Playing Visual Voice Mail Via BlueTooth Handsfree - Acuralink

I am having the same issue in my Infiniti G35....

I'm having the same problem with my third party hands free car kit, an Alpine CDA-9883 with the Alpine KCE-300BT Bluetooth Interface kit.

When I make or receive phone calls through the car-kit/radio, it works just fine. But, when I try to playback visual voicemails I hear nothing. Even after selecting the "Audio" button and purposefully selecting the Alpine BT device while in Visual Voicemail, I still hear nothing over the radio.

I also note that when I try and select the Alpine BT device in the Audio menu from Visual Voceimail screen, it does not highlight any of the devices I try to select. This is different behavior than the audio from the normal phone call screen. The phone call screen Audio menu will highlight the selected audio device breifly indicating it was selected before returning.

My Alpine KCE-300BT system claims it is BlueTooth V1.1 (Certified). I don't know to which BT version my iPhone is "certified" . My iPhone firmware is currently at version 1.1.4 (4A102) which should be the latest version to date.

We've now got three different car-kits reporting the same problem here. So, that would lead me to believe the problem is with the iPhone.

Do these three car-kits have anything in common, possibly thay are all BT v1.1? Is that the problem? Anybody know what BT version the iPhone supports?

Technology is great....when it works. 😟

Jimmy

I have exactly the same problem with my 2008 BMW 335i. Making/receiving calls works great via in-car bluetooth but Visual Voicemail is only audible through the iPhone itself.

Note that I have Bluetooth corrected selected as the source on the "Audio" button - just no sound comes out!

Folks,

I have a minor correction in my previous reporting. I tried the Visual Voicemail again today. It does "highlight" the devices when selected under the "Audio" button within Visual Voicemail...not sure I was watching it carefully the first time but at least the device selection is consitent with the normal call screen.

I still can't hear my visual voicemail messages, however. It's rather annoying for me to not be able to hear them. My "car-kit" is actually in my tractor and I can't hear squat on the iphone without my radio or my Bose headphones. The headphones hang off the radio so I only hear what the radio is playing. If I want to listen to voicemail on my iphone, I have to stop the tractor or plug my headset into the iphone which means taking both hands off the wheel...a real PITA for me.

Thanks for reporting the bug...I didn't know they had a bug reporting mechanism. But, I'm new to the site...I'll poke around some more next time.

Thanks,

Jimmy

I am having a similar problem in my Land Rover - I select the Paired Device (Land Rover) from the three options and nothing happens although it's clear the message is playing back - just no audio. I'm hoping the next Iphone software update has a fix. Making and receiving calls works great.

And the Prius makes 6...

I think it's that the car doesn't know anything's going on - when you make a call, it obviously knows; when it receives a call, it somehow detects that and shows Caller ID and rings. When you make audio appear out of nowhere (i.e. visual voicemail), it's not getting any data indication to activate the speakers. (Short story, it seems like they all only monitor for an incoming call.)

PS: You can cheat by calling yourself, and listening to voice mail the old way, using your car's on-screen DTMF keypad to listen & delete...unless you also have a Prius, in which case I refer you to http://www.toyotaisnotmymother.com/ .

Ditto with Mitsubishi Outlander.

Also annoying is that when you make a call from selecting a contact on the phone, the bluetooth connection will not "ring". It starts when the other end of the line is answered. Sometimes, I won't even hear the other person say "hello".

Additionally, I have to turn the volume way up compared to when I had my Treo.... making the connect and disconnect sound super loud- almost blowing my speakers.

Unfortunately, this is Not and error with your bluetooth device. Currently, (and why I Apple did this is beyond anyone but them) the iPhone's voicemail does NOT work with bluetooth. I discovered this when I was trying to get the voicemail to work over my non-apple bluetooth headset. (The apple bluetooth works for voicemail without having to do this.) I have found one trick, however, that does work with the headsets but not with my Durango's bluetooth.
1. Connect the bluetooth device to your iphone ( you should see the bluetooth symbol lit up at the top left of your phone next to your battery strength indicator.
2. Navigate to your visual voicemail location of the phone
3. In the top right hand corner you should see a button reading "Audio". (If it says speaker then your bluetooth is not connected.)
4. Press the "Audio" button.
5. You should now see a list of different audio choices - iphone, speaker, and [bluetooth device name]
6. Select your bluetooth's name from the list.
7. Now play one of your voicemail messages and you should hear it over your bluetooth headpiece.

This does not work with MY car's bluetooth but I have heard it works for others. I did get it to work with my non-apple bluetooth headset but finally stopped fighting and bought the Apple one.

Upside: THIS WORKS FOR MUSIC and PODCASTS ALSO! So now you can have your bluetooth earpiece in and listen to a podcast or music while you walking or driving. Note that it will run your battery down faster though.

Downsides to this method are:
1. Manual process (apple bluetooth it is automatic so you don't have to do all that.)
2. Your voicemail and music will play over your external iphone speaker while it is broadcasting to your bluetooth, so make sure you don't mind if other people hear it!
3. You have to reset this after EVERY phone call, in coming or out going. (This one is the reason I finally gave up and bought the Apple bluetooth.)

Try this method for your car and see if it works for you. Doesn't for my car but I know it does for some. I got this tip from the best iPhone podcast on the internet - Today in iphone. Look it up and check it out. It is worth downloading all of his podcasts from the very beginning and working your way through all the tips because you will find all kind of new things.