Audio output for voice recognition commands

[dennis_airllo]

I have an iPhone 3Gs running iOS 6.0.1, which I connect, via Bluetooth, to a Jabra Crusier II hands free unit. I am running WAZE most current version (as far as I know).

My hand free unit plays through my car radio/speaker, so, the turn-by-turn voice comes out of the speakers. But, if I use the "Voice commands" (initiated by the "3 finger tap"), the audio for that comes out of the phone speaker? Which is not what I'd like, or that I would have expected.

Is it supposed to work this way? Is this a bug? Are there plans to change this?

Thanks, Dennis

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Do you have "prefer bluetooth" turned on?

Waze can, if "to speaker" and "prefer bluetooth" are OFF, output to the same device which is currently used by another app. It does not have the ability to output spoken directions to one output and use a headset/phone connection to commands from another device.

[dennis_airllo]

O.K., turning on "prefer bluetooth" now has the voice command output coming out of my speakers via the bluetooth connection to my hands free unit.

But, there seem to be some side effects:

It used to say "How can I help you?". That seems to have disappeared. Just get the beeping noise that it's ready for input. Not a big deal, I can live with that.

The volume level is 1/2 of that for the trun-by-turn nav voice. Again, I can live with it.

When the input is accepted, you get "Call ended" (as it does with some other apps that use this interface for voice calls). Not a big deal, but, don't think this should work like this?

Bottom line, this feature seems to be a bit buggy to me, personal opinion.

Still don't understand why the voice command output should work any different than the turn-by-turn voice output. Why not just use the same code/interfaces????

In any case, it is a "fix" for now.

Thanks, Dennis Aiello

[AlanOfTheBerg]

It used to say "How can I help you?". That seems to have disappeared. Just get the beeping noise that it's ready for input. Not a big deal, I can live with that.

What said that? Waze or Siri? Waze only does that the first time you initiate the voice command, and only beeps thereafter. It's always been like this and behaves this way regardless of voice input method.

The volume level is 1/2 of that for the trun-by-turn nav voice. Again, I can live with it.

When your car or BT device is set to "multimedia" or "bluetooth streaming" that is typically a different volume setting on your car. The other mode for giving voice commands is different. I know my vcar has individual volume settings saves for each of the different inputs. Voice feedback in Waze when using TTS has always been lower than other apps audio output as well as being lower-quality which gives the impression of lower volume because not all the frequencies are there we expect to hear. Waze could improve this.

When the input is accepted, you get "Call ended" (as it does with some other apps that use this interface for voice calls). Not a big deal, but, don't think this should work like this?

Because it is using the "phone" interface from the device, which is the only way to do this, your car says this because it thinks you're on a phone call. This is just the way it is and always has been for audio devices connected via bluetooth to the phone for voice input. Any bluetooth "headset" would also give the same "beep" of some kind denoting the call is complete as well. This is mostly a limitation of the current state of bluetooth functionality and integration between devices and nothing Waze has any control over.

Still don't understand why the voice command output should work any different than the turn-by-turn voice output. Why not just use the same code/interfaces????

I'm pretty sure you can only be connected to one bluetooth device at a time. This is an OS-level and bluetooth limitation and nothing Waze can control.