Samsung S22 Ultra and Pioneer Auto Head units

[G. David Felt]

So my Note9 by Samsung, I accidentally swung around, it was in my coat pocket and hit something cause it was not zipped up and wack, cracked screen. Hit hard enough to crack through the safety screen and actually crack the real screen.

So off to Verizon, and I got me a new Galaxy S22 Ultra that replaces the Note series of phones. Been a long time since I was on a note 9, 4 generations ago as I learned they had a Note 10, then Galaxy 20, 21 and now 22 series.

Left the store, got home and the wife wanted to run some errands, so I drove her in the SS and thought, lets plug in my new phone to the Pioneer AVH-2500NEX Android Auto head unit.

First, only a black screen, I could hear my Spotify play and the instructions for Google map worked but no mirroring of my phone to the head unit. About 5 minutes later, head unit reboots. WTF

Got home been searching online and finding plenty of Reddit, Google and Samsung threads of people having issues with the Galaxy S22 and Pioneer units. Also many people complaining about the death of the traditional Android Auto apps on the phones. Checked and sure enough with no prior info, Google stopped existing apps and changed to what is called Google Driving. The old Android Auto apps are greyed out and no longer work. Seems that this change is what has caused the black screen of nothing and crazy audio levels. 

I called Pioneer, they are aware that their head units do not work with the S22 line up from Samsung and have no plans to provide updates other than over their OTA Head Units only. DMH-WT86NEX, DMH-WC6600NEX, DMH-WT7600NEX, DMH-WT8600NEX are their new lineup of OTA units and once they have a fix they will push it out.

At this time I can confirm after going to Car toys that the Pioneer units do not work even those listed above with the S22 Ultra that I now own. I tested all of the Kenwood units they had on hand also and for them only 25% of the screen would work with the S22Ultra so everything is really small. The only unit from Kenwood that seemed to work just fine was their top of the line eXcelon Reference DNR1007XR or DMX1057XR.

The wife's S21 Ultra works fine except that sometime in the last 2 weeks, she cannot use the Pioneer audio "Hey Google" and has to first push the microphone first. To say that I am unhappy with Pioneer is an understatement. They have made the decision to ignore existing customers and move to an OTA format for their new 2022 units only.