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Apple watch + Car + Iphone

Z

Zeromancer

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 18, 2010
49
6
Hi,

Here is the thing, I use my iphone 6+ bluetooth for audio streaming and phone calls in my car.
When the apple watch is here , i presume that it connects with bluetooth to the iphone.
Will this be possible at the same time when my iphone is already connected to my car , sending audio ?
 
Well it works fine now with the Pebble watch so I see no reason it won't work with the Apple watch too.
 
I can't imagine it being an issue. In our BMW we have 2 iPhones connected to handsfree and a BT GPS antenna all working at the same time. No issues.
 
Zeromancer said:
Hi,

Here is the thing, I use my iphone 6+ bluetooth for audio streaming and phone calls in my car.
When the apple watch is here , i presume that it connects with bluetooth to the iphone.
Will this be possible at the same time when my iphone is already connected to my car , sending audio ?
Click to expand...

I assume it will be fine as the iPhone 5S, 6 and 6+ allow 2 simultaneous bluetooth connections at any given point ( ... the older devices seem to allow 3 for some reason... the change seems to have been when they introduced 64bit devices as it is the same for iPads)

At the moment I have my iPhone 6 connected to my VW via BT and a "Mobile Home" button to allow me to access Siri.

the interesting port will be the audio routing and if multiple options exist you can select which one you want to use... so I assume it will allow you to route calls via the car bluetooth ... or the watch.

Guess we won't know for sure until we get our hands on the Watch and test it with our cars... because also I have had weird things happen with different headunits such as Alpine where it would not connect to the headunit every time for some reason
 
BadMelonFarmer said:
I assume it will be fine as the iPhone 5S, 6 and 6+ allow 2 simultaneous bluetooth connections at any given point ( ... the older devices seem to allow 3 for some reason... the change seems to have been when they introduced 64bit devices as it is the same for iPads)

At the moment I have my iPhone 6 connected to my VW via BT and a "Mobile Home" button to allow me to access Siri.

the interesting port will be the audio routing and if multiple options exist you can select which one you want to use... so I assume it will allow you to route calls via the car bluetooth ... or the watch.

Guess we won't know for sure until we get our hands on the Watch and test it with our cars... because also I have had weird things happen with different headunits such as Alpine where it would not connect to the headunit every time for some reason
Click to expand...

THIS. I've been really wondering how the watch will fit in/interact in my car. Car is connected to phone via bluetooth. Right now, even if I press and hold the home button Siri pops up but takes ~10 seconds to route the audio over the speakers and THEN I can finally talk. So my questions are: If I use Siri on my wrist, will it stop music playing on my phone? Also, will the watch try to route Siri over the speakers just like my phone? If I get a call in the car, where is it routed (car or watch)?

I guess there's no way to really find out but to wait and try it out... I'm hoping it doesn't pause music, and it doesn't try to route Siri over the speakers (don't like the weird ~10 seconds of limbo where I don't know whether I can start talking to Siri or not...)

I do have a feeling (and really hope) that where the phone call is routed is dependent on where you press the answer button. I hope it's smart enough that if I answer via the button on the steering wheel it goes over my car, and if I choose to answer it from the watch it routes through the watch.
 
KauaiBruce said:
For safety's sake the calls should go to the car.
Click to expand...

I can't reasonably foresee a situation in the car where I would want the call to route through the watch instead of my car speakers to be honest.

But I'm really hoping Siri is more of a 'stand-alone siri, that just happens to use your phone for the internet connection' opposed to the phone's siri just on a different display. If I'm in the car with some people I don't want to kill the tunes so I can set a reminder, have Siri read my messages, (etc). Doing so from my watch without interrupting anything else would be ideal.
 
If your phone is plugged in and your in the car "Hey Siri" will be interesting maybe. My car will work with this command sometimes. Other times its just too slow if I'm not already using bluetooth for music.
 
nathanalf said:
I can't reasonably foresee a situation in the car where I would want the call to route through the watch instead of my car speakers to be honest.

But I'm really hoping Siri is more of a 'stand-alone siri, that just happens to use your phone for the internet connection' opposed to the phone's siri just on a different display. If I'm in the car with some people I don't want to kill the tunes so I can set a reminder, have Siri read my messages, (etc). Doing so from my watch without interrupting anything else would be ideal.
Click to expand...

I'd much rather use the mic on the watch then the one in my vehicle. It constantly screws up what I'm saying plus theres a delay.

If I could set it to use my watch for everything but bluetooth streaming, I'd do that.
 
iregret said:
I'd much rather use the mic on the watch then the one in my vehicle. It constantly screws up what I'm saying plus theres a delay.

If I could set it to use my watch for everything but bluetooth streaming, I'd do that.
Click to expand...

Yes ... I agree. My 10-year old car has a horrible bluetooth implementation with long delays and poor quality. My car doesn't support streaming, so once I get my watch I will no longer have any need to pair the phone to my car.

I actually sent a support request for Apple to have Siri ignore the car bluetooth connection. I don't use Siri while driving, but often try to use it while parked, and between the delay and the audio quality issues, it is a VERY poor experience.
 
Update

Well in my 2015 VW Tiguan with RDS315....

With the Phone connected via MDI and Bluetooth, listening to the radio and when I activate Siri on the watch it routes audio via the watch and not via the car nor does it mute the radio.

I have not used the watch whilst streaming off the phone yet to see what happens then.

Edit:

Tried whilst streaming from my iPhone 6 and it still routes the Siri via the watch and does not mute the radio.

Next to try is initiating Siri from the home button .... I use "Mobile Home" which is just a Bluetooth home button .... My radio and multifunction steering controls can not initiate Siri. .... Was hoping to use the watch, but it would be too much of a distraction whilst driving due to no voice feedback, you would have to look at the screen.... Not gonna happen.
 
Last edited:
Siri on the watch seems to work fine in my car with BT. I did however have trouble using it while my phone was actively on a call. Siri just kept saying it or the phone were unable to connect. In fact some apps had a hard time working too, it felt like my iPhone 6 was simply overloaded with a call over BT, GPS (Waze) and then the watch.
 
Had asked this question in a post elsewhere "day after I got the watch" last week. Not sure if there has been follow up from anyone else but I was able to confirm that since my phone (IPhone 6) automatically connects to my Audi TT's Pioneer/Bluetooth setup and such that using "Hey Siri" on the watch will allow me to Bluetooth stream, call up albums, etc without a hiccup.

Haven't tried the call routing portion...yet.

I would like the watch to have a "car mode" for in the car that detects when it is connected to a cars Bluetooth setup so that Siri could use her voice and act a bit more like formal CarPlay (do have that in my 13 F150 through a NEX head unit). The CarPlay setup is pretty sweet (but Hey Siri Isn't so sweet since with CarPlay it still relies on the iPhone mic.

Joe
 
I've only tried once.

Car is a 2013 Chev Silverado. iPhone 6+. Watch Sport 42mm Silver.

I initiated a call using the car voice command and the phone dialed but as soon as it connected the car hands free disconnected and put the radio back on. Call was still connected on the phone. Never had it do that before. Will need to try again.
 
No issues on my '14 Accord. Calls come in on both my wrist and my car, so I can answer with either. The Accord setup has a "Transfer" option, so if the audio is being piped through anything other than the car BT, you can transfer it to the car BT.

Should be a similar setup for other makes/models.
 
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