htc car app How to use third party music apps in car mode in HTC Sense 4.1

In my opinion, one of the best new features in Sense 4.1 is the ability to use third-party music apps in the stock Car app – this applies to the HTC EVO 4G LTE, and any HTC One devices that have been upgraded to Sense 4.1. However, it’s not immediately apparent how one goes about doing this.

Luckily, it’s not that hard at all. But in case you haven’t figured it out yet, here are the steps to take.

  1. In the app drawer, navigate to the stock Music app by HTC – the one with the red musical note.
  2. Tap Menu > Add app shortcut.
  3. Select your desired app from the list, but keep in mind that you’re limited to eight shortcuts in the music app. (Interestingly enough, the app you select doesn’t necessarily have to be a music-related app; you can select Gmail, for example.)
  4. Next, open the Car app.
  5. Swipe from right to left, until you reach “Music apps.” (You should only have to swipe twice.)
  6. Select whichever app you want.
  7. Exit out of that app, and exit out of car mode.

That’s it! The next time you enter car mode, the app that you selected above will appear as the fourth icon in car mode. This is great for users who didn’t mind Tune In Radio, but had purchased the paid version and wanted to use that one instead. This is also great for others who, like me, would rather listen to podcasts or Pandora while driving. You could potentially also create a shortcut to your email or text messages, but I’d really hope that you would have more sense than that while driving.

Unfortunately, you can’t edit any of the other icons in car mode. For me, that means the third one is wasted since I never have any music stored locally on my phone. Even with this in mind, though, I have yet to find a car app that I like better than HTC’s, and I’ve tried a lot.