rocket354

I have an android phone (galaxy SII if it matters) with nav and voice-activation capability. It works fine when bluetooth is off, but as soon as I turn the bluetooth on to connect it to the car, the voice interactions stop working.

It's like the car commandeers control of the phone and so only the hands-free calling works. Now, that feature works great. I can call someone by voice (using the car's controls/voice system) and have a full conversation crystal clear through the car's speakers. However, I can no longer function the voice-activation on my phone itself, nor does the voice from the phone work at all, neither from the phone itself nor from the car's speakers.

I've heard of other people having it work perfectly, with the voice-guidance on their phone piping through the speakers. Any ideas on what might be causing the issue?

Secondary issue: it no longer alerts me to incoming texts on the car's screen. It used to with my previous (non-smart) phone, but not with this one. Less importance, but curious as to why that suddenly doesn't work.

Spirited Driver

I ran into the same thing. Just got the Droid Razr Maxx HD. It appears that the vehicle does not that have a Bluetooth auxiliary feature (A2DP) therefore the audio cable needs to be plugged in with one end into the aux port which is in the center console and the other end into the phone, in order for the voice commands to come in through the car speakers.

Was not happy myself when I found this out while trying to run Google maps in the car.

Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

Colin

Interestingly, the opposite is true for the iPhone. If it's plugged in you lose the Siri functionality and the phone displays "accessory connected" on the screen.

I made the following for my 2013 ILX and RDX customers. Just a short video showing what works and what doesn't.

rocket354

That is disappointing if true. Not the end of the world, just means I will have to go buy a data cord that is long enough. Although--what about the fact that the phone doesn't take voice commands? Will that suddenly start working somehow?

Colin--nice video. You must have some happy customers. 31.6mpg...nice.

Colin

^^ I am wondering if there isn't a setting someplace that selects a "hands-free profile" that would force the car to mimic a Bluetooth headset?

As a sales consultant, and an iOS user, I find android very frustrating. Too many models, too many different operating system versions, too many skins over the operating system versions for me to keep track of in ordervto offer a consistent experience. I literally read a huge sigh of relief when somebody tells me they have an iPhone. This is not to say that things work perfectly (because they don't) but at least I know what to expect.

Colin

I think you're wrong (sorry). The HFL page on Acura's site says the following:
This means that Acura is acknowledging that the compatibility lies on the phone side since they've provided those profiles built in. They go on to say:

Spirited Driver

So the non-navi ILX has A2DP (wireless aux) built in? The Moto Droid Razr HD has A2DP.

Not sure how to sync the two then if the ILX has A2DP.

Colin

Yes, A2DP has been built in for several years now. I have been unable to find what version it's running but I'm not sure if that makes much of a difference. Did you look on the HFL page for pairing/compatibility information?

Spirited Driver

Thanks Colin. Yes, the Droid RAZR Max HD is compatible according to the Acura page you referenced. Not sure if the data cable needs to be plugged in, in order for the voice commands of Google maps to work. I doubt it cause that's what a2dp is for.

Colin

As I noted, with iOS, if the data cable is plugged in we lose all functionality because the car sees it as a "qualified" accessory. The "problem" is that Acura cannot help because they don't want to be put in a situation where they have to speak for every phone manufacturer (and every phone model). These guys change their software every two or three months and it's impossible to keep up. This is why the onus is put on us users to figure out what works best with in the framework that the car supports.

Spirited Driver

When I plug the data usb input into the Droid phone and press the Aux button, it says: Data not Supported (on the cars display).


On Acuras website, it says this model (Droid Razr Maxx HD) is supported.

Colin

Have you called HFL customer service? It seems as if you're describing two different functions. 1) trying to get Google maps to give you voice directions through the HFL system. And 2) displaying data on the screen such as song information et cetera.

I don't think that Acura ever intended to allow a mobile device to give voice directions through the system. If it inadvertently happens, that's great but it's not a feature they'll support.

Anyway, maybe you could clarify, what data are you trying to get through the USB cable?

rocket354

That seems strange. I guess if phone-nav systems were that compatible it might hurt their own built-in nav sales? Because it sounds like a function that would take more effort to make sure it doesn't work than to have it work. And of course we 2.4 drivers get that reduced functionality without the nav option.

I'm still waiting to see if the auxiliary cable will allow it to work because if so that's fine; I keep it plugged in to charge anyways.

Losing voice activation features on my phone with bluetooth on is disconcerting but I have to imagine it is more an issue with the phone than it is an issue with the car.

Colin

I don't want to speak for Acura themselves, but my feeling is that there is no "up side" for them to try to support this functionality. They would be put in a situation that their customer satisfaction scores are going to rely on somebody else's functionality. Can you imagine the survey? "Are there any problems with your new Acura?" Customer: "yes, I can't get the voice for the built in navigation app to come through the car speakers". Acura: "but it's not supposed to do that".

As I think logically about this, if the audio connection is going through the Bluetooth and your music is playing, why wouldn't the music be interrupted if the navigation needed to prompt you? Has anybody tried the analog headphone jack?

Spirited Driver

Yes, I've tried it. The navigation works with the audio cable, through the car speakers.

I can't seem to get Pandora or any music to work wirelessly, without the audio cable plugged in.

Colin

This is interesting. So your BT Audio isn't working at all? Has to be a setting on you phone. So you can make and receive calls, but A2DP won't stream. This is why I was trying to clarify things.

FYI, the mobile Pandora app "thumbs up" feature is iOS only.

rocket354

My thinking is that if they can pick up voice calls, then there shouldn't be much difference between that and picking up navigation directions. It seems like they would have to go out of their way in order to accept one but not the other. That doesn't mean they have to advertise themselves as supporting it, but it seems like a deliberate move on their part. But it's hard to say for sure without knowing the intricate nuts and bolts behind all that technology (which I do not).

I do think I identified the issue with the phone not taking my voice commands while on bluetooth. I sat in it while idling and talked louder and the phone was picking up my voice. That is because it was picking up my voice from the car's mic through the bluetooth, not directly through the phone itself. Once I started driving, I think the ambient noise plus the loss of clarity from being on bluetooth made it more or less inoperable (I had to practically yell, and tried to "text Dan" and it would try to text David, and that's the best I could get).

However, I think I found a way to minimize the annoyance. If I exit the phone's voice-activation app, and enter navigation directly, then it's no longer trying to pick up my voice over the bluetooth connection, it's back to picking it up directly through the phone. Then it works (as well as those things work, at least). The only issues of course are 1) not speaking directions at all either from the phone or through the car speakers (which hopefully will be fixed with the direct auxiliary connection) and 2) my not being able to text on the fly, but really, I don't really need to do that anyways.

Hopefully things come together in a manageable solution. This phone/car connection is already much more useful than not, so I can't complain too much either way.

Colin

I can't comment on the specifics of your android quandary but its good that you're finding a work around though.

However, I think there is a big difference between the HFL application and the continuous needs of the navigation app. But I don't think there's that much a difference between playing music through the car speakers via A2DP and voice directions. Put aside the talking to the phone topic for now... Are you able to connect to play music via BT Audio?

rocket354

I have not tried. I probably should at some point, but XM is plenty sufficient for me. I hardly have any digital music at the moment. I guess I could try Pandora.

legend74

I have a 4G TL... In order to get voice directions over the speakers you have to have the radio set to BT Audio. Not sure if it's the same in ILX.

Colin

Legend, this is the key (in my opinion). When the USB cable is plugged in, the car switches automatically to the USB input, and the phone switches to the USB output. This seems to cause confusion with the software. Most likely because when an iPhone the detects the cable plugged in, and it sees a "qualified iPhone accessory" and this disables the home screen and reduces functionality. (Think of it as if your iPhone was plugged into a Bose sound dock that has a remote control that controls the phone). In this case, the system assumes you intend to control your iPhone with the attached accessory.

veeedub

I own a Samsung Galaxy SII and it worked for me the day I got my car!
Everything Works perfectly, although I have only tried the navi through the phone once, once I turned it to bluetooth audio, my navi-phone sounds came through the car. Besides that, everything else connects to the car perfectly, Text/calls/voice commands etc.

Spirited Driver

You turned it to bluetooth audio where? On phone or car?

rocket354

damn that's my exact phone. Do you mind sharing what exact settings on the phone you have? It's gotta be something silly I just need to toggle but I've tried everything in lots of combinations and still no go. I can't even get it to work with the auxiliary cable plugged in. (speaking navi here. Still no text, either. but phone calls work great)

veeedub

On the car, the HDD/AUX button. Directly right of the DISC Button. When your phone is hooked up to the car by bluetooth,the order goes Bluetooth Audio/HDD/then AUX I believe? Or you can use the Voice command "Bluetooth Audio"

Hm, that's pretty weird Rocket. I'm running the default settings, exactly as it came. The day I got the car, I connected the phone to the car and it just imported my contacts to the car, and everything after that just clicked. It reads texts, takes phone calls, and plays navi sounds through the Bluetooth Audio settings via HDD button.
I would suggest seeing if your phone's firmware is up to date, and if it is, try a factory reset. (With all your data backed-up of course)

Spirited Driver

Just an update from my end. I have updated the firmware on my droid and now have full functionality of gps/navigation voice via bluetooth as well as Pandora wireless/bluetooth.