This is one of my better-kept secrets, but I haven’t posted a guide in a while — so let’s call this one it.
The Problem:
Android Auto requires four core apps to function:
- Google Play Services
- Google TTS
- Google Maps
- Google QuickSearchBox
For kosher ROMs, Maps and QuickSearchBox are a problem — they can’t be present or accessible.
Attempts to hide them with:
su pm hide
or disable them with:
pm disable
fail — Android Auto does not detects them if they’re simply hidden.
Up to Android 11, stubs could be used — but newer versions have issues with that method.
There are other theoretical solutions — like IFW rules, intent blocking, or accessibility-based blocking — but in practice, these don’t work reliably.
MDM policies could work, but they don’t apply to custom ROMs.
The Discovery:
While analyzing the F30 (a known kosher phone), I noticed that Google Maps and QuickSearchBox don’t even appear in the app settings — but they are present in the system root. That led me to investigate deeper.
The Fix:
After a lot of testing, I found a working solution.
There’s a specific combination of two commands that:
- Allow Android Auto to run perfectly
- Prevent the apps from appearing in settings
- Make them completely inaccessible to the user
Here are the exact commands:
su pm suspend --user 0 <package.name>
su pm disable --user 0 <package.name>
Only this exact combination works.
These do not work reliably:
pm disablepm disable-userpm disable-user --user 0pm suspendpm suspend-userpm suspend-user --user 0
Enjoy — and Make ROMs Great Again.