milosz

I just moved from a Nokia Lumia 925 ( Windows Phone 8.0) to a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.

The five year old, much cheaper Nokia Windows phone integrated **MUCH** better with the 2013 Infiniti handsfree system than this COSTLY Samsung device does.

• The old Windows phone automatically read my incoming text messages to me over the Infiniti voice system, and gave me the opportunity to respond by saying my reply
• The display screen in my Infiniti G37 showed the Windows phones' signal strength (how man bars) AND it's battery level.

The Galaxy Note 8 only shows the phones' signal strength, NOT the battery level, and the Galaxy does not do ANYTHING with incoming texts. I've tried a few apps on the Galaxy to add the SMS-to-car handfree texting, but none of them work nearly as well as my old Windows phone did. Read Text 2Me sorta works about half the time; the others don't work at all.

I realize this is a flaw in Android / Samsung and not the Infiniti, but I was wondering if anyone here had found a solution for this.

Landshark

this is a flaw with using a phone from 2018 in a car from 2013.
i leave an old Samsung Galaxy Note 3 in the armrest for music, and it displays the battery level. i don't use the "read incoming texts", so can't comment on that.

Bostonreefer

galaxy s8 here.
i use android auto app on my phone.. have the app come on when connected to bluetooth so very convenient. when i recieve text message a notification pops up on phone and i have the option to play the text message (through speakers) and also the ability to respond to text messages via voice the only caveat is you must be streaming music via bluetooth to hear the text message. if you are using sat or am/fm it wont play through the speakers

milosz

Thanks. Leaving the audio system set to Bluetooth isn't really a very good option, though, and having to mess with the phone screen to play a text message isn't exactly 'hands free"- it's dangerous, and illegal, to fiddle with a phone's screen while driving.

But thanks anyway.

milosz

The current 2018 Windows phones (Lumia 950XL) work the same as my 2013 Lumia 925 - they seamlessly integrate hands-free reception and replying to text messages with the Infiniti handsfree setup. So it's not a deficiency in a 2018 phone. It's a deficiency in 2018 Android.

Of course, the BEST solution would be to replace the imperfect Infiniti OEM operating system with something like Google Car Play, and it is possible to do that by replacing the in-dash electronics, but that's not really what this is about.

What I want is a way for my new phone to perform at least as well as my old one.

I've replaced the "Read Text 2Me " Android app on the Note 8, which was hit or miss, and had really bad text-to-speech quality, with an app called ReadIt ToMe which- so far- appears to be much better. I'll report on that more after some more testing and use. But I would still like to hear other solutions for integrating SMS with the Infiniti hands free system.

(Actually the Infiniti infotainment system is really one of the better OEM systems I've used. Not as good as Google's Car Play but still better than a lot of other OEM systems I've used. The controls / touchscreen are pretty easy to use, the system is pretty responsive, I've never had the system freeze / lock up, the voice recognition works quite well actually, NAV is not great but OK, and the A/V options are pretty good- and it helps that there are actual ***** for radio/player and for climate control. )

Landshark

the "current" Lumia 950XL uses Bluetooth version 4.1, and the Note 8 uses 5.0. who knows what version a 2013 G37 uses.
Bluetooth 4.1 was introduced in 2013, so its a good thing Windows phones are staying "current". LOL

the deficiency is trying to use a modern phone in a 5 year old car.

milosz

All versions of Bluetooth are backward compatible. And Bluetooth is a wireless communication protocol, no direct relation to SMS.

If the car's hands-free system can receive and make calls through the Note 8's Bluetooth connection, then the technical capability for handling SMS is there as well, if only Samsung, Android or a third-party app would enable it.

SMS messages are handled by Windows phones as "incoming calls." The cell phone tells the car's system that a call has come in; the car establishes the 2-way audio channel to the phone. The phone's virtual assistant (Cortana) says "You received a text from XYZ; do you want me to read it, ignore it or call XYZ back?" and waits for your voice response. You can then say "REPLY" and Cortana says "What would you like to say?" - you speak your reply, Cortana reads it back and asks if you want to correct, add more or send the message.

None of this has anything to do with the version of Bluetooth involved. It relies mostly on capabilities baked into the phone; the only Bluetooth capability that is required of the car's hands-free system is the ability to receive a phone call from the phone via Bluetooth, which it clearly can.

It's not a matter of the car's system at all, it a question of finding a way to add the capability to the phone.

FYI many current production OEM hands-free systems operate in this same way; only cars equipped with Apple or Google systems are significantly different.

Rollo

That is very interesting to know. Maybe I'll try a windows phone next time.

milosz

Windows phone is a great system, but it never attained critical mass. Therefore, developers were never attracted to build apps for Windows phone... without many apps, it didn't attract users.... a death spiral for a tech ecosystem.

For example, at first you could get banking apps for Chase, B of A, Fifth Third, etc. But they all dropped support for windows; the old banking apps can no longer connect to the banks and no updates will be coming. And so on.

Windows phone started out with about 6% of the handheld market, but is now down to 0.6%. Microsoft has stopped developing the operating system, but will support existing phones. There are recently released Windows phones, but I wouldn't expect that to continue.

HOWEVER there's no technical reason that Android phones can't do everything Windows phones can do. It just has to be worked out.

I've created an Android app - a simple one -so maybe if I can't find a app for hands free text integration with OEM car systems, I'll just have to make one. That would be a PITA, and I much prefer trying to find an app that someone else sweated to build.