I would like to be able to use Bixby to control smartthings devices from within my car however when I try to do that the bixby responses are channeled to the Bluetooth output which I cannot hear on this unless the Bluetooth source is selected in the car. Most of the time I am listening to the radio so if I invoke Bixby I hear nothing. I have tried using the audio assistant app and the separate app sound but selecting phone for main audio output isn’t persistent and I need to reselect this before starting every drive.
Has anyone else solved this ? Or alternatively found a hands free mechanism to control smartthings on android while driving?
Even though all our phones are Samsung, we don’t use Bixby. In all our cars we have Android Auto, so we use Google to control devices, but in my car I also have an Echo Auto. I exclusively use that to voice control SmartThings while driving. What I like about the Echo is that it’s bluetooth connected to my phone, so even if I don’t plug in my phone to Android Auto, I can still hear Alexa through my phone’s speaker while listening to traditional radio. I just have to make sure the volume on the phone is turned up enough to hear her replies.
Out of curiosity, could you swipe down from the top of the phone and tap on Media Output on your phone and tap on “This Phone” in the list that pops up? I’ve not done that before, and I’m nowhere near my car to test to see if that works or not.
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That works, the problem is that you have to remember to do it every time you start to drive as the setting doesn’t persist. I want something seamless.
Yeah I could get echo auto but was trying to avoid that, typing to keep the minimal look in the car.
Ah, didn’t know that. I would agree that would be a PITA every time you got into the car and had to do that.
Yup, completely agree with you there. I had to get creative on placement and running the USB cable so that it wasn’t too cluttered. Ultimately I’d like to wire it into the car and hide the Echo better since the mics pic up very well.
Sorry I couldn’t help ya’ out any more.
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Have you looked into Tasker?
Years ago I used to use Tasker to change some phone settings and launch Waze when my phone Bluetooth connected to the car.
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I have, it is very powerful but also pretty fiddly. I still have it installed, I’ll take a look again
@HalD just looked at tasked again, from what I can see it doesn’t support switching audio output to phone while paired
Bummer. Been years since I used it so I wasn’t sure either way.
Very fiddly, I agree