Cellphone Compatibility Checklist for Bluetooth Today Bluetooth has become the standard for hands-free telephone technology in vehicles. Even though Bluetooth is almost ubiquitous in new cars and just about uniform in the way it works with compatible devices, miscommunication between cars and phones is still common.
If you’re buying a car, the compatibility of your phone and the car is likely an important topic. Members of the sales team at Bossier Dodge Chrysler Jeep RAM, a full-service car dealer in Hillsboro, TX, frequently discuss a car’s technology features with prospective buyers in the sales lot and on the sales floor. So to make sure your phone and the new car will get along, here’s a checklist of things to look at before you make the purchase.
Making Calls:
- How easy is it to make a call with the system?
- Are the hands-free controls on the dashboard or on the steering wheel?
- Does the car permit for hands-free calling using voice commands?
- Is it easy to end or redial a call using the system?
Address Book:
- Does the car allow you to download your phone’s address book or does it have its own Bluetooth address book that makes you add entries one at a time?
- If the system downloads your cell’s address book, how easy is it to do? Do all information fields for the address book display?
- If the system has an address book, how easy is it to add entries? Does it have various fields for multiple numbers for the same contact? Will it let you add “voice tags” to contacts so you can find them fast using a voice-activation system?
Compatibility:
- Check the car manufacturer’s Web site to ensure that your phone is compatible with the vehicle you are looking at.
- Are the steps easy to understand when pairing up these devices?
- Does the phone automatically reconnect if the vehicle is stopped and restarted?
Other Bluetooth Features:
- Can you view the phone’s battery level? What about the signal strength?
- Does the vehicle support text messaging? If yes, where’s the message displayed? Does the vehicle convert the text to voice? Is it easy to understand?
- Does the vehicle support Caller ID? Is the Caller ID easy to read?
- Does the Bluetooth system support Dual Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) dial tones to access voicemail and other phone company services?
- Are you able to transfer between privacy mode and hands-free mode?
- Does the car support call waiting?
- Does the vehicle maintain your call history?
- Could you view missed calls with this Bluetooth feature?
Easy Phone Calls:
In general, you have to make sure your phone and your car can communicate with each other and that the Bluetooth system is easy to use. Otherwise, you might be tempted to just pick up the phone instead and that is neither convenient or safe when driving.
Bluetooth was introduced in 1994 as a wireless phone technology that allowed “nearby telephone devices” to communicate with each other. It has come a long way since that introduction!