jj14

When I pair my smartphone to my GS350, and am listening to the radio (or music off the USB key), I can receive calls (automatically) when somebody calls me. In other words, when listening to radio, if somebody calls my phone, the call interrupts my music and I can respond to the call over the car's speakers/microphone - as expected. Great!

But when I use my phone for navigation (google maps), the spoken directions do not get passed to the car's speakers. What's worse, is that because the phone is trying to send directions over the BT connection, it disables the phone's speakers as well - so the spoken directions are not audible at all.

If I switch my car's media to the BT music (instead of radio/aux/USB), the nav directions come thru' fine. But that means that I am no longer listening to radio/USB in between the spoken directions.

Has anyone else encountered this? This happens with my Android Nexus 6, and with my friend's iPhone 6. I've shown this to the dealership, and they claim that "it is per design" - I am not buying that.

yardie876

A year ago whenever I used google maps on my phone, the directions were handled by the car as a call so whenever directions were said, the side of the screen would pop up (muting whatever was playing) as a private call and the directions would be spoken. Now, it doesn't at all. It is either an app or phone software change that caused that since I have not updated the car's software.

islandbeef

Hmmm....for iPhone, make sure iTunes/iMusic is logged in with the personal apple account. Meaning, the music will stop streaming out unless iTunes/iMusic is logged in. This affects the other music apps' streaming abilities like Spotify, I've discovered.

Once logged in, you will get music, phone calls and voice directions over the speakers via bluetooth.

Give that a try.

For Navigation, I use the Waze app exclusively. I love it because it gives me realtime traffic/police reports down road.

jj14

Thanks. If I'm streaming music from my phone, I set the audio source on the car's Nav unit to Bluetooth, and then, Google Maps Navigation comes thru' without a problem.

The problem happens when I'm playing music on radio or using the USB media - the audio source is no longer set to BT on the car, and Google Maps Nav doesn't stream directions over BT. (even though phone calls come thru' ok)

yardie876

Well would you look at that... Go to navigation setting on the google maps app and turn on the toggle for "play as Bluetooth phone call". That option was off for who knows how long for me; I'm guessing a year. When I get back to my car this evening I'll try it out.

jj14

That came out late last year - and unfortunately for me, it didn't solve the issue

Edit: I take that back. I was referring to the "Play voice over bluetooth" option. I don't have the "play as phone call" option on my maps app on Android! DOH!
That outta solve the problem for iOS - https://support.google.com/gmm/answe...Platform%3DiOS

"If you don't hear voice navigation through your car speakers, turn the "Play as Bluetooth phone call" switch on when:

Your car supports Bluetooth phone calls but not Bluetooth media.
You want to hear navigation even when you're listening to audio other than Bluetooth, like the radio or a CD."

1fuzzybk

Ultimately the problem is your listening to a different source and even though your phone is still sending out directions the radio is not listening to that source. If you don't have that phone call option then it probably best to have the audio come from the speaker in the phone.

jj14

Yeah - bit of a pain because if BT connection is on (phone is connected to nav), it automatically streams audio over BT. "Play voice over bluetooth" doesn't seem to make it route nav over phone's speakers.

So, if I disable bluetooth on my phone, I will get Nav directions over phone speakers, but I won't get phone calls over car's speakers.
If I leave bluetooth enabled, I can get phone calls over car speakers (regardless of what source I've selected - radio/USB/Bluetooth) - but nav directions go into la-la land (not over car speakers, and not over phone speakers).


Since it works fine for phone calls, no reason why they couldn't get it to work for Navigation as well.

Sucks that Google doesn't have the option to force it to make it work like a phone call (in their Android app)

6speediroc

Ever figure this out? My Android worked fine and played directions fine when not on Bluetooth audio setting, but since wiping the phone a few weeks ago with the new Android os it wont play sound unless on bt audio.

MustangSal

I use Waze. If the phone isn't playing through Bt on the car it won't play out of the phone speaker (it is a setting inside the Waze app). If it isn't hooked up to the GS (like I'm riding with someone else) than it plays out the phone speaker fine.

Just know that even though you might not be transmitting Music or voice through the BT channel on the GS your phone still hooks up if it can.

Check the audio setting on the app you're using.

DenverRx

For years, I haven't been able to get audio directions from google maps. After reading this thread, I went into the google maps settings, and turned off bluetooth. Now I get audio from my phone speaker, though it doesn't mute the radio, which is no big deal. Thanks for solving this!