[Q] Can't use bluetooth headset's button to voice dial - G4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a Plantronics BT headset that I've been using for years.
It has a "main button" that, when long-pressed, starts a voice dialing dialog with the phone, even when the phone is locked.
Or it did, from the original Captivate running Froyo all the way to my Kit-Kat GS3.
This no longer works on the G4. I get the beep indicating that the long press was registered by the headset, but nothing happens on the phone.
I know I can use "OK Google" to call Google's Voice Search and then tell it to dial, but that only works when the phone is unlocked and the screen is on, which defeats the whole point of hands-free operation.
LG's Voice Mate simply sucks, at least through my Plantronics. It doesn't capture voice input, it interrupts it half a second after it starts listening... It is unusable.
Does anyone have an idea how to enable the good old voice dialing through a BT headset? OK, it was ugly and idiotic with its stupid "Select 1 for mobile..." prompts, but it worked.
It doesn't have to be that. As long as I can voice-initiate a call without fiddling with the phone, I'll be happy.
The G4 turned out to be a great phone, but this particular issue is irritating to me.

I have the same problem with my company-issued Rugby Pro running Jelly Bean. Samsung's S Voice is hit-and mainly miss. My old Rugby II flip was always ready to dial or answer if Bluetooth was on. I use it on a motorcycle, so no button pressing on the phone is possible. I have been trying utter! (still in Beta) the last few days, and it is the most promising that I've found, although it has way too many other things it tries to do. Otherwise, I'll have to try and swap this phone with someone for a i(don't even want to start using these)phone, or go back to the flip and just carry the Pro for use via wifi to get company email.

Voicemate is garbage.
Go into apps under settings and disable as many Voicemate related items as possible.
This will cripple Voicemate and Google voice search will launch on Bluetooth press. It works beautifully.
All the commands I've tried work. One of my favorites is "play <song name>" if you have Google music all access.
http://www.greenbot.com/article/2359684/a-list-of-all-the-ok-google-voice-commands.html
Sent from my LG-H810 using XDA Free mobile app

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Activating voice commands via BlueTooth with ICS?

Hey all,
I have a Sena SMH-10 Motorcycle bluetooth headset. Its always paired up and worked with my SGSII perfectly. All calls, music and even voice commands functioned relatively well. Normally, I'd press the "call" button on my Sena, and it would activate the Samsung voice commands with a "what would you like to do?" voice prompt.
Now that I've upgraded to ICS (unrooted, stock SGSII), the call button on the Sena doesnt activate the voice command. The phone pairs up fine, calls, music and notifications come through the headset. But as you know, riding a motorcycle doesnt really allow me to open apps or dial manually on the road!
Anyone have any ideas? Some setting in BT or Voice that I missed?
jonnythrice said:
Hey all,
I have a Sena SMH-10 Motorcycle bluetooth headset. Its always paired up and worked with my SGSII perfectly. All calls, music and even voice commands functioned relatively well. Normally, I'd press the "call" button on my Sena, and it would activate the Samsung voice commands with a "what would you like to do?" voice prompt.
Now that I've upgraded to ICS (unrooted, stock SGSII), the call button on the Sena doesnt activate the voice command. The phone pairs up fine, calls, music and notifications come through the headset. But as you know, riding a motorcycle doesnt really allow me to open apps or dial manually on the road!
Anyone have any ideas? Some setting in BT or Voice that I missed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had big problems with that too...it won't light the screen or ask me what i want unless the screen was unlocked...it worked fine on gb...I'm using cyberon now...
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
It seemed that ICS broke many features that we were all used to. I'm the same way with the blue tooth headset. I purchased a top-of-the-line Blue Ant G2. worked perfectly on GB, but not on ICS.
I'm about to give up and Odin back to GB before ICS and the maintenance update, when everything worked like it suppose to.
Yeah yeah yeah, ill be giving up the smooth transitions. but ill be getting back my scrolling wall paper, working BT, and a bunch more.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
I'm having the same problem. I really hope it gets fixed soon! The only function that works is the long press on the BT handsfree (Motorola T505) which redials the last number.
Is this issue also present in CM9?
I'm using stock ICS. It seems to work okay with my BlueAnt. I activate the phone voice command by saying "phone commands" to my BlueAnt.
However, I don't have a headset, I have the BlueAnt S4 handsfree for my car. Haven't finished rebuilding my motorcycle, so haven't bought the headset. Do the headsets have the capability for voice commands? If so, maybe try that and see if it works.
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium
Android Revolution said:
I'm using stock ICS. It seems to work okay with my BlueAnt. I activate the phone voice command by saying "phone commands" to my BlueAnt.
However, I don't have a headset, I have the BlueAnt S4 handsfree for my car. Haven't finished rebuilding my motorcycle, so haven't bought the headset. Do the headsets have the capability for voice commands? If so, maybe try that and see if it works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which voice command do you use on the phone, the stock Google one or vLingo? How is your BT/voice command activation setup? Can you get it to take commands when it's locked (my biggest problem)?
I'm interested to see if, perhaps, it's just a matter of settings.
MC helmet BT
I thought mine wasnt working at all.... one push of the button on my helmet and music would stop.... then I tryed it stopped and found that the press of the button would bring up the Voice talk app and if I said Hi Gallexy it would ask what I wantwed to do but the volume would be so low that I wasnt hearing it.... havnt got an answer on what to do yet,,, still working on it...
Thats my two cents
fogrocker said:
I thought mine wasnt working at all.... one push of the button on my helmet and music would stop.... then I tryed it stopped and found that the press of the button would bring up the Voice talk app and if I said Hi Gallexy it would ask what I wantwed to do but the volume would be so low that I wasnt hearing it.... havnt got an answer on what to do yet,,, still working on it...
Thats my two cents
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I went and bought cyberon voice commander and it works perfectly...but it's not cheap 5.99...but it works
Sent from my SGH-T989 using xda premium

Voice Dialer no longer working correctly

Before this last week, I was able to connect my Galaxy Nexus (GSM model) to my XPLOD car deck, select BT Audio on the deck, press the button, and receive a voice prompt to make a call. It was very convenient for when I had to make a call while driving.
Some time during this last week, the feature stopped working. When I press the button on the deck to initiate a call, the screen flashes gray (like the background of the voice dialer prompt), then returns to the previous screen and I hear no audio prompt.
When I try to make a call using my Bluetooth headphones (LG HBS700), the phone does the same thing (flashes the Voice Dialer, returns to previous screen--like a force close), but I still hear the prompt and can respond and make a call. But when I try to make a second call, there's no response--no flash of gray, no prompt, nothing.
I installed the TeamSpeak open beta app recently, but thought I had made a call using my car audio deck after. It's worth noting that the TeamSpeak app includes permissions to pair with Bluetooth devices. Unfortunately, even after uninstalling the TeamSpeak app, I still experience the same issue.
I can't think of any other changes I've made that might affect voice dialing and all my searches (the last 45 minutes) don't turn up anything related to my issue.
Could someone here offer a fix or point me in the right direction?
Using the Voice Dialer prompt while driving is a wonderful convenience (and a major safety feature as well) and I really, really, really don't want to have to wipe and reload my phone to get it back.
Okay, so it turns out that a recent (April 3) Google Search update is at fault.
I uninstalled Google Search updates (Settings > Apps > Google Search > Uninstall Updates) and it fixed the issue (though it reverted it to the buggy but less buggy version of Google Search that came installed with my phone).
I had the same issue but nobody chimed in on my thread. At least I know I'm not the only one with Google search update issue with Bluetooth. Thanks for posting your issue. I ended up uninstalling update as you did. I actually ended up going back to stock ROM before I figured out it was search and not the ROM.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
I've got similar issues. Pressing the button on my earpiece results in the Voice dialer prompt but only through the phone's earpiece and not through the Bluetooth earpiece. Voice commands can only be spoken to through the phone's mic also and not the Bluetooth mic. If you have your phone in your pocket and you shout loud enough, the phone's mic will pick it up and the call will subsequently work through Bluetooth when it connects.
Things were fine before but something screwed it up.
I just tried uninstalling the Google Search/Now update like the OP and it works again. So definitely Google Search/Now is the culprit.

Using Bluetooth car kit for Google Now voice actions, should this be possible?

I love Android, but very often I also hate it. Recently I was interested in getting this Bluetooth receiver for my car. The ideal scenario would be to be able to make calls, play songs, and navigate to an address by only pressing the button on this device on my dash and speaking, not touching the phone at all. Sounds great, right? And isn't this what Google Now and its voice actions are all about?
Well, seeing what a sorry state Bluetooth is in on my GNex, I think a device like this would be just about worthless. I have experienced no less than FIVE separate issues in attempting to get this scenario to work with the regular Bluetooth headset I currently own.
1) Bluetooth device disconnects every time I turn screen off. So when I turn screen back on, I have to re-pair the device.
2) The basic functionality of using Google voice actions over Bluetooth at all only works once. After that, it beeps, and then reverts to the handset mic and speaker. If you force stop Google Search, it will work again, but only once.
3) Pressing the button on the Bluetooth device activates old-school voice dialing instead of Google Now voice search. What's the point of this now that Google Now exists? I believe I have fixed this with the Bluetooth Launch app, but we'll have to see if it keeps working.
4) Music quality sucks, as we all know.
5) Google Now voice actions themselves are spotty. Sometimes advertised voice actions just result in regular searches instead. Sometimes it keeps listening for more input even though I've stopped talking, a force stop is required to fix this.
About the only thing that does work over Bluetooth is just regular calls that you initiate via the phone.
Which of the above issues do you experience, and can you share any workarounds? At this point, I honestly don't know what justification Google could give me to use this junk over an iPhone. I seriously believe they do not test anything, and do not care at all about their customers' experiences.
I have my Gnexus running 4.1.2 connected directly to my car's Bluetooth. I use it mostly for music and GPS, then calls sometimes, but rarely Google Now.
1) Doesn't happen to me ever. My phone stays connected until I turn the engine off and pull the key out of the ignition. I heard Bluetooth connection issues started with 4.2, hence why I haven't updated.
2) Not sure about this one. Google Now has always been spotty in my car (takes over 30 seconds to start up) and I'm not sure if it's because of Bluetooth or T-Mobile.
3) I think that's normal. Pushing the call button on my car's steering wheel activates my car's voice recognition system, not the phone's.
4) I use BT most often for music via Pandora and it sounds sounds fine to me. Occasionally there is a subtle skip, which I attribute to the wireless nature of Bluetooth. I would say the quality is 90% compared to wired.
5) Agreed. That seems unrelated to Bluetooth though.
I don't think there is a Bluetooth command for starting Google Now. Don't forget Bluetooth is a generic technology that is supposed to work with all phones, not just Android ones. I used to connect a Sony Ericsson phone for calls.
Except for accepting incoming calls and changing tracks/volume, I still have to initiate most actions by touching my phone. It sucks. Let me know if you find a good solution.
Sent from my Transformer TF101
Yeah, it seems at least some of these issues (the disconnecting, music quality) started in 4.2. #3 might be "normal", but is definitely not how it should be. You mention Bluetooth is a generic technology - this is true, but there doesn't need to be a special command for Google Now, the phone can just choose to respond however it wants to the standard "call" button/command. For example, with an iPhone, pressing the button on the Bluetooth device will activate Siri. Then you can speak any command or query you wish. There's no reason Android couldn't activate Google Now voice search in the same way, instead of the voice dialer.
I've been doing things same as you, doing everything via the phone except for answering calls or redialing the last number. I finally realized how useful voice commands could be when able to be summoned via Bluetooth. A couple simple updates to the Google Search app, and an improved Bluetooth situation in 4.3 could easily clear all this up. But after the many mistakes they've made, I'm not exactly holding out hope.
The newest Google search has an option to listen over Bluetooth in settings not sure what it does.
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tshelby73 said:
The newest Google search has an option to listen over Bluetooth in settings not sure what it does.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app
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Click to collapse
Yeah....all the issues I stated above are with that option checked.
xdp said:
Yeah, it seems at least some of these issues (the disconnecting, music quality) started in 4.2. #3 might be "normal", but is definitely not how it should be. You mention Bluetooth is a generic technology - this is true, but there doesn't need to be a special command for Google Now, the phone can just choose to respond however it wants to the standard "call" button/command. For example, with an iPhone, pressing the button on the Bluetooth device will activate Siri. Then you can speak any command or query you wish. There's no reason Android couldn't activate Google Now voice search in the same way, instead of the voice dialer.
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Ah yeah, that's different then. None of the buttons on my car will activate any sort of voice recognition on my phone, because of the voice system in the car itself. Which sucks, because although it may have been advanced in 2009, smartphone voice tech has surpassed it by leaps and bounds, whereas my car software will never get updated.
So I think there's a better chance for an update to make this work for your setup than mine.
Sent from my Transformer TF101
tshelby73 said:
The newest Google search has an option to listen over Bluetooth in settings not sure what it does.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the tip!
I also added a Google now voice command short cut to my lock screen and launcher, so when I'm in the car I can quickly (hopefully) say a command.
Kind of sucks still that the call button doesn't do this, even my old school slider Nokia launched voice commands over Bluetooth.
LOL
I use mine and will do voice commands by pressing button. It will not search though just make calls. On CM based ROM'si have to freeze the voice dialer the ROM comes with or the cm dialer is default. I don't have the listen over Bluetooth checked. Maybe that checked would give me search feature using button.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda app-developers app

[Q] Voice Dial with Bluetooth Headset

I see a few really old threads on this topic, but I thought it'd be worth asking now.
I use a dock in the vehicle. My NFC tag opens up Google Now and keeps the screen on, but it isn't helpful with a minvan populated with noisy kiddos. (And one who loves to randomly shout, "Google.")
I connect my Bluetooth headset when I'm in the van. I used to be able to get my phone to open up to the Google voice dialer by touching the button on my headset and dial successfully. I used Bluetooth Launch from the Play Store. However, I can't get it to work anymore. It pulls up a Google Voice Dialer window that never recognizes my voice and cuts off any commands with an "didn't catch that" and shuts off.
Any ideas?

Bluetooth Button to open Google Now

Hi everyone!
I'm searching a method to "call" Google Now when press the hands-free button on my car or voice command on my bluetooth headset.
Searching on internet I've found that it's a strange thing on Android, that call the old Voice Dialer insted the new Google Now :\
I've found an app, Bluetooth launch but on my Nexus 5X seems to not work...another app, GNow, in it's description talk about a changing in Android 6 and that their app isn't necessary enymore, but I haven't found nothing about on internet.
Note that this app's functionality has been incorporated into Android 6.0 (Marshmallow); so don't install if you're on 6.0 or later.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any suggestion?
FullMetalGlicoz said:
Hi everyone!
I'm searching a method to "call" Google Now when press the hands-free button on my car or voice command on my bluetooth headset.
Searching on internet I've found that it's a strange thing on Android, that call the old Voice Dialer insted the new Google Now :\
I've found an app, Bluetooth launch but on my Nexus 5X seems to not work...another app, GNow, in it's description talk about a changing in Android 6 and that their app isn't necessary enymore, but I haven't found nothing about on internet.
Any suggestion?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried going in your Google now settings>voice>and enabling Bluetooth headset recording?
This works for my lg tone hbs810 Bluetooth headset giving me any ok Google option through the headset by tapping the call icon. Idk how it will work with the car though.
Let me know if it helps.
Sent from my annoying Nexus 5X
Nexus 5x stock unrooted here. I used to be able to both start Google Now by saying "ok google" or by long-pressing the BT button. (after the various necessary settings changes had been made of course).
I can't now. I've just followed the exact same path and discoveries the OP made.
I started on 6.0.1 and am on 7.0 OTA w/ Sep 2016 security updates. I *believe* it broke when my pricey but unreliable Philips BT headphones died. I switched back to an Anker Soundbuds Sport. I think that's when I lost that functionality. Can't start with "ok google" or with the BT headset button.
If I say "ok google" into phone's mic, I can then finish from my BT headset.
I know for certain I used to be able to launch with a button press as well as "ok google" so I think the problem is certain headsets. My BT button definitely works, it'll pause and start any music app I'm in. Answer calls, hang up. That's about it.
Would sure love a way to get this functionality back on my current Anker headphones.
And to reiterate yes my settings are correct, BT is enabled in both locations, ok google always listening is on etc etc etc.
I realize it's an old thread, but it's still an issue for some....

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