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Waze App Useful Resources

does bluetooth work on Android for *anybody*?

Post by wjcarpenter
I see a lot of questions about problems with Bluetooth on Android. They are mostly along the lines of "doesn't work". It looks like the iOS version of the app has some additional settings related to BT that are not present at all on Android.

Does BT work for anybody using Android?

I have tried to get BT going with Waze on a few different Android phones over the last couple years, and it didn't work for any of them. When I say it didn't work, I mean that if I turn off "sound to phone speakers", I get no audio output at all. It doesn't go to my BT, it doesn't come out the phone speakers, it doesn't fly out my car window like a defeated ring wraith. It's clearly not supposed to be turning the sound completely off since there is a different setting for that.

I must be doing something wrong or misunderstanding something. I would be happy to be informed about my mistake. A car navigation app without sound through BT is simply incomplete, and Waze has been around for quite a while.
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Re: does bluetooth work on Android for *anybody*?

Post by Annie-Od
Has anyone gotten Waze voice commands to work through a Bluetooth headset? If so what should my phone settings be? I am using a Samsung Galaxy On5 with Marshmallow.
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Re: does bluetooth work on Android for *anybody*?

Post by apurohit8
Works fine for me and my wife too. Worked on our previous cars (using an external BT receiver, since the cars did not have built-in BT)... and works on our current cars (Cadillac ATS and VW Jetta). We prefer to use "play sound to phone speaker", but it works through the car when this is disabled. "Mute during calls" works too... though I disabled it on my phone.
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Re: does bluetooth work on Android for *anybody*?

Post by RussPA
I use BT with my S5 and Subaru all the time and never have an issue. I stream iHeart radio through my phone to my car, and when Waze has something to say, it automatically lowers the iHeart volume while Jane speaks. I don't touch the audio settings in Waze, "Play sound to phone speaker" is turned off all the time, and when not using BT, Waze plays sound through the phone speaker (so I'm not sure what this setting even does). I also have "Mute Waze during calls" turned on and that also works well, it mutes Waze completely when I get a call (which also plays through BT to my car).

I know with my last car, the BT didn't work right, I couldn't get Waze and phone calls to work together, but I think that was a BT issue with the car, some protocol that the car didn't have. But I would guess that all newer cars have the correct protocol.
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Re: does bluetooth work on Android for *anybody*?

Post by RussPA
I found that "Play sound to phone speaker" option does have a role with Bluetooth.
With BT off, if that option is on, it plays sound through the phones speakers, if off it plays through the phones earpiece (like you use during a phone call).
With BT on, if that option is on, it plays sound through the phones speakers only (not BT), if off it plays through BT to my car.
So it seems that with my phone, BT redirects the earpiece sound to my car but not it does not redirect the speakers to my car, so any sound directed to my phones speakers is not captured by BT and will continue to play through the phones speakers. I normally leave that Play sound option off, and if I'm not using BT, I can still hear Waze through my phone's earpiece, just not very loud.

Not sure if this helps you at all.
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Re: does bluetooth work on Android for *anybody*?

Post by wjcarpenter
I'm glad to hear some confirmation that it works for somebody. I guess I'll keep fiddling around and see if I can discover the magic sauce to make it work for me.
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Re: does bluetooth work on Android for *anybody*?

Post by wkearney99
On my Samsung S7 turning the Phone Speaker option on when I have a BT connection does seem to use the Speakerphone level of audio on the phone. So it's not just the lower level of sound you'd get when holding the phone to your ear.

What I'd like to know is if it can use the BT connection to the radio to interrupt the radio when playing Waze audio prompts? I asked this in another thread.
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