Resolved Long Shot: CarPlay Issues with an Android head unit

[DJLC]

I realize this is a bit of a long-shot... I emailed the manufacturer, but with the Mid-Autumn Festival, I don't expect a reply until next week. (Not complaining; I hope their team gets some good downtime away from the office!)

Anyway — I finally pulled the trigger and replaced my Pioneer NEX head unit with one of those Android units with a massive screen. I decided on Joying. But I'm having two little CarPlay issues, and I'm not sure whether to look at my phone or whether I should be attempting OS or app updates on this Android head unit. They bundled an app called Car Link 2.0, and it's working surprisingly well for wired and wireless CarPlay aside from these two things:

1. Android has a setting to "mute while in reverse." I turned this setting off. The regular radio no longer mutes when I'm in reverse, but CarPlay still does.
   1. And I'll add: I don't think this is an Android app issue with being in the background. I can exit to the Android Home Screen and even use other Android apps + CarPlay music continues uninterrupted.
2. When Siri reads turn-by-turn directions, it mutes my music entirely. On my old Pioneer, it would lower the music volume and talk over it.

I'm betting this is a "figure out Android" scenario, but maybe somebody here has a tip I can try over the weekend? At the very least, I guess this is still better than the Pioneer crashing to a black screen all the time. I've Googled a bit on this without any luck. Thanks!

EDIT: Found it. Dumb Android thing. In the Android Settings, “Volume reduction in reverse” has to be set to 20, which apparently means no reduction. 0 means mute. And the setting to let voice guidance overlap is “GPS Mix.” Sure would be nice if they documented this crap, but whatever.