Hi, I have a 2011 Lexus ES 350 and I'm trying to figure out how to have SMS read aloud while driving. Calls work great through BT. There doesn't seem to be a car mode on the 6p, but I'm not sure that I need a full car interface as the SMS is what I'm looking to use. Any ideas or recommendations appreciated. Thanks.
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Car model or read texts through BT - Nexus 6P
- Thread starter angiembfl
- Start date
I'm not sure if that is a function of the phone or the radio. I have a 2013 Ram and it reads my SMS messages to me. I did nothing to set it up beyond pairing it with my phone and allowing it permission to my calls and contacts (typical prompts when pairing a phone to bluetooth).
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Hey @angiembfl,
As @Unforgiven hinted at, you may want to go into Settings > Bluetooth, find your car's device entry, and tap the settings gear icon. From there, make sure that the Message access profile is checked. That should allow your car to access incoming messages, provided that your stereo supports it.
For a full-up car mode, check out the recent updates of the Android Auto app. It no longer requires an AA-capable head unit, but provides a driving-friendly interface on the phone which is also capable of reading incoming messages aloud.
As @Unforgiven hinted at, you may want to go into Settings > Bluetooth, find your car's device entry, and tap the settings gear icon. From there, make sure that the Message access profile is checked. That should allow your car to access incoming messages, provided that your stereo supports it.
For a full-up car mode, check out the recent updates of the Android Auto app. It no longer requires an AA-capable head unit, but provides a driving-friendly interface on the phone which is also capable of reading incoming messages aloud.
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Thank you both. So I realized that with the right car mode app such as DriveMode and AutoMate, SMS will play through the car audio If I have BT connected and am streaming music through the phone. However, if I'm listening the the radio, the SMS is not spoken. If just comes through my phone as usual. Any ideas?
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In this instance, Bluetooth is kind of a one-way pipe. Once the phone is connected to the head unit, it starts routing everything on the Media stream (music, video, navigation directions, narrated SMS messages, app sounds, etc - pretty much anything except ringtones and in-call audio) out via Bluetooth. If your stereo is tuned to the BT audio input, those sounds come over your speakers; if it isn't, they don't get heard. It's kind of like how the radio doesn't pause when you switch to a different source - the broadcast station doesn't know (or, frankly, care) that you've switched to another input.
I looked through the manual for your car, and while it describes using the hands-free system to make and receive calls via Bluetooth, I didn't see anything in there for configuring it to read text messages to you. Is that a feature you've used on a previous device?
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Thank you so much for the explanation! I was able to do this with this phone and DriveMode on my Expedition. I was hoping there may be a work around using an app. Looks as though there isn't.
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If you disable the Media audio profile under Settings > Bluetooth > <your car's BT device> > <gear icon>, then DriveMode should be able to play the text message contents over the phone's speakers. That may be the best workaround if you don't intend to use your phone for playing music.
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That is how I'm set up. Phone audio, not media audio because I listen to siriousxm through my truck and use my phone for navigation. If I am navigating, and have media streaming through BT, then I either listed to serious and don't get audible navigation alerts, or listen to silence, and have navigation come through the speakers. Again, I've done nothing for SMS messages.
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