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Waze App Useful Resources

How (and when) does sound work?

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I'm using an iPhone 5. When am I supposed to hear sound? I can usually hear it when the app is actually open, but what about when other apps are open? It seems to me that I should here notifications whenever I'm in any other app (such as a music app - I use Spotify - or a reading app - when I'm not driving). But it seems sporadic at best. I know my volume is all the way up in Waze, and I have the correct setting to use bluetooth or built-in speaker. Any ideas or is this maybe a Waze bug?

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Re: How (and when) does sound work?

Post by AggieJM
I've noticed some issues with the sound options on Waze 3.6 on my iPhone 4 with iOS 6.1.2.

I've always had the "Play sound to phone speaker" option set to 'On'. When playing music from my phone through my radio (connected via USB), it would briefly lower the music to play the sound from Waze through the radio speakers. With the current version, it appears to stop the music and it will not restart when the Waze sound has played. It appears that the radio can't re-establish a connection with the phone. The small arrow on the top toolbar of the phone that appears when playing music will just flash on, then off quickly each time you hit play to try and resume the music. I either have to disconnect the USB cable and reconnect and I've had a couple of instances where I had to shut down Waze and restart.

I changed the "Play sound to phone speaker" option to 'Off', and now it just lowers the music volume while it plays the sounds, then raises the volume back up at the end. Looks like it will work this way for me, just wanted to see if others had the same problem that might indicate a bug.

Also, has anyone else noticed that their non-Waze sound volume is affected while Waze is running? If I'm using Waze to navigate, I have my phone plugged into USB through the radio to charge. When it's plugged in, the Sound menu in Waze will not show a 'Device Volume' slider. If I'm just listening to the radio (not playing music from my phone), text message notifications and other system sounds are inaudible. The volume on my phone is maxed out before opening Waze, so I'm not sure how to increase the volume while Waze is running since there is no slider.
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Re: How (and when) does sound work?

Post by AggieJM
Is there a setting that will force Waze to route sounds to the phone speaker, even if its connected to a radio via USB? I have tried setting "Always play sound to phone speaker" to both on and off with no success.

When I use Waze in my truck, I always have it plugged into the radio to charge the battery, but I'm not always playing music from my phone. If I'm just listening to the radio, no sounds (except for the phone ringer) can be heard. Text messages, calendar reminders and all Waze alerts are silent, I only get the on screen popup. If I'm playing music from my phone, then all of these sounds are played through the radio.

I've checked the volume and it is maxed out before I connect to the radio. Once I plug it in, I lose the device volume slider.

If I don't have Waze running, I don't have any issues with sound. All notifications are played as normal. It just seems that once Waze starts, it will always send the sounds to the radio whether or not it is being used.
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Re: How (and when) does sound work?

Post by AggieJM
sketch wrote:I'm pretty sure there's nothing you can do. For as long as I can remember, the only sounds the iPhone will play over its own speaker when plugged into a USB/dock connector/Lightning audio player are ringtones for incoming calls and alarms. Other notification sounds will lower the music volume slightly and play the notification sound over the music through the USB connection.

I suspect this occurs because the iPhone is for some reason incapable of playing sound over both USB and the phone speaker at the same time. Rings and alarms are the only sounds the phone makes that pause the music entirely, so the phone can stop playing over USB entirely and switch audio to the phone speaker. With other alerts, the phone would not be able to play the alert over the speaker without either pausing the music or cutting the music abruptly from the USB player to the phone speaker and back. Since these alerts are typically short and don't require intervention to be stopped, unlike calls and alarms, cutting off the music would be too abrupt.

I can't speak for everything, but I've owned a FIAT and a Ford, and on both their stereos this is how it happened when the iPhone was plugged into USB, even if USB wasn't the selected audio source. If I wanted to charge my phone via USB while listening to the radio, I simply wouldn't hear any alerts for texts, Twitter, or Waze.

Occasionally, if the audio system was being screwy and the USB didn't connect properly, the phone plays all sound over the speaker, as if it were connected to any old charger. However, since it wasn't actually connecting to the stereo, I couldn't play songs from it.

If your phone doesn't act in the way I described, possibly your stereo works differently than mine. But your saying that the phone volume control is unavailable when USB is connected says to me that it's probably the same. I would wonder if it's possible you were mistaken about audio playing over the speaker instead of USB when Waze hasn't been opened yet, or if that's just a coincidence because your USB connection hasn't been picked up yet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2
I did some additional testing with it yesterday. In all the scenarios I tried yesterday, anytime USB was connected, no sound would play through the phone speaker. I'd swear I've had it in place before charging where I could hear notifications from the phone. But I was unable to replicate it yesterday. It would appear that the iPhone sees the USB connection and sends all sounds (except the phone ringer) through USB instead of playing them over the phone.

The biggest problem was text messages where they would only flash in the banner at the top of the screen when running Waze (since the phone was already awake). I changed my notification settings to use the alert instead of the banner, so hopefully this will make the incoming text more visible while Waze is running.
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Re: How (and when) does sound work?

Post by AlanOfTheBerg
When Waze is set to output to speaker, it should always output to speaker if it is the foreground app, and it will pause the audio. When it is set to output to speaker and another app like Music is in the foreground, which is playing music over BT, I believe Waze will output over BT as well, but will duck the Music audio instead of pause it. There are a set of settings and features/restrictions available in both Waze and iOS, as well as perhaps still some bugs in Waze or missing features, which conspire to make output of audio sometimes frustrating.

If you can describe in more detail the exact audio settings (output to speaker or output to BT in Waze are opposite settings; both cannot be enabled at the same time), devices attached/connected, and other apps which are running audio and which app is in the foreground, then I can offer more advice from experience.

Also, what is your desired output method for Waze?
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Re: How (and when) does sound work?

Post by AlanOfTheBerg
Adjust the real output volume when it is playing sound, or waiting for voice command input. It's the only way to access it within Waze. (FYI, other apps adjust this audio setting when Waze isn't running, like games.)
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Re: How (and when) does sound work?

Post by AlanOfTheBerg
Flamewinger wrote:Something got broken at last update?
Do you have audio muted? Main menu, small icon at the top.
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Re: How (and when) does sound work?

Post by AlanOfTheBerg
SocalToe wrote:All sound just quit working for me today, was fine yesterday.
And you don't have the mute turned on in the Main menu at the top?
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Re: How (and when) does sound work?

Post by bradbort
I've been having intermittent sound issues with waze on iphones since the beginning. Sometimes it will play through the phone speaker when I select that, sometimes it won't. Sometimes it will play through bluetooth when I select it, sometimes it won't. Sometimes it will start a trip by working through bluetooth, then it will fall silent part way through.

Its infuriating enough that I've stopped depending on it.
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Re: How (and when) does sound work?

Post by dmcconachie
You're not muting the media volume are you?
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Re: How (and when) does sound work?

Post by dmcconachie
Which would happen if the media volume was muted, eg if you've been watching a YouTube video and turned the volume down, that will effectively mute waze too.

If that's definitely not the case, there's not much chance the community on here can diagnose the issue, you should raise a support ticket at waze.com/support. Next time it happens send your logs and take note of the time they were sent.
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