Bluetooth/hands-free tech question, hearing phone conversation

[*****]

Ok, so we have a fairly new car and we are still trying to figure out all this technology on it.  I went out to the garage (it is not attached to the house), turned the car on and suddenly, I am hearing my husband's telephone conversation, complete with phone number shown on the car screen (luckily it was only his mother and not work related...).  He must have been at least 25 yards away...wow, this could be an interesting way to spy on someone, like your teens, for instance!

So, is there something we are not doing, that everyone else must know about to turn off the bluetooth each and every time we are done with it?  I just assumed that when we left the car, that would disconnect it...

Figuring out this tech stuff is such a learning curve and time zapper, ugh!  

[EmseB]

It disconnects when the car isn't on, but if it's paired and in range when you turn the car back on...then it's going to be paired and in range and start up with whatever's playing on the phone. My husband leaves his BT on on accident all the time and I'm greeted with his podcasts if he's around when I turn on the car. I always turn my BT off to save battery on my phone when I'm not using it.

Edited January 14, 2019 by EmseB

[Tree Frog]

When the bluetooth turns on, the person on the phone won't be able to participate in the conversation anymore because the conversation will be routed to the car. This happens sometimes with my son and his music if he was the last one connected. He'll be listening to the music in his room, but when I turn on the car, his music is routed to the vehicle until one of us disconnects it. We usually drive away and lose the connection before it causes any problems.

None of us turn off the bluetooth when we're not using it.

[easypeasy]

Ugh. I HATE bluetooth and car connections!! We've paired three phones with dds car and it drives us crazy, but her car doesn't let us delete the phones (we think it's because it still has two "open" slots available?).

I turn my bluetooth off every single day. The phone TELLS me that I'm turning it off for a solid 24 hours. (lies)

Then, we'll hop in dds car to go somewhere, and within a minute, some random song starts blaring from her radio. We all scramble to figure out whose phone connected first. Often, it's mine - the car seems to signal to my phone to turn the bluetooth back ON, despite my earlier order to turn it offfffff.

UGHHHHHH!!! Hate it, hate it, hate it.

FWIW - since this is a new car to you - be aware that, if you're talking on your phone inside the car, through the bluetooth/radio - that oftentimes that conversation can be heard OUTSIDE of your vehicle. It happens with all of our vehicles and I often hear other peoples' conversations when they are inside their car in a parking lot (having what they think is a private conversation!). I guess it's because of how the speakers are positioned, or something. But, with our cars, we can have the radio playing and no one outside can hear it - but the phone conversations are clear as a bell from the outside!

[J-rap]

We have three phones synched with our car now...  It seems to automatically attempt to latch on to one (maybe whoever is in closest range?  I'm not sure).  But, I do notice that it takes our car about 2 minutes to latch on to any phone at all.  So, in those first two minutes, we make sure to redirect it to the correct phone. We can do that by immediately trying to make a call via the car speed-dial buttons.  Since it's not connected to a phone yet, it then asks us if we want to connect to a phone, and if so, which one.  It's not a great solution, but it works!  I guess since ours is slow to synch though, it's often not a problem since I can usually pull out of the driveway and be a block away before it connects to a phone, and assuming I'm the only one in range by then, it connects to mine.

I don't know if all cars work that way though.  I have a feeling every model does it differently, and maybe the main advantage to ours is that it takes awhile to synch!

[Night Elf]

2 hours ago, easypeasy said:

FWIW - since this is a new car to you - be aware that, if you're talking on your phone inside the car, through the bluetooth/radio - that oftentimes that conversation can be heard OUTSIDE of your vehicle. It happens with all of our vehicles and I often hear other peoples' conversations when they are inside their car in a parking lot (having what they think is a private conversation!). I guess it's because of how the speakers are positioned, or something. But, with our cars, we can have the radio playing and no one outside can hear it - but the phone conversations are clear as a bell from the outside!

Well that's disturbing. Thanks for letting me know this. So far I've only used the phone when driving. Usually I'm just listening to music. Do you hear the music from my phone playing too or just talk conversations?

[Bambam]

12 hours ago, easypeasy said:

 

FWIW - since this is a new car to you - be aware that, if you're talking on your phone inside the car, through the bluetooth/radio - that oftentimes that conversation can be heard OUTSIDE of your vehicle. It happens with all of our vehicles and I often hear other peoples' conversations when they are inside their car in a parking lot (having what they think is a private conversation!). I guess it's because of how the speakers are positioned, or something. But, with our cars, we can have the radio playing and no one outside can hear it - but the phone conversations are clear as a bell from the outside!

Yes! This - I hate this - hearing other people's conversations in parking lots, waiting at a red light, etc. Often TMI. 

[TechWife]

My car always asks me if I want to transfer an ongoing call to the car system. It identifies what device it is on and the screen asks if I want to transfer. I have to respond “yes” on the screen if I do.  I’ve also never overheard anyone else’s conversations. I have a Honda, maybe other brands do things differently, or maybe there is something in the setup that asked about transferring ongoing calls, I don’t remember. Can you check the users manual for the car to see if there is a setting you can change?

[*****]

All very good replies, thank you. I'm glad I asked, who would ever think others could hear your conversations outside of a car?! 

 Technology certainly isn't as easy as they make it seem, ugh!

The manual?!  I'll try. We had to refer to it once before.  Seems like it had all the info except what we were looking for.  

I do sometimes wish to go back to easier times with cars! 

[J-rap]

Also, another thought is to contact your car model's dealership.  They might have ideas for you.

I've never heard bluetooth conversations from outside the car though...  Guess I'd better be aware of that when I'm on the phone!

 

 

[theelfqueen]

I love bluetooth in my car.

To listen to podcasts or audiobooks I have to turn the volume quite high in my car. Not so with phone calls - if you think you're hearing voices from my car its probably a podcast. Some stereos just bleed more than others (or people have windows cracked open). 

My cars allow me to set one phone as the primary for my car so it doesn't jump to DHs phone in my car or mine in his - though they are both paired. 

And as the previous poster said - once your call is routed through bluetooth that's the only place it is routed, no longer through the phones speakers. So not great for spying 😉

My bigger hassle is we have a bluetooth based phone system in our house so our cells ring on "home phones" in our living room, kitchen, basement and bedroom when they ring at home (just mine and DH's not the kids') (they ring with our individual ring tones, so we know which one is getting a call). So when I pull into the garage, my car drops its connection (but it just drops to my phone receiver since I didnt pick up with one of the house receivers.) Kind of a minor annoyance. 

[*****]

7 hours ago, theelfqueen said:

 

My cars allow me to set one phone as the primary for my car so it doesn't jump to DHs phone in my car or mine in his - though they are both paired. 

     Thanks, this sounds pretty handy!

 

And as the previous poster said - once your call is routed through bluetooth that's the only place it is routed, no longer through the phones speakers. So not great for spying 😉

     Great to know!

My bigger hassle is we have a bluetooth based phone system in our house so our cells ring on "home phones" in our living room, kitchen, basement and bedroom when they ring at home (just mine and DH's not the kids') (they ring with our individual ring tones, so we know which one is getting a call). So when I pull into the garage, my car drops its connection (but it just drops to my phone receiver since I didnt pick up with one of the house receivers.) Kind of a minor annoyance. 

   Bluetooth almost sounds like one more thing to have to keep track of and do!    Thanks for the reply!

 

[theelfqueen]

Honestly...once it was set up- I never think about it unless it isn't working (rare) ... I love being able to talk so easily hands free in my car, and to play downloaded media. 

[Tree Frog]

12 hours ago, theelfqueen said:

I love bluetooth in my car.

To listen to podcasts or audiobooks I have to turn the volume quite high in my car. Not so with phone calls - if you think you're hearing voices from my car its probably a podcast. Some stereos just bleed more than others (or people have windows cracked open). 

My cars allow me to set one phone as the primary for my car so it doesn't jump to DHs phone in my car or mine in his - though they are both paired. 

And as the previous poster said - once your call is routed through bluetooth that's the only place it is routed, no longer through the phones speakers. So not great for spying 😉

My bigger hassle is we have a bluetooth based phone system in our house so our cells ring on "home phones" in our living room, kitchen, basement and bedroom when they ring at home (just mine and DH's not the kids') (they ring with our individual ring tones, so we know which one is getting a call). So when I pull into the garage, my car drops its connection (but it just drops to my phone receiver since I didnt pick up with one of the house receivers.) Kind of a minor annoyance. 

I don't know if all bluetooth/cars are this way, but when I listen to music or a podcast, I turn up the volume on my phone instead of my car's volume. Phone conversations seem to be at the same volume regardless of the volume level of the phone.