disable phone audio without disconnecting galaxy watch? - Samsung Galaxy Watch

I use Note9 with Galaxy Watch. It is constantly connected to BT which has some impact on battery life.
When I attempt to go into BT options of the watch and I untick audio calls, it disconnects the watch completetly
With my previous phone (pixel 2xl) I could do it without loosing connectivity to the watch
Anyone is having idea how to do it with Samsung phones?

That's a good question, but I don't think there's an answer. Since it needs at least one option selected, and "Input Device" doesn't do anything, I think you're stuck having "Call Audio" enabled.
That being said, I can't imagine the battery life would be that different with the watch being able to accept calls vs just handling notifications as far as the phone connection is concerned. Yes, it is lower than when not connected to the watch, but that would be true of any smartwatch I'd think.
I do know the Pixel had some issues where it would always direct call audio to a Gear S3 if the Call Audio option was enabled (even if you tried answering on the phone), but the Samsung phones didn't have that issue.

You're mistaken. As long as BT is turned on and there is a connection, the power consumption is the same regardless of what the signal and protocol is being used for. Disabling calls while keeping a BT connection for data purposes (which is how the phone and watch communicate for all the non-phone features) will make absolutely no difference in power consumption.
USING your watch to have a phone call will consume much more power over BT. Simply having the ability to answer/make a call does not incur any extra power.

Related

[Q] bluetooth audio issues - intermittent

Hey everyone. Gotta say, i love this phone its the android device i always wanted. However, im having issues with my car bluetooth which i have not experienced before... namely, that random phonecalls sound completely digitized.
Ive come from an htc desire and htc sensation on the same car without issue and am worried i got a bad BT antenna-or its software...
Anyone out there experiencing the same thing? Any advice (other than buying a new car)?
I am having the same issues on a Verizon Galaxy Nexus V4.02. If I turn bluetooth off mid-call the earpiece sounds fine. The static only happens during voice calls, streaming A2DP sounds fine. There are bluetooth improvements listed in the 4.03 changelog, hopefully this will be resolved.
I had some problems with my BT speaker phone. I turned off the key press sounds and the screen off sounds and that pretty much fixed it.
I have an off topic question for you guys that use bluetooth streaming. Can start the car and press play from the HU to start music? I can with my old D2, but not my TB. I have to actually start the music player on the thunderbolt, then I can control it from my HU. I would like to upgrade, but I don't see a huge advantage in upgrading if I still can't start my music without having to actually take the phone out of my pocket. (Yes, I know it's stupid, but I'm lazy.)
I have this same issue in one of my cars. I ran a number of tests and the issue only occurs on my vehicle when the phone is connected to both for telephony and a2dp music. The static occurs whether or not a2dp is actually being used to stream music or not. This particular vehicle has two separate devices for music and telephony. If I unpair or disconnect the music device, then telephony works without the audio distortion. As soon as I reconnect the music device, the static is re-introduced.
v0yeur said:
Hey everyone. Gotta say, i love this phone its the android device i always wanted. However, im having issues with my car bluetooth which i have not experienced before... namely, that random phonecalls sound completely digitized.
Ive come from an htc desire and htc sensation on the same car without issue and am worried i got a bad BT antenna-or its software...
Anyone out there experiencing the same thing? Any advice (other than buying a new car)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am experiencing this issue as well and have not been able to resolve it. I've tried disabling the touch sounds, screen off sounds, etc. but to no avail.
It pretty much makes handsfree unusable while driving. What have you guys done in the meantime? Have you been able to resolve the issue yet?
Here's my specific details:
Phone: Verizion LTE Galaxy Nexus v4.02 stock/unrooted
Handsfree Car System (phone audio): Stock 2007 Audi A4
Separate A2DP Module (media audio): Dension Gateway Five connected to factory Stereo
All of my previous phones (Thunderbolt, Droid X, Incredible, OG Droid) have fully supported this setup with no issues whatsoever.
On a sidenote, my A2DP streaming is also unreliable. It first has trouble connecting to the device. If/when it does, audio constantly cuts out when streaming Pandora, Slacker Radio, Google Music... pretty much any streaming over network connection. I have not tried locally stored music yet as I don't have any currently stored on my device. Are you guys experiencing this A2DP issue as well?
I wonder how widespread this is and if it warrants opening an official issue with Google.
I used to have a Blackberry Torch, and I have a Ford Mustang. When I would connect the BT to it, if the Wifi was on, it would "interfere" with the signal. Turning wifi off, fixed the issue. This was a widely known issue with the Torch. Granted that shouldn't have to be a fix, but can any of you verify whether your wifi is on? (regardless of if its connected to anything or not). I'm wondering if the Nexus is using the same BT/WIFI chip that the Torch used.
radi0chik said:
I used to have a Blackberry Torch, and I have a Ford Mustang. When I would connect the BT to it, if the Wifi was on, it would "interfere" with the signal. Turning wifi off, fixed the issue. This was a widely known issue with the Torch. Granted that shouldn't have to be a fix, but can any of you verify whether your wifi is on? (regardless of if its connected to anything or not). I'm wondering if the Nexus is using the same BT/WIFI chip that the Torch used.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate the suggestion but unfortunately, I have the issue even if WiFi is off (I never use WiFi).
I'm going to try and toggle a few of the sound and haptic feedback settings a little more to see if it's pertinent to a certain on/off configuration. It's a shot in the dark but I'll try anything at this point.
ok it was worth a shot. Maybe on a whim turn off 3g/data so basically its airplane mode except BT is on? Just to eliminate any RF interference. Other than that I dont know
Spent quite a bit of time in the car today to try and pinpoint a cause and I have had no luck.
Phone audio will sound great and then all of the sudden turn digitized and distorted for a random period of time, then revert back to sounding great. One thing to note is that the distortion is both ways - the person I'm talking to also hears it when I speak and cannot understand what I'm saying. It's very frustrating not being able to use this feature.
I am on my 2nd replacement phone and ALL of them have had this issue (returned two others to VZW due to this issue and the speaker clicking issue). I am still wondering if it is software/OS releated or if it's due to poor hardware.
Quick Update (kind of):
I messed around with more settings last night. I am happy to report that after I disabled NFC last night, I made several handsfree calls in my car with perfect clarity and no issues. Also, A2DP streaming Pandora worked flawlessly! I was happy that I thought I pinpointed the issue - NFC interference.
BUT this morning, I made a handfree call and it was immediately distorted. Frownie face! A2DP Streaming Pandora still worked great. I am now trying to determine if my success last night was a fluke or if something is different with the phone this morning. The only difference from last night to this morning, that I have been able to identify so far, is I now have the extended battery in the phone. Last night's success had the standard battery. I'll switch them back at lunch and re-test.
Stowegy said:
Quick Update (kind of):
I messed around with more settings last night. I am happy to report that after I disabled NFC last night, I made several handsfree calls in my car with perfect clarity and no issues. Also, A2DP streaming Pandora worked flawlessly! I was happy that I thought I pinpointed the issue - NFC interference.
BUT this morning, I made a handfree call and it was immediately distorted. Frownie face! A2DP Streaming Pandora still worked great. I am now trying to determine if my success last night was a fluke or if something is different with the phone this morning. The only difference from last night to this morning, that I have been able to identify so far, is I now have the extended battery in the phone. Last night's success had the standard battery. I'll switch them back at lunch and re-test.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've got the same issue. Even with NFC disabled. Makes listening to Pandora in the car unbearable. I've gone through the same steps as you, but hasn't exchanged the phone yet. I've had previous Androids and it was a hit/miss with the distortion, but with an iPhone or BB never had this issue. Go figure.
thanks to all the replies, will update to 4.0.3 and try out some more options.
- unplugging my music dongle had no effect on call quality
- NFC on or off had no effect
I also find that the music adapter never auto-connects and needs me to go in to the BT settings page and manually select it.
thanks all.
Hello again. So I have an update that adds to the flakiness ...
Updated to the Bugless Beast ROM and Franco's kernel. My intent was to completely reset the phone and hopefully get a new Bluetooth stack in the process.
Initially everything paired OK, but after a while my audio randomly disconnects after about 20minutes and then reconnects depending on its mood.
My phone connection is more controllable now: if the BT is enabled on my phone when I turn on the car, the sound quality is entirely digitized and unusable. If I turn on the car and THEN enable my phone, the sound quality is flawless every time.
Still not ideal, but manageable. For the music audio part, I lay the blame entirely on the Audi Music Interface BT adapter: the thing is crap and always in pair mode even with the car turned off! The telephone BT in the car head unit has seen several phones pair with it without any issues (I do mobile development so I get to play with many phones) so in that case, I can't blame anything but the Nexus.
I really hope someone at Google or Samsung reads these threads since it would be tough to troubleshoot, but there's no doubt an issue exists with general BT compatibility.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Anyone have an update on this issue? Does anyone know of a ROM with a different Bluetooth stack than AOKP? I love everything else about AOKP. I have had the same garbled bluetooth audio from stock - 4.03 with franco and faux kernels with the same result. I had similar problems with Cyanogen 7 ROM I was using on my Incredible the week before I bought the Nexus.
Update - I experimented with a couple of additional devices, and the multiple connections problem with my Nexus is limited to A2DP only devices.
I am now using a Garmin BlueTrip with "phone audio" deselected in bluetooth options. As long as the additional bluetooth device is handsfree profile capable, the A2DP functions perfectly, calls are clear, and the device reconnects after a power cycle consistently. I'm glad this appears to be a software issue and not something we will have to live with for the life of the phone. I'm sure a future update will correct this issue.
I'm also having a problem with Bluetooth calls sounding very digitized and/or choppy. It is bad enough that it can be extremely difficult to make out what the caller is saying. A2DP, on the other hand, has performed pretty flawlessly and the device consistently reconnects each time I get in the car (although it can take up to 30 seconds or so).
I'll have to do a little experimenting with some of the settings mentioned in this thread to see if they have any affect.
On a related note, I feel like sometimes calls made/recieved on the handset can sound digitized as well (although not nearly as bad as over bluetooth). Has anyone else experienced this?
My hardware is:
Verizon GNex (4.0.2)
Parrot MKi9000

[APP] Auto - Bluetooth on Call

I found this really awesome APP in the market to automatically turn Bluetooth on and off when your on a call. This allow great power savings by having access to your bluetooth speakerphone or headset without having bluetooth enabled all day draining power.
I've tested it out to some great extent over the past few days and I must say that it is pretty awesome and should come as a stock option in the future.
The program is pretty simple with 2 check boxes: Enable while on call and Enabled with Powered.
The first option is the main one and will enable bluetooth once you receive or make a call. This allows you to simple just turn on your headset or auto connect without any user intervention. The program will also automatically turn bluetooth once the call has ended.
The second option could also be a great one if you are a heavy bluetooth headset user that never takes it off. This option turns on bluetooth every time it is on a charge, so at night you can dock the device or plug it in, then continue to wear your headset to take calls when needed. This option can also be replaced by a NFC tag but works well enough without requiring a tag. One example would be in your car. Plug your device up and it can auto connect to your bluetooth device.
Pretty impressed with the app and it will end up making my normal install list. The app is free on the market and well worth a download if you use bluetooth for any headset or speakerphone.
Android Play link:
Bluetooth on Call
Whats the name? or add a link
It's a surprise! J/k.
It was lunch time and I forgot to post the link before rushing out to eat. Updated OP. I didn't make it or endorse it, but it is just a handy little app. When I first installed it, it wasn't shutting down bluetooth properly... so it would turn on and stay on. But after an update it works as it should.
Do you find bluetooth to use a lot of battery power when on idle (not on an active call)? I find it doesn't really impact my battery at all. I do question if an app like this can have a negative effect on the Bluetooth headset you're using, since it's constantly looking to make a connection when there's no connection to be had... Like the battery drain experienced when a phones cell ratio has to poll for new towers when the signal is low or dead.
EP2008 said:
Do you find bluetooth to use a lot of battery power when on idle (not on an active call)? I find it doesn't really impact my battery at all. I do question if an app like this can have a negative effect on the Bluetooth headset you're using, since it's constantly looking to make a connection when there's no connection to be had... Like the battery drain experienced when a phones cell ratio has to poll for new towers when the signal is low or dead.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats a good question....
Not at all. The bluetooth simply turns OFF completely on your phone... it isn't sitting idle or anything. The program simply toggles bluetooth on and off like you would otherwise in settings manually.
For the headset, it shouldn't have any negative affect either. If you have your headset physically turned on, but not connected, it will usually go into a hibernate mode to save power.
But here is my situation and how I use my headset:
I don't wear it all day. I have it in my car door handle. I answer the phone manually like always. I get a lot of calls and most are quick. While I'm driving, if I know the call is going to be long or if I want to be handsfree, I simply turn on my headset and put it on. By that time, my phone's bluetooth is already activated and seeking a connection. The headset doesn't know any difference. Once I'm done, the phone turns off bluetooth and I turn off my headset.
If you were to wear your headset ALL day, and like to answer your calls handsfree... then this might not work because there wouldn't be enough time for your headset to connect before the caller goes to VM.
If your a heavy bluetooth user, then obviously leave BT turned on all day. If you have a headset and like to use it occasionally while on calls, this app is great. With this app, all you have to worry about it turning on your headset and putting it in your ear. Once it connects, the call will be transferred to the headset and you can retire your phone.
I haven't tested how well it works having the ear piece already turned on and ready to go but I would suspect that you would have to manually answer it from the phone. It just depends on how fast your headset and phone connect to each other.

Better control of auto Bluetooth connections?

My g3 is completely stock like my last few phones have been.
I am looking for better control of my Bluetooth connections that automatically connect to various objects. All 3 of my connections have call audio capabilities, and I only want to use 1 for call audio. However when I get in the car its a 50/50 gamble of what will connect to my phone as the priority device resulting in me having to go change the settings every time I drive.
Here's the situation:
My car has 3 BT connections I currently use when I drive.
Priority 1: Car OEM Bluetooth connection. No audio streaming available so all I want is automatic connection for hands free through my car speakers and steering wheel controls for phone calls.
Priority 2: Garmin GPS traffic. My GPS uses an app on my phone to get traffic reports. It only needs the BT connection to communicate with my app. The problem is My GPS has hands free call audio also, but i dont use that feature and never want to. However it seems I frequently have to go uncheck the box "use call audio" in phone BT settings because this sometimes connects to my phone before the car BT does.
Priority 3: sometimes when I am not using my iPod for music I use an adapter for streaming music since my car does not offer that feature on its BT connection. Of course this adapter also offers call audio and media streaming. When this is plugged up and listening to music I have to disconnect my cars BT (listed as priority 1) as it will cause static in my music streaming. When I use this device I shut off the connection to my car and just leave the GPS (priority 2) and this connected and make phone calls by hand without hands free since this adapter does not allow me to use my steering wheel controls etc that the car has and its just easier to do it by hand. I don't always use this adapter, only when im board of my iPod and sirius and want to stream Spotify.
I've tried "Bluetooth auto connect" application but it hasn't done anything to help control which device connects and which doesn't or which of them has priority. A lot of the times I'll get in the car and disconnect all of them and start over but usually one of the devices automatically tries to reconnect causing them to interfere with each other while I'm driving. Unfortunately none of these devices have the ability to shut off features in the devices themselves which means I have to use my phone to control them.
Is there any way of controlling my bluetooth connections in more detail or am I just stuck with them battling each other every time I get in the car? Usually I don't have a problem once they are all set but if my phone restarts or I I need to start all over. If the phone would just remember which connection uses "media audio" or "call audio" this all could be avoided but the phone never ever remembers and always resets them all as checked. My Bluetooth is usually always turned on (probably what kills my battery) and I have no other connections besides what I use in the car. I had the same problems on my Xperia Z1 and don't think this is an LG G3 specific thing. I think its an android thing in general.
Thanks for any ideas.
Sent from my LG-D851 using XDA Free mobile app

Weird BT audio volume issue

Running a bone stock OP3, non-rooted, no mods, on the Community Build. Since the latest update, my BT audio is weird.
I pair my phone to my motorcycle helmet. Its a Shoei GT Air with a Sena 20S Comm system installed. It's a very nice unit.
So what happens is that when I push the button on the comm to activate Google Now, so that I can speak to my phone and tell it to dial, get directions, play music, etc... No matter what volume level I set my phone to, or the headset, the "beep" and "Ok" that Google Now speaks when you activate it, blows out my eardrums. It is like WAY high volume, 5x as loud as the music or anything else. I have gone through the comm system settings and there is nothing in there to mess with. I also notice that the volume of Google Now only goes that high when the screen of the phone is off. If the screen is on, then the tone is the same level as whatever music is playing, etc...
If I turn the screen off and the music is at a normal listening level and I hit the button to make a call or fast forward to the next some, that damned Google Now tone is back to ear shattering levels...
I am convinced that it isn't the comm system, because a google search shows similar issues with Android phones and BT over the past few years...
Another weird thing, is that when I turn on and pair the comm system and I hit the button to activate Google Now, if I do it 5 or 6 times in a row, it will eventually revert to normal audio levels, the same as the music or navigation... But when I turn off the comm, then the next time I turn it on I have to do it all over again...
Very annoying but I an convinced that it isn't the comm system. It seems to have started last week when the new Open Beta came out and I installed it.
Now, I have unpaired, deleted and repaired the connection, I have wiped cache and stuff, but I can't seem to get this to work right.
Any ideas?
It has to do with how Bluetooth handles its datastream.
Bluetooth has very limited bandwidth, so it has to allocate based on the situation. When streaming music from your phone to the BT device, it can dedicate the entire bandwidth to the unidirectional stream. However, if you need to use the helmet's mic, then BT has to use the same limited bandwidth to stream data in both directions. This is why BT devices have notable audio quality degredation when used to make calls.
When your screen is on, Google Assistant/Now will acutally use your phone's mic to listen for commands rather than your BT's mic, which means that it does not have to change protocols and reduce audio output bandwidth.
To address your issue with Google Assistant/Now's increased volume, try to place a call while your helmet is connected to your phone and reduce the volume while in call with your phone's volume buttons. Hopefully, the volume change will stick when your helmet uses the same two-way protocol when using the voice assistant.
Try:
Developer options -> disable absolute volume
Tried that Developer Option, made no difference. It's clearly something else going on under the hood. Other Android phones have had it over the years when connecting to BT devices... I guess I will have to just live with it.

Is it possible to control the Bluetooth input level?

Hi,
So I bought a hands free bluetooth headset, and after testing different ROMs for my M9, I still keep having too quite level while talking over bluetooth. People complaint they ca't hear me.
I tried the same hands free dive with an Iphone, and it works perfectly, which makes me think that the problem is with my phone and not with the device.
Is there any tool /app to boost the bluetooth input level?
Make sure the phone uses the Bluetooth for calls. Sometimes it shows a prompt to select the Bluetooth device. If you have selected the phone then it'll be using the phone mic and that could be why you sound miles away.
Beamed in by telepathy.
Thank you for the suggestion.
The phone do ask which device to use (Bluetooth, phone, speaker) but the Bluetooth is selected by default. Will nevertheless try switching between devices just in case.

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