I've scoured the manual and I though it must be me but my techie friend was in the car today and he couldn't do this either: How do you keep the phone set up on Bluetooth so the GPS instructions are spoken but also play the FM radio (or anything else)?


If I switch to the radio the Bluetooth goes off and vice versa. Is it possible they can't be run simultaneously? My recollection is that the CD player works and the GPS instructions interrupt it but I'm not sure (yes I still have CDs).


Neither of us can find this in the manual nor make it happen by experimentation.

 

radio and bluetooth can't run at the same time. bluetooth can activate only for calls, but it will turn off the radio.

here is my solution. my radio station that i listen to is on iheartradio. when i have to have google maps and the radio on, i just run iheartradio and play it thru bluetooth.

 

Try exploring options like pandora, you may find music you like over a radio station.

 

Thanks! I'll experiment.

 

I don't listen to FM or AM and I don't listen to Pandora and the like because I'm too cheap to up my data plan. I just use a thumb drive loaded with my music. I like to read how these kind of tech problems are solved so just in case I ever stream music I'll know what to do. It's threads like this one that keeps me coming back.

 

I've had some luck using Siri Eyes Free navigation with my FM radio is playing. When a prompt for directions comes up, the audio comes in as a incoming phone call that is automatically played over the radio. The big issues is that it still stays connected to the "call", and the radio audio is played at a much lower volume.
I would really just recommend using a radio streaming app if your data plan can support that much usage. Then the phone can handle all the switches between sources.

 

The solution I found (on Android; don't know about iPhones):

In either Google Maps/Navigation, or Waze, there is an option in the newest versions of the apps to have the spoken directions come out of the phone's speaker instead of through Bluetooth. In Google Maps, go into Settings->Navigation Settings and you will see "Play Voice over Bluetooth". Make sure that is UNCHECKED. Waze has a similar setting - in Sound Settings, check "play sound to phone speaker"

The one "wonky" thing about it is that during a phone call, the navigation voice will switch to bluetooth over your caller's voice. Once your call is done, it will switch back. I think it is a bug in the app they need to fix.

That is the best solution I have found. With this, it doesn't matter what audio source you are using on the in-car entertainment system.

 

Thanks I'll check it out.

 

If I recall, TOM TOM gps units allow you to specify sound over bluetooth and that maybe HFP (crappy sounding telephone audio) instead of A2DP (great sounding audio). The head unit will allow HFP override but not care about A2DP. Or maybe some garmin units will read directions out over HFP?

In a related subject, my wife uses an iphone and it will not play any text message sounds over the phone's speaker like my andriod does. What this means is that she never knows when she gets a text message when she is driving an listening to FM radio.