Audio Routing in Apple CarPlay and Android Auto

[Jim Lewis]

I have a problem with audio routing in Apple CarPlay in my Lightning Lariat ER. I picked a broad topic title so as not to restrict the topic to my particular problem since I think earbud wearers might suffer from the same problem, and perhaps the problem exists in Android Auto, too. I'm curious to find out.

My starting point is that I'm a BT hearing aid wearer. But just consider those as a special form of BT earbud. In Apple iOS, hearing aids are an accessibility device, and in the depths of iOS Accessibility settings, there are audio routing options. I have set my audio routing to "ALWAY HEARING DEVICES." Whenever I use my iPhone, any streamed call or media sound will go to my "earbuds."

The problem comes when I get in my truck. Apple CarPlay is the culprit. It overrides my iPhone settings. Despite my phone settings, any media is initially streamed to the truck speakers, whether playing a podcast or using routing software (Waze, Apple Maps). The Apple Podcasts player has a widget for audio routing, and I'm offered Lightning, iPhone, Hearing Aids. CarPlay automatically routes my initial podcast player output to the Lightning despite my Always Hearing Devices iPhone setting. If I change routing to Hearing Aids, the Apple Podcasts remembers and respects that change and afterward always routes the Podcast output to my "earbuds" for that truck driving session.

Not so with the routing software I've tested in CarPlay: Waze and Apple Maps. The verbal output from these apps is always routed to my truck audio system, and if I try to change it, it snaps back to the truck speakers. During a 200-mile weekend trip, my wife does not enjoy listening to a routing app's constant drivel of driving instructions.

Apple is at fault here because, on a hearing aid user forum, lots of other drivers of different vehicles wearing different brands of hearing aids report the same problem with CarPlay hijacking their audio routing preferences.

I haven't messed around with call routing in my truck at all. I've wondered if there is some routing option for calls in the truck by which I might also be able to change my audio routing from map apps in Apple CarPlay with the same truck settings change.

I just wanted to inform other CarPlay users of this potential audio routing problem and learn if the same problem exists in Android Auto.

A related problem is the limited number of iPhone apps that CarPlay permits to be available on the vehicle touchscreen. Perhaps the app selection is limited by the need for an app developer to customize the app for CarPlay use or by the consideration that some apps are just driving distractions, not to be allowed for that reason. But as a hearing aid wearer, I'd like my hearing aid control app to be available on my Sync screen when needed to control volume, noise, etc. Yet it's not in CarPlay. And I don't want to/shouldn't fiddle with my iPhone while driving.

There should be an audio routing widget in some corner of the CarPlay screen that would let me toggle between output to the truck audio vs. output to my "earbuds" (hearing aids). Even better as for my TV streamer, if I could adjust the desired audio mix sent to truck speakers vs. hearing aids.

For anyone experiencing this CarPlay audio routing hassle, I suggest sending Apple iPhone feedback: Feedback - iPhone - Apple. I've also reported CarPlay behavior to my HA OEM, GN ReSound, and the tech I spoke to was amazed that CarPlaly overrode the Always Hearing Devices setting and promised to let his higher-ups know about the problem and perhaps get Apple to do something about hijacking their intended device settings for hearing-impaired users. If there are other HA wearers out there for whom CarPlay audio routing is a problem, you might want to provide similar feedback to your HA OEM.

One distantly related problem is that BT LE Audio will hopefully become a thing in the next few years. It's already available on some Samsung devices. Since Apple was one of the important co-developers via BT SIG, it's strange Apple is ceding the lead to Android. But perhaps Apple is riding such an audio wave with classic BT that they're in no hurry to change horses. Auracast | Bluetooth® Technology Website (from the BT SIG group). BT LE Audio is now available in Windows, though: Check if your Windows 11 PC supports Bluetooth Low Energy Audio - Microsoft Support.

It will be interesting to see if existing Lightnings can in any way be upgraded to BT LE Audio. In a few years, I will have BT LE Audio-capable hearing aids, and then perhaps my problem will be, can my BT LE Audio-capable iPhone still route audio to my truck's classic BT audio system if I want?

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[GDN]

The capabilities of newer BT hearing aids is actually pretty cool. I've got a few family members that use them.

Reading through your post, I can understand your desires, but that seems to be opposite of the goal of CarPlay. CarPlay is meant to show apps on the screen and send the audio to the auto so that you don't need your phone. If you want audio to your hearing aids, then the only benefit you might get is projection of the map to your screen. Truly just use your phone for control of everything else including your music.

 

[Jim Lewis]

If you want audio to your hearing aids, then the only benefit you might get is projection of the map to your screen. Truly just use your phone for control of everything else including your music.

I didn't mention one important limitation: I use State Farm's Drive Safe & Safe app on my iPhone to earn an insurance discount. The irony is, while driving, I can play around all I want with my Sync screen. But if I touch my phone screen while driving, the Drive Safe & Safe app records that and gives me a demerit for distracted driving. Because of that and the beauty of being able to clearly view the map on a large 15" Sync screen, I don't want to use my phone for routing and make my expensive investment in a vehicle that can display a large map irrelevant for navigation. If there is a way while driving to project my phone screen to the Sync screen, I'd love to learn how to do that while still getting the audio from the phone going to the hearing aids. But I'd bet any visual projection to the car would also route the audio in the same direction.

Surely, Apple is clever enough to program in an option into CarPlay to allow drivers to hear all audio through earbuds or hearing aids rather than the car audio.

The capabilities of newer BT hearing aids is actually pretty cool. I've got a few family members that use them.

Yes, though most hearing aid brands don't don't employ classic BT but rather Apple's proprietary BT-like LE 2.4 GHz signal designed to carry audio (MFi - Made For iPhone) because of the power limits of the small batteries in hearing aids, particularly the rechargeable type. Phonak designed a more efficient classic BT radio that has the advantage of working directly with all sorts of classic BT devices that MFi hearing aids can't, but Phonak devices have poorer runtime on rechargeable batteries. Earbuds and wireless headphones use classic BT and get crappy battery life in comparison to rechargeable Li-ion hearing aids.

The Bluetooth Low-Energy Audio I mentioned is a brand-new standard for ALL BT devices that goes beyond classic Bluetooth and is expected to replace it over the next 10 to 15 years. Unlike Apple MFi and Android ASHA BT-like LE communication, BT LE Audio is a new BT SIG standard. It will replace classic BT in TVs, wireless headphones, earbuds, hearing aids, etc., and eventually in automobiles. It is not BT LE 4.x+. Requires at least BT 5.2, IIRC, and new codecs in the firmware.

Classic BT is a 1-to-1 connection BT connection between two devices. BT LE Audio allows 1-to-many broadcasting and allows a higher-end broadcaster to broadcast many channels simultaneously. So, in an airport, a sports bar, an auditorium, a church, etc., with your earbuds, wireless headphones, or hearing aids, you can tune into just the channel you want to hear. It could be just the gate announcements for the airline you're flying in an airport. It could be just the TV you want to hear in a sports bar. In a church or auditorium, it could be the channel broadcasting the language (English, Spanish, ..., ) that you want to hear the sermon or talk in. In a movie theater, there might be an Auracast channel for those who want to hear movie speech better above the noise in the film, a channel for the hearing impaired who want to hear everything better, and yet another channel for visually impaired folks who can hear the theater audio just fine but can't see the screen very well and want to hear a description of what's on the screen to go along with the dialog and other sounds. Folks with smartphones at a party or in a vehicle could stream their music from their phone to anyone wearing earbuds, wireless headphones, etc. BT LE Audio uses LC3, a better audio codec than SBC. I don't know about streaming aptX or Apple's AAC (above my pay grade). Devices using BT LE Audio will have a much better battery runtime than with classic BT, e.g., wireless earbuds.

Auracast and BT LE Audio just started appearing in shipping devices late in 2023. So, there are very few things that have it. GN ReSound Nexias are the first hearing aids, but other OEM brands in the Apple MFi crowd should also have LE Audio soon, too. The first earbuds to have it are the Samsung Galaxy Buds2 Pro. The only smartphones that have it are the Galaxy S23 and the Fold (unofficially) and Google Pixels (LE Audio is in Android 14). Apple has yet to make any announcements, which is strange because it was a major player in developing BT LE Audio, and one can suspect that the MFi backbone was used as a template for BT LE Audio. As I mentioned in my previous post, Microsoft now officially supports BT LE Audio in Windows 11 (or if you use WSL, you can have it on Windows 10, too, IIRC).

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