Sound to Speaker / Bluetooth?

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Eric, speaker is the phone speaker. Otherwise, waze will use BT streaming (Sync phrase). If "Prefer BT" is selected, then it will use the BT phone style connection and interrupt any playing audio on the car stereo just like a phone call does.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Thanks for your reply Alan!

Certainly! I drive a Fusion, so have figured out most of this, I think. There are issues with app/iOS which muddy the situation. Here's some info/tidbits, hopefully helpful stuffz:

1. iOS only allows the phone to output sound via one method at a time. Each output type (speaker, headphone, BT, dock) has its own volume setting iOS stores.
2. Make sure your phone and Sync and paired and that BT is enabled on both
3. Waze should have "Always output to speaker" and "Prefer bluetooth" options under Device/Prompts volume sliders. These two options are mutually exclusive. You cannot turn both on at the same time.
4. Waze's "device volume" doesn't update when another app changes the volume when Waze isn't running for the selected output method. Therefore, the speaker volume could be set very low or near zero and the device volume slider may not show that. The only way to adjust the audio up within Waze is to have Waze play a sound, such as activating voice commands, and while the sound is playing use the volume+ button to increase the volume.
5. When both "speaker" and "prefer BT" are off, Waze will use whatever output was last used, or whatever output is currently in use by another audio-outputting app like Music, Pandora, etc. In this mode, iOS will fade the other audio app output and allow Waze to overlay the other audio program. This will happen even if the other app is outputting to the speaker.
6. When "speaker" output is selected, iOS will force any app currently playing audio to stop playback and then play the Waze sound outputs. This will happen even if the other app is using the speaker.
7. When the iPhone is outputting audio/music to Sync, this is almost always via bluetooth streaming, but could be via the dock connector.
8. Dock connector, Waze, and iOS do not play well at all together. Long-term user Shorty-CM from BC, Canada, has been diligent in documenting issues with each beta release of the app.
9. "Prefer bluetooth" will send Waze sounds through the bluetooth "headset" mode (whatever that's called, I forget), which will make Sync see this as an incoming call, which will interrupt whatever audio is currently playing on the car stereo. This option also allows giving voice commands to Waze via a bluetooth headset or Sync.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Just want to check one thing... you're citing iOS, but I have an Android phone... how might that effect you answers!

Aw, crap. Um, so a lot of it should apply, but I am not sure of the OS-level portion and how that affects it. I'm sorry, I knew that from your initial post, but somehow, went off on my tangent anyway. For example, I don't know why you wouldn't have the "prefer bluetooth" option in Sound settings.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

I would love to get the directions from the phone's speaker. I don't get them at all when it's connected to BT, regadless of how I configure the sound settings in Waze.

"Play sound to speaker" does nothing? Does Android keep a separate volume setting for phone speaker vs other output method?

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Maybe it's a bug in Waze. Maybe it's hardware or rom-specific. It does work on ios even when bt streaming music. I'm not touting iOS, but saying that it would be expected to have parity on android.


--
If it looks strange, or I used bad grammar or misspelled anything, it's my phone's fault.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

I have had a similar problem. I found that directions would play through the phone speaker when 'prefer bluetooth' was checked. However when I set both 'play sound to phone speaker' AND 'prefer bluetooth' OFF, the sound is routed to the bluetooth speaker. Odd!

Prefer BT only really means it will use the phone connection to the car stereo instead of bluetooth streaming. Prefer BT also means it will accept voice commands via BT headset/car connection.

With Speaker and prefer BT off, if your phone is paired with a streaming device, Waze will still use it. Not sure if that's because of the OS, hardware or Waze, but that's the way it works. Waze hasn't implemented, on iOS for example, the standard audio output selection mode that every other app in the world uses...

[AlanOfTheBerg]

It's not "route to speakers" but "route to speaker." This means the internal phone speaker. It could be that audio volume settings for the speaker are set very low? Waze is supposed to duck the currently playing audio. With "play to speaker" on, it will pause the music. That is how it is designed.

Prefer Bluetooth will appear if your phone and car/device have the bluetooth "phone" connection available.

Posting your hardware/software info is always helpful.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Isn't the Prefer BT an iOS only option?

I honestly do not know. Why would this be an iOS-only option? (semi-rhetorical question)

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Eric, speaker is the phone speaker. Otherwise, waze will use BT streaming (Sync phrase). If "Prefer BT" is selected, then it will use the BT phone style connection and interrupt any playing audio on the car stereo just like a phone call does.

It doesn't use any of your phone minutes or anything though right? Does it just make the headunit (Stereo) think its a phone call to interrupt?

No, no minutes used. It's just the type of BT connection between the phone and car and allows the "interrupt" to happen.


Tapatalk made me do it.

[AlexanderZwo]

Hi @ all,

Joining your forum for the first time, I'm having exactly the problems you are discussing. I am using a Samsung GT-S 7562, also called Galaxy S Duos. "Duos" stands for Dual SIM and I am using that kind of Samsung Phones since the days of SGH-D 880.

The Samsung runs on Android 4.0.4. My car is a Volkswagen Golf Variant, I think you call it Jetta Wagon in the States. It is equipped with a Radio, which is called RCD 310 here and with a Premium Bluetooth Kit (VW Phone).

This works together well when it comes to telephone audio and media audio via BT and it struggles a little with Phone Book Application Protocol (PBAP), but this is a known issue and I had it already with the previous phone.

I got to know Waze occasionally and I think I like it a lot. I first of all fully agree with what Venatius writes:

1. I do not have a “Prefer Bluetooth” button on the “Sound” page

2. I do have a checkbox “Route sound to speaker” on the “Sound” page

3. If I check the box “Route sound to speaker” and the Galaxy is not connected to VW Phone telephone audio and media audio in the car, the prompts are coming via the phone speaker.

4. If I check the box “Route sound to speaker” and the Galaxy is connected to VW Phone telephone audio and media audio in the car, no prompts are coming via phone speakers but if I have the Galaxy MP3 Player on, the music is interrupted wherever a prompt should be.

5. If I do NOT check the box “Route sound to speaker” and put the BT-Audio of the car on, I hear the prompts via the car VW Phone media audio, but if the MP3 player is on as well, I hear music and prompts simultaneously as the music is not paused. So I cannot understand the prompts.

Principally all this makes perfect sense and is not a bug so far. As Alan rightly says, Waze is probably meant to work like this. The user shall usually keep the box “Route sound to speaker” checked. And as some of you can see with iPhones the sound is now meant to go via the telephone audio and not via the media audio. At the same time MP3s are interrupted in order not to miss anything.

This way has the huge advantage that you can listen to the regular radio and get the prompts. You even can leave the radio off and the prompts will come through.

The disadvantage is it does not work with Android 4.0.4. The prompts don't come via VW Phone telephone audio. I have tried it all but I have no idea what’s up. Maybe I have forgotten to get a setting right but I am afraid that the usage of BT telephone audio service under Android 4.0.4. is buggy indeed.

I would be grateful for recommendations to get this solved. I will post this report also as a ticket to support.

Regards from Germany
Hubert

EDIT: Yesterday evening we tried the same with my wife's Galaxy S III, running on Android 4.1.1. Exactly the same effects... Interesting by the way: The S III can connect via Remote Sim Access Protocoll (RSAP), which means that the car borrows the SIM from the cellphone and establishes the telephone connection on own hardware. At this moment the cellphone looses network connection and cannot do Internet anymore, which causes Waze to show "Searching Network Connection" and to be unable to calculate the optimum route. Is this the same with all smartphone navigations or Waze specific?

AND... I learned in the FAQ that Waze wants us NOT to check the "Route Sound To Speaker Option". So my theory that they want to send the prompts via the telephone audio seems to be wrong. They want to send them via the media audio.

In that case you cannnot hear regular radio and you cannot leave the radio off. But then they really have a bug as they should at least stop the MP3 player when it is in use as long as the prompts are announced, like they do, when the box is checked.

Bottomline: The BT subject still needs some attention...

Regards
Hubert