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Comment by kristopolous | Hacker News Reader

I really want an option like this

   Enable

   [ X ] Audio

   [   ] Phone Calls

   < Pair >    < Cancel >

Because I never, not one single time, wanted a phone call to blast over my car audio. Not once.

I can't be the only one that has wanted the car to be a speakerphone exactly 0 times.

Heck maybe someone is the opposite. They love terrestrial radio or their CD collection and also the speakerphone feature. Give people options.

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I don't think my iPhone has this, but my 2018 Škoda has this. There are exactly these two checkboxes, they say something like "phone" and "audio" and they do exactly that. And this isn't even when pairing, you can bring up the menu anytime and just enable or disable each functionality. I usually drive, so we connect my girlfriend's phone to "audio" so she can be the DJ while I leave my phone connected to "phone" so I can take calls.

(My car as a speakerphone works beautifully. It's not even about the speakerphone, more about the good microphone, the ability to call someone, adjust the volume and then hang up without having to take your hands off the wheel.)

Also the case on my 2014 Citroën.

And in my 2020 BMW - assuming I don't use CarPlay.

Same in my 9 year old BMW, I can connect audio, phone, or both.

This is an option in Android.

Settings > Connected devices

Tap on the device, that brings up a list of switches for features the device is allowed to use.

I assume iOS probably has something similar.

You are unfortunately assuming incorrectly.

Bluetooth on iOS is a mess. If you are paired but not connected to a device, all you can do is forget it.

If you are paired and connected, you can:

* Change the name of the device as it appears on your phone

* If it's an audio device change its function (for example "car stereo", so iPhone will not automatically decrease volume if you put the volume to max which it will do for "headphones", as you probably control volume from the car stereo itself)

* Disconnect

* Forget

That's it.

The audio preference to be bluetooth audio only can be configured in the cars bluetooth connection settings, usually.

Is this not a thing? My phone has the option to disable phone calls but leave audio enabled. Also my car now asks before transferring a call in progress from the phone to the car instead of doing it automatically when it's in range.

Oh it is! It might be new. It's yet another reminder to constantly recheck things and not assume things don't change

I wonder if it works. Thanks. I'll try it!

So now I remember.

The car refuses to connect unless I give it phone permissions.

You can do this on android for quite a while on a per decive level. Not sure if that's what you use

All Android phones have exactly that selection when connecting to a BT speaker. It explicitly says if you're connected for audio and/or speech and you can set your preferences.

I actually take calls over car audio frequently. But only when I am inside the car, obviously. When car's Bluetooth tries to take over from the garage while I'm inside the house, that's hugely annoying.

Why wouldn't you want that? Do you not take calls in your car?

I consider calls private and it makes me uncomfortable

And it's funny how quite a few times people don't realise how their conversation is perfectly audible (and even quite intelligible) outside of the vehicle due to some combination of either bad soundproofing/speaker placement and/or excessive interior volume levels.

My phone connection is screwed up in my 2012 Honda Civic so all the caller hears is a high pitched screeching sound. I have not found a way to turn off calls on the Honda system or on my iPhone and it's so frustrating! Especially when calling out because you can't switch to using the phone's speakers/mic until the call has been answered. This means there is always a 10-20 second bit of time where I have to shout my apologies until I can get it changed. Or I have to turn bluetooth off entirely and it takes a minute to get it connected again after my phone call.

I drove a rental BMW a few weeks ago, and I think it had exactly this setting. Don't know if it does what you mention here.

Every Toyota I’ve driven has this option. I agree, it’s quite nice.

Toyotas used to have that option.

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