written with care. One is a disclaimer: "does not provide, host, or sell IPTV subscriptions, live streams, or movies", "only use while parked safely", "not affiliated with Android Auto, Apple CarPlay, or any car manufacturer." The other is a blunt admission: "this version cannot play video directly through Android Auto; support is planned for a future update, depending on platform availability." It also warns that a USB or Bluetooth pairing does not mean video output is possible. In other words, the thing most people want (plug in your phone to Android Auto and watch) it can't do yet.

The developer, Syscraft Labs, has a website that says "We find underserved niches, validate fast, and ship lean." It is registered in the UK, publishes only its own apps, and earns from ads, subscriptions, and IAP. The address on the store listing is 71-75 Shelton Street, London, a common registered-agent address.

Where the volume comes from

Start with the numbers (the cumulative installs and rating counts Google Play publishes):

Three things look wrong:

• Too many ratings. 717 ratings for 6,734 installs is over 10%; in Oct it was 29%. A normal ratio on Play is usually 1–2%, not 18%.
• Ratings are decoupled from installs. On 11-01, 11-04 and 11-05, installs didn't rise at all, yet ratings still went up by 36 to 61 every day.
• Almost no one is talking. Of 717 ratings, only 3 have written text: "good", "good", "nice app". The reviewers have South Asian names, yet the app charted in Vietnam, Turkey, Thailand, Saudi Arabia, and Italy. Before Nov 5, the star breakdown was 645 five-star and 29 four-star, with zero one- to three-star ratings.

So the ratings were most likely bought, or come from an "install and get a rating" incentive task (inference, high confidence, no transaction records seen). Third-party estimates of daily new installs also come in bursts: around 690,28 on Oct 24, close to 0 on 29, then 760 to 1,150 a day from Oct 30 to Nov 2, and back down to about 150 after Nov 4 (AppstoreSpy estimates). That doesn't look like organic growth. It looks like batches of purchased installs (inference).

Why can such a small volume chart? Because the car category's bar is very low. In recent days, the #20 free app in Vietnam's car chart had only 7,534 cumulative installs, and #50 had 1,619. Its best ranking was #28 in Turkey on Nov 1. In the US it stayed between #140 and #167 and never made any overall chart.

The rest of its organic traffic comes from store search: the title, package name, and description are packed with car cast, car tv, mirrorlink, screen mirror, M3U, Android Auto, and Android Automotive. The package name is literally mirrorlink, borrowed from a car screen-mirroring standard nobody uses anymore, because people still search for it.

Off-store, it's almost silent: 30 posts on X in 0 days, no TikTok videos found for it, no press coverage. Only auto-generated pages from APK download sites and app analytics sites.

Where the money comes from

No money yet. The store listing lists neither "contains ads" nor "in-app purchases." But the data safety section mentions that device IDs may be shared with third parties and that location is collected, so ad or attribution tools have likely been installed or are about to be (inference). Going by the usual pattern for tools like this, ads and subscriptions will be turned on once volume picks up.

One person, more than one package

In Oct 29, another developer account, Hotstuffbulldogs, published "Car TV M3U IPTV Player" under the package name com.cartv.carvideoplayer. It shares the prefix, and its description is nearly a sentence-by-sentence rewrite ("parked breaks", "charging your EV", "put your M3U playlists, phone videos, and video links in one library"). The contact email for this account starts with khalil, and the contact listed publicly on the Car Cast store page is also named Khalil. Its numbers are even more lopsided: by Nov 4 it still showed 0 installs but already had 107 ratings. On Nov 6, it had 602 installs and 211 ratings, with not a single written review. The account also has older apps such as an endoscope app and a dual-camera app. Its privacy policy is a 2024-year-old blog page, which suggests an old account registered years ago and later repurposed.

The likely explanation is one person running several accounts to push the same idea. If one gets delisted or stalls, another takes over (inference: the names and copy match, but there's no direct proof). There are also real copycats already: Gekko Soft published a "Car Cast : Car TV Player" with the identical name, with 100 downloads, ads included, and no traction yet.

Who else is fighting for this: the street is already packed

Add two more giants in this category. First, Google itself: once Android Auto opens to video apps, official apps like YouTube will show up on the car screen directly, and searches like "car tv" and "watch youtube in car" will get swallowed by them. Second, hardware: CarPlay / Android Auto wireless boxes and car TV boxes that cost a few dozen dollars, with TikTok videos pulling millions to tens of millions of views. They can actually play video in the car, while Car Cast depends on the car's own support for Miracast or HDMI input, which most cars don't have.

Bottom line: Car Cast is a very late, very small entrant on this street. It didn't break out. It's demonstrating a playbook.

What this playbook can teach you, and what it can't

Three things to learn:

1. Capabilities the platform has announced but not shipped leave a gap of several months. Demand is being pushed up by news and tutorial videos, official supply hasn't arrived yet, and a tool built around search terms can catch traffic in that window.
2. Pick niche categories and small countries. The auto category in Vietnam, Thailand and Turkey lets a few thousand installs get you charted, and the chart listing itself brings a bit of organic exposure. Vietnam and Thailand also happen to be where TikTok has the most "watch YouTube on your car screen" tutorials.
3. Put the disclaimer up front. "No content provided, only for use while parked, unrelated to Android Auto." Most M3U player listings on Play say this, which lets you keep the keywords while reducing takedown risk.

What you can't copy, and shouldn't: rating farms and multi-account shell packs violate Play policy, and if caught, your whole developer account gets tied to it. And the gap it relies on has a clear closing date.

If it were you

The verdict: you can learn a playbook of "catch search traffic before the platform opens the door," but copying this one app isn't worth it. The category already has million-install incumbents, and the gap it depends on, Google says, closes this year.

Who it suits: small teams already shipping utility apps on Play with ad monetization and ASO experience, looking for a small category to practice in; or people who are native speakers of Vietnamese, Thai or Spanish and can produce localized tutorials and store pages.

Who it doesn't suit: anyone planning to climb charts with rating farms and sock-puppet accounts (lose the accounts and you lose everything); anyone building a sideloaded "YouTube on Android Auto" solution (a gap Google is explicitly closing, and it becomes pointless the moment the official version opens); anyone expecting this app alone to become a big business.

How to do it: if you must enter, don't build the Nth keyword-riding screen mirroring tool. Build one of two things that still stand after official support arrives. One is a native media player for Android Automotive cars (local files, Jellyfin / Plex, USB drives). As more Google-system cars ship, Google already allows this, competition is thin, and Plezy, a dedicated client, has only 17k installs. The other is to be among the first to ship a compliant player that supports user-supplied sources the moment Android Auto video opens, and capture new terms like "Android Auto video player."

How to get users: rely mainly on store search, with titles and descriptions written in each country's local language; in Vietnam, Thailand and Mexico, partner with TikTok accounts that teach "watch video in the car," since their audiences are already asking "which app do I use?"

Before when: the opening date for Android Auto video apps. Google says it's within 2026 year(s), 9 to 5. Google, Oct 30, and I haven't seen a beta yet. The first approach doesn't need to hit this window; the second must have the app built and approved before the opening.

Signs you've read it wrong: ① Car Cast or those shell apps get delisted within 30 days, meaning Play is cleaning up this type, and the playbook itself doesn't hold; ② by 2027 January, Android Auto still hasn't opened video, while weekly new installs for keyword-riding tools keep growing, meaning the gap is longer than thought and worth entering earlier; ③ conversely, if within a month of opening, weekly new installs for older tools like Mirror Link - Cast to Car drop by more than half, it means search traffic really is being eaten by official apps, and "catching the gap" is only worth a few months.

Data and sources

• Install counts, rating counts, star distribution, chart positions: public Google Play data, 2026-10-29 to 11-06; the daily new-install trend is estimated by AppstoreSpy in batches.
• Store pages and developer pages: play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cartv.mirrorlink (read 11-06); the store pages for Hotstuffbulldogs and Gekko Soft.
• Developer: syscraftlabs.com (read 11-06).
• Android Auto video progress: 9 to 5, Google 2026-10-30, "Google says Android Auto video apps are still ‘coming soon’ as deadline nears"; Android Developers, "Car ready mobile apps."
• TikTok view counts: TikTok search for "watch youtube android auto," 11-06.
• Where the text says "inferred" or "estimated," it's an inference or estimate; there's no direct evidence on whether ratings were bought, or whether the two developer accounts belong to the same person.