2013 Honda Civic Si, SMS Text Message Function says "Unsupported Device" when trying to use this feature with iPhone 5. Can anyone help with this?

@Bluestreak, you seem pretty knowledgeable about the Civic. I have a 2012 Civic Si and I was using an iPhone 4 in my Civic. Both BT Audio and phone calls worked great. But alas, while waiting for the 5s, my 4 died and I just upgraded. Today I tried to link my iPhone 5 to the Civic and it failed repeatedly. I went through the phone system and the car could see my phone, but phone never recognized the car.

Am I doing something wrong in the pairing process?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

BTW, I did update my phone with all the latest software, iOS, apps.

-DT

In order to investigate this, I may need to go out to my wife's 2012 Civic.

One question though. . . How exactly are you trying to use SMS while in the car? My knee-jerk repsonse is "You can't." If my initial response is incorrect, let's go with "Please don't!"

Even if you try to send SMS vocally using Siri, you may be prohibited from doing so while paired to the car's bluetooth. Sending and recieving texts often requires averting your eyes from the road. If you are in a car, your eyes belong on the road not checking to see if autocorrect changed "I'm going to get some cake" to "I'm going to get some (insert word that sounds a lot like caulk)."

I'd be surprised if text is availalbe at all.

Thanks. I think I got it to work. I was finally able to add the phone. A quick test says that everything is working great. I'll know more in a couple of weeks when I'll get to spend more time in my car.

I guess what I learned is that when the car's phone system asks if you want to add another phone, it looks for a phone that is already paired. Since it had been almost a year since I paired a phone, I finally found the menu that took me to pairing. Now that it is paired, it seems to be working.

Again, thanks for the help.

-DT

Well this is all well and good, but did you ever get it to work, Bluestreak? I'm having the exact same problem, except the error is "Phone does not support text message function" which is obviously not true, because

http://handsfreelink.com/Honda/en-US/US/FindAPhone/PhoneDetails?phoneId=3471&mod elid=FB6E5DJVW&carrierid=105&manufacturerid=130&showfeatures=true

Hi Bluestreak,

I called the 1-888-528-7876 number on handsfreelink.com, and the guy had me verify a few things I figured I'd share.

- Is your bluetooth on? (Duh)

- In the list of Bluetooth devices, is HandsFreeLink connected?

- In that list, to the right of HandsFreeLink is a blue arrow. Press it. In this list, is "Show Notifications" switched to on?

Once I confirmed all three of these, the guy sent me a text message, and it worked. I thought this was strange because I had had these settings all along. The only thing I can think of is that, although he said it was sent from an iPhone, the message was received as a text message, not an iMessage. All other messages I've tried were iMessages. Today I tried texting myself with my work Blackberry, and it came through, so it sounds to me like this is an iMessage thing.

Since so many people have iPhones and iMessages are extremely common, I would think that this would be supported. I'm with you in hoping that iOS 7 will make a difference.

In looking for a 2013 Honda Civic (LX model, no Navi), the text feature was very interesting and important to me. Why not have my texts available on the dash and read to me rather than messing with my phone. Anyway I won't go into the whole thing about safety while you're in your driving and all that. We all know what we should and shouldn't do. Anyways...

I spoke to a salesman who said that this feature was not compatible with the iPhone, only BBs. Of course this didn't impress me and I found it hard to believe that Honda would restrict themselves like that. Anyway, a few searches on the web later and Honda shows that the iPhone 4, 4S and 5 are compatible for receiving texts through the car, just not sending them. I believe you need a minimum of iOS 5+ for it to work though.

Once I found this the salesman and I did some testing with our phones. He has a 4S with iOS 6.1.3 and mine is a 4 with iOS 6.1.3. Initially we setup the phone using the Bluetooth config on the Civic's iMID display. It was setup and hands-free calling tested o.k. Next the texting was tested. Both of us have iMessage turned on. Neither of us could get the messages we would send each other (1 of us had our phone setup with the car, the other sent the text and vice versa). The messages were received by the phones, just not the car). When we would go under the Text Message section, it would say "Unsupported Device". I knew that couldn't be as Honda said it was compatible. After more web searches and a phone call to Honda by the salesman, I found the following.

1) It seems like the person who had their phone paired with the Civic had to disable iMessage to start getting texts. The salesman still had it enabled on his though when he sent me texts (as SMS) and the Civic got them so both people aren't necessarily required to disable it. Now under the Text Message section, it would list the messages received.

2) I changed the Notifications on my phone for Messages from Banner to Alerts. Once I did this it started to work. The texts were showing up on the car. I had read where another person had tried this successfully but then changed it back to Banner and it continued to work. I experienced the same thing.

Granted this wasn't extensive testing but I was able to get it to do something closer to what I wanted. I'm not sure why Apple and Honda can't put their heads together to make sending texts work on the car but maybe someday it will work when enough people complain. It's kind of a disappointment that I couldn't get iMessage to work but I haven't given up hope yet. As it's a proprietary protocol, I can see Honda not supporting it though.

Hope this helps someone out!

FYI I bought car!

Thanks EG2008! I switched from Banner to Alerts and started receiving iMessages, so it looks like it's finally working! I haven't bothered putting it back to Banner because I don't really care either way.

It would be nice if we could send from the car as well. Since Honda supplies (and limits you to) 6 stock replies to send send, it seems like it's Apple that has chosen to block this. It makes sense, because sending message from a car is dangerous. Still, picking one of the 6 stock replies seems less bad than using Siri to send messages. I guess ideally there would be a bluetooth Siri button so you can both receive and send text messages through the car using just your voice.

Also, yay new car!

Wow OGPedro I'm glad to hear you got iMessage to work. I guess I just have to fiddle with it a bit. The replying would be nice but even just knowing you have a new iMessgae is nice rather than consulting your phone while your driving especially if you might be expecting something. I'm glad you made some progress.

Hi OGPedro,

Quick question, I had been able to get the text functionality working for my iPhone 5 without any hassle, except that, for some reason, the car doesn't send the stock replies. It reads me the texts, gives me the stock options to reply, then the Yes or No to send and when I select Yes, nothing happens. Any idea what might be up? Thanks in advance.