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Playing Android Navigation prompts through car over Bluteooth

terryt

Active Member
Aug 16, 2013
505
10
I have a Nexus 4 with Purity ROM and had issues using Google Maps and Waze streaming audio prompts to the Leon's speakers. Streaming music and using the phone works ok with bluetooth when the corresponding source is selected but when listening to the radio or sd/usb I could not get the nav prompts to come over to the car.

After a bit of digging around it seems that Android routes these prompts using the A2DP bluetooth profile, and the Leon (mine at least) cannot interupt the radio/sd/usb to play the audio over A2DP. It seems the iPhone routes prompts using HFP (handsfree) profile so the system interupts the audio as it thinks there is an incoming call.

There are several apps in Google Play that routes audio using HFP profile instead of A2DP, however, these are designed for BT headsets for people who want to stream music to their headsets so if using these in the car, the car thinks it is permanently on a call so you can't listen to any other source.

I finally managed to find AudioBT Plus. These routes the prompts using HFP/SCO profile so I can now listen to the radio/sd/usb and if a prompt from Maps/Waze comes through its mutes the music and plays the prompts, hurray! There's 2 ways to use AudioBT, first as a service to stream nearly all audio from the phone to the car using HFP profile, the problem with this is it can miss the first second of the prompt as it establishes the connection. The second way is to use it as a wraparound TTS engine so TTS prompts route using HFP, this will only work for apps that use TTS e.g. Google maps. I couldn't get the latter method to work on my phone/car unfortunately.

There is a free version of AudioBT but it stops routing audio after 4 messages.

There is another method for Waze which is an Xposed module, Waze BT router. This is in early development and not sure if it will be further developed. I tested this and it does route the prompt to the car, however, it didn't disconnect so the car didn't switch back to playing the music source. YMMV.

Hope this helps others who have the same issue with Android :)
 
Last edited:

Briant566

Active Member
Oct 12, 2014
343
2
West Yorks England
Hi
I have a sony Z1 Compact I am not on free data so the app I use for walking and driving is OsmAnd as you download load the map files to the phone and just uses Gps I mainly us it out of the car with earpiece But this week I played music through the Media Bt in the car ok
So I set phone to navigate with voice command's and direction came through Cars speakers no problem . :rofl:
 

terryt

Active Member
Aug 16, 2013
505
10
Yes, if you have the media input to BT then all audio will stream from the phone. But if you are listening to the radio, usb, or SD card then nothing apart from a phone call will come through :)
 
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