What is OBD2AA, and how do you get OBD2 gauges on Android Auto or CarPlay?

OBD2AA in three points

I build WrenchTime, an iPhone app that shows OBD-II gauges on CarPlay, so read this knowing that. OBD2AA, Torque Pro, Android Auto, Android Auto Apps Downloader, Google Play, XDA, Apple, CarPlay, OBDLink, OBD Fusion, Car Scanner ELM OBD2, Integrated Engineering and POWERlink are trademarks of their respective owners. WrenchTime is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of them. Every claim about OBD2AA below links its source and was checked on 22 October 2026.

• OBD2AA is a Torque Pro plugin for Android Auto: its README describes a plugin extension for Torque Pro that shows Torque data on an Android Auto screen, with speed camera warnings and street card info.
• It is not installed from Google Play: the Play listing called itself a placeholder "for when 3rd party apps will be allowed", the store that sold the real app, XDA Labs, closed at the end of 2020, and on 22 October 2026 the Play page for the package returned an error.
• There is no OBD2AA for iPhone: on CarPlay, OBD-II data comes from an iPhone app that reads an adapter itself, such as OBD Fusion, iE POWERlink or WrenchTime, each in its own way.

What is OBD2AA?

OBD2AA, short for OBD2 for Android Auto, is a plugin for Torque Pro, the Android OBD-II app by Ian Hawkins. Torque Pro reads the car through an OBD-II adapter; OBD2AA takes the readings Torque already has and draws them on the car's Android Auto screen. The project's README on GitHub also lists speed camera warnings and street card info.

OBD2AA is the work of Emil Borconi-Szedressy: the README carries his copyright, dated 2017 in Wakefield, United Kingdom, and calls it a commercial application, not free software, to be bought from the XDA Labs store. The last version mirrored by APKPure is 3.6a, dated 29 March 2024, for Android 5.0 or later.

OBD2AA does not talk to the adapter on its own. Torque Pro does that, so OBD2AA needs Torque Pro installed and connected. Torque Pro costs $4.95 in the US on Google Play, checked on 22 October 2026.

Why isn't OBD2AA a normal Google Play app?

Android Auto only accepts apps in set categories. Google's car app quality page, last updated 14 September 2026, lists media, messaging, calling, navigation, point of interest, Internet of Things, weather and games for Android Auto. A live engine gauge display fits none of them, so a Play Store app cannot put Torque's gauges on the car's screen the way OBD2AA does.

The OBD2AA package on Google Play said as much. Its listing, as mirrored by APKPure, read: "OBD2 Torque Pro plugin for Android Auto. This is just a placeholder for when 3rd party apps will be allowed. This app does NOTHING." On 22 October 2026 the Google Play page for that package returned a 404 error.

The working app was sold through XDA Labs, the app store of the XDA Developers forum. XDA announced on 31 December 2020 that "XDA Labs has been shut off and there are no current plans for further development." Since then OBD2AA has circulated as an APK file on mirror sites and forum threads, which is what most of the search results for OBD2AA are.

How do people install OBD2AA on Android Auto?

Installing OBD2AA means sideloading: putting an app on the phone from an APK file instead of from Google Play, then telling Android Auto to show apps that did not come from Play. The steps below come from BGR's 14 July 2026 guide to sideloading Android Auto apps and from an owner's walkthrough on the InsideEVs forum in January 2020.

• Install Torque Pro and pair the adapter. OBD2AA reads its data from Torque Pro, so Torque has to be connected to the car's OBD-II adapter first.
• Turn on Android Auto's developer settings. In the phone's Settings, open Apps, Android Auto, then Additional settings, and tap Version ten times until Android Auto asks to enable developer mode, per BGR.
• Allow Unknown sources. In Android Auto's three-dot menu, open Developer settings and turn on Unknown sources, which lets Android Auto show third-party apps that were not installed from Play.
• Install the APK. The phone may also need to allow installs from unknown sources, per BGR. BGR describes AAAD (Android Auto Apps Downloader), an unofficial installer for such apps, as free for one download every 30 days, or a one-time €3.5 for its Pro version, and notes that AAAD asks you to disable Google Play Protect.
• Connect and open OBD2AA. The InsideEVs walkthrough: power on the car, plug in the OBD-II adapter, connect the phone by USB, select Android Auto on the car's screen, then open OBD2AA from the app list.

Can any Android Auto OBD2 app show live gauges?

Not through Google Play's normal route. The categories on Google's car app quality page cover media, messaging, calling, navigation, points of interest, Internet of Things, weather and games, with nothing for engine data. An OBD2 app on an Android phone, Torque Pro included, can show its gauges on the phone itself, and a sideloaded plugin such as OBD2AA is what put Torque's gauges on the Android Auto screen.

Some cars run Android Automotive OS, Google's operating system built into the car rather than projected from a phone. That is a different platform with its own app categories on the same Google page, and OBD2AA is an Android Auto plugin, not an Android Automotive app.

What are the risks of sideloading Android Auto apps?

A sideloaded app gets no updates from a store, and OBD2AA has had no store since XDA Labs closed in December 2020. An APK from a mirror site is not checked by Google Play, so the copy you download is only as trustworthy as the site it came from.

Android Auto itself can change. BGR warns that future Android updates "could always potentially remove or block access" to sideloaded Android Auto apps, that such apps may malfunction, and that the setup is aimed at advanced users, with some phone brands needing extra fixes. An owner on the InsideEVs forum wrote in January 2020 that the XDA page's instructions for starting Android Auto's developer mode were incorrect, and that tapping the version info ten times was what worked.

How do you get OBD2 gauges on CarPlay with an iPhone?

OBD2AA and Torque Pro are Android apps, and Torque Pro has no iPhone version. CarPlay works differently from Android Auto here: Apple's CarPlay developer page lists driving task apps among the app types it accepts, next to audio, navigation, EV charging and fueling, so an iPhone OBD-II app can draw its gauges on the car's screen from the App Store, with no plugin and no developer settings.

Three iPhone apps on this page put OBD data on CarPlay, each differently. OBD Fusion, $9.99, shows "vital driving information in a list", and its App Store page says its dashboards cannot be shown on CarPlay. iE POWERlink draws live gauges there but requires Integrated Engineering's POWERlink V4 dongle, $184.99, and an iE or Xodus tune.

Car Scanner ELM OBD2, free with Pro at $7.99 once, has configurable dashboards on the phone and does not mention CarPlay. All three pages were checked on 27 October 2026.

WrenchTime is an iPhone app for car and motorcycle maintenance, fuel, trips and live OBD-II data. With a Bluetooth LE ELM327 adapter or the Apple-certified OBDLink MX+ and WrenchTime Pro, its CarPlay Live tab is a grid of gauges you lay out per vehicle, read from any car that answers standard OBD-II, over wired or wireless CarPlay. ELM327 is the chip, or its clone, inside most inexpensive OBD-II adapters.

Each tile is a ring with caution and critical bands, a short graph of recent values or a plain number, and a row holds three to eight tiles. The tachometer and the speedometer read the car's own computer, not GPS, and boost, coolant temperature, voltage, fuel rate or a custom PID can be a tile. The grid is redrawn twice a second by default, and a reading that turns critical raises an alert on the car's screen.

One difference from OBD2AA: there are no speed camera warnings in WrenchTime. The OBD2 app for CarPlay guide covers the layout and the alerts, and how CarPlay gauges work across apps compares what other iPhone apps show on CarPlay.

OBD2AA vs a CarPlay OBD2 app at a glance

The table compares OBD2AA, as its own README and listing describe it, with WrenchTime on CarPlay. Which adapters work with an iPhone is on the OBD-II adapters for iPhone page: many classic Bluetooth adapters sold for Torque work only with Android.

Sources: OBD2AA README, APKPure listing, Torque Pro on Google Play, XDA; WrenchTime's own documentation.

Which one should you choose?

Pick by the phone you carry and what the car runs. Each line is the need that app suits, WrenchTime included.

• Choose OBD2AA if you drive with Android Auto, already use Torque Pro, want speed camera warnings on the car's screen and accept sideloading an APK with developer settings.
• Choose OBD Fusion if a text list of readings on CarPlay is enough and you want its phone dashboards, Mode 06 or paid packs per make.
• Choose WrenchTime if you want a grid of gauges on CarPlay for any car on standard OBD-II, with stations nearby on the same screen and every reading kept with the trip, fuel and service log (CarPlay with Pro).
• Choose iE POWERlink if your car runs, or will run, an iE or Xodus tune and you want to change tune settings as well as watch gauges.
• Choose Car Scanner ELM OBD2 if you only need gauges on the phone, for free, with connection profiles for many makes.

What does WrenchTime add on CarPlay?

Of the iPhone apps on this page, WrenchTime is the one that draws a grid of OBD-II gauges on CarPlay for any car that answers standard OBD-II, with no tune and no proprietary cable. OBD Fusion's CarPlay screen is a list, iE POWERlink's gauges need its V4 dongle and an iE or Xodus tune, and Car Scanner's page does not mention CarPlay (checked 27 October 2026).

It is also the one with a CarPlay tab of fuel stations nearby, or chargers for an electric car, and the one that keeps a maintenance, fuel and trip log next to the readings. None of the other three App Store pages mentions either.

I build WrenchTime, so weigh this section knowing that. With WrenchTime Pro its CarPlay Live grid is laid out per vehicle, redrawn twice a second by default, and tapping a tile shows its minimum, maximum and average for the session. While a trip records, its Live Activity sits on the Lock Screen, in the Dynamic Island and on the CarPlay Dashboard beside the map.

OBD2AA's README and listing, checked on 22 October 2026, describe a Torque Pro plugin installed outside Google Play; WrenchTime installs from the App Store and reads the adapter itself, with no plugin, no second app and no developer settings.

On the phone, the WrenchTime Live dashboard draws 18 instrument types on pages you build, free with 3 instruments on its first page, and every reading can be recorded with the trip at one sample per second. With Pro, Vehicle Tools reads trouble codes with the readiness monitors and the freeze frame, and custom PIDs, imported from a catalogue or written with Torque-style byte formulas, become tiles like any other.

WrenchTime is built natively in SwiftUI for iOS 26, using Liquid Glass and the Dynamic Island rather than imitating them. A trip runs as a Live Activity on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island, 9 Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets, some with WrenchTime Pro, keep the log in view, and an Apple Watch app and a permanent iPad sidebar carry it further.

The dark theme is calibrated for OLED, the app takes any of 30 accent themes, and there are no ads on either tier, no account, and sync only through your own private iCloud. CarPlay, the Apple Watch app and the accent themes are part of WrenchTime Pro.

Key takeaways

What to remember about OBD2AA and OBD2 gauges on the car's screen, checked on 22 October 2026.

• OBD2AA is a Torque Pro plugin by Emil Borconi-Szedressy that shows Torque's OBD-II data, speed camera warnings and street info on Android Auto, per its README; it needs Torque Pro, $4.95 on Google Play in the US.
• It is sideloaded, not installed from Play: Android Auto accepts only set app categories, the Play listing was a placeholder, and XDA Labs, which sold the app, closed on 31 December 2020.
• Sideloading needs Android Auto's developer settings and Unknown sources, and BGR warns that a future Android update could block such apps.
• On iPhone there is no OBD2AA: CarPlay accepts driving task apps from the App Store, and WrenchTime, with WrenchTime Pro, draws a grid of OBD-II gauges there from a Bluetooth LE ELM327 adapter or an OBDLink MX+. OBD2AA's README and listing, checked on 22 October 2026, describe a Torque Pro plugin installed outside Google Play; WrenchTime installs from the App Store and reads the adapter itself, with no plugin, no second app and no developer settings.
• Other iPhone options: OBD Fusion lists readings on CarPlay as text, iE POWERlink draws gauges for cars with an iE or Xodus tune, and Car Scanner keeps its gauges on the phone (checked 27 October 2026).

Get OBD-II gauges on CarPlay

If you moved from Android to iPhone, or never wanted to sideload, WrenchTime reads live OBD-II data for free on the phone over a Bluetooth LE ELM327 adapter or an OBDLink MX+, shows 3 instruments on the WrenchTime Live dashboard on the free tier, and puts the full gauge grid on CarPlay with WrenchTime Pro: £2.99 a month, £14.99 a year with a free trial, or £34.99 once, App Store prices read on 2026-11-05.

The free tier also keeps 1 vehicle with 3 fuel entries and 2 maintenance entries a month. Start with the OBD2 app for CarPlay guide.