Car + Spouse + Phone = Dropped calls
April 13, 2021 8:58 AM   Subscribe

Spouse 1 is on a conference call inside the house. Spouse 2 starts the car (both phones have previously connected to the car for audio and navigation) and the call gets transferred from the handset to the car audio. How can this be prevented?

My household has this issue but multiple people at work do as well. So unfortunately we are talking about lots of different phones, both iOS and Android, and multiple brands of car audio systems, too. I'd like some ideas on how to make sure a phone that is currently on a call does not transfer the audio to a bluetooth device that is powered on mid-call. Viable solutions would need to be of the "set and forget" kind and not require someone to remember daily routines like disconnect bluetooth before turning off the car.
posted by soelo to Technology (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
This is part of why I exclusively connect my phone to my car with cables, rather than using bluetooth - sometimes it's a little less convenient but it makes this kind of problem a non-issue.
posted by Tomorrowful at 9:08 AM on April 13, 2021 [3 favorites]


I also use the cables only method--personal phone + work phone was a hassle with the bluetooth wars, and so I made the car forget the phones.
posted by th3ph17 at 9:13 AM on April 13, 2021 [2 favorites]


This is partially a function of how close the car is to the house as Bluetooth doesn't transfer super far, so parking further away would solve the problem.
You can prioritize who connects, or manually turn off Bluetooth on the phone and back on again when traveling as well.
posted by AlexiaSky at 9:30 AM on April 13, 2021 [1 favorite]


It's not perfect, but if they don't use bluetooth at home then you could use an automation tool like IFTT, Automate, or Tasker to turn off bluetooth when in a certain radius of home. Not sure if IOS supports anything like that through the shortcuts app or not. You could also trigger it based on a particular wifi network being present.
posted by samj at 9:39 AM on April 13, 2021


There may be car make specific solutions here.

For example Teslas have the ability for you to set a "priority bluetooth device" that's linked to the profile of the driver of the car, so it can correctly connect to yours or your spouse's bluetooth depending on which one of you unlocked the car.

This differs from most cars which just connect to the in-range bluetooth device with the strongest signal.
posted by zippy at 10:06 AM on April 13, 2021


If you can't go Cables Only, you can use NFC tiles. You would stick one maybe on your dash, program it to turn off Bluetooth, and tap it as you get out of the car. Easier to build the routine (especially because it's a visual reminder) than going into your settings to disconnect.
posted by meemzi at 10:30 AM on April 13, 2021


Some car systems let you designate a primary phone that will be the first option to connect, or may only manually connect a second phone.
posted by dobi at 2:21 PM on April 13, 2021


Does Bluetooth need to be turned on on the phone while the person is on the conference call (like, for headphones they're using)? If not, turning it off while on the conference call should be sufficient.
posted by augustimagination at 2:51 PM on April 13, 2021


Android has a tool called Automate. You could make it turn off your Bluetooth during every call if it's not already connected to a headset.

Or spouse 1 could always take conference calls using a headset.
posted by flimflam at 8:35 AM on April 14, 2021


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