[grue19]

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so on the connected drive website, i setup an email account. i also setup text blocks - which are quick responses you can send in reply to incoming texts on your phone.

i'm able to connect bluetooth to the vehicle.

1. why would i need to setup an IMAP connection to my email provider - how does my x3 connect? i'd guess it would connect via the 4g in my phone, so why not just use the bluetooth to grab whatever's downloaded onto my phone and connect to the email app?

2. i've never received incoming text notifications in connected drive, so what's the deal with setting up text blocks? is there something else i need to do in the car or on my phone in order for the car to display or read aloud the incoming texts?

thanks!

[RocketRomeo]

Good point... I don’t get texts either and even though I set up the imap... it doesn’t do anything that I can see.... so It’d be great if someone has an answer! Sorry it’s not me!

[MarkyM]

Have you checked the setting on phone to make sure all alerts and badge app icons are selected?, I remember I had to do that first time I used the app albeit 6 years ago for E70 and the texts still come through fine on the G01 without changing anything

[RocketRomeo]

Aha... I’ll try that

[frank23]

Text messages (SMS) are completely different from emails. My Nissan Leaf (and Infiniti G37 a long time ago) can read text messages to me (why can't my M40i ) as there is a Bluetooth profile just for this that is supported by virtually every phone. Normally there is no need to enable this on the phone, of course for some specific phones there might be a setting that blocks or allows this.

However, there isn't a standard email interface to the phone's email client over Bluetooth (or WiFi etc) - maybe Apple Carplay has this but not an expert on that. IMAP settings are the settings to have any email-capable device to connect to your email provider (directly, not using the phone's email client). So my guess is the car wants to directly connect to your email provider.

[ParadigmDawg]

Originally Posted by frank23

Text messages (SMS) are completely different from emails. My Nissan Leaf (and Infiniti G37 a long time ago) can read text messages to me (why can't my M40i ) as there is a Bluetooth profile just for this that is supported by virtually every phone. Normally there is no need to enable this on the phone, of course for some specific phones there might be a setting that blocks or allows this.

However, there isn't a standard email interface over Bluetooth (or WiFi etc) - maybe Apple Carplay has this but not an expert on that. IMAP settings are the settings to have any email-capable device to connect to your email provider (directly, not using the phone's email client). So my guess is the car wants to directly connect to your email provider.

I am not an Apple guy but Android Auto reads your text to you and you can respond to them so I assume Carplay can too.

[bmtespar]

You can have your texts read to you using your Apple phone. You can not however reply to the text from that same window. I order to do this, you need to go to settings, Bluetooth, pick your vehicle, the tap the blue “i” next to it, scroll down and select show notifications. Your car will then show you a text icon when you have message. Go to notifications and select the message and then click the play button on the left side ribbon. It will read the text message.

To reply, hold the voice button for more than 3 seconds to activate, you can then say, “read me that last text messag” or r“eply to that text message”. You can then say the message (including punctuation) and Siri will compose the message and ask if you are ready to send.

[Boosh99]

Originally Posted by bmtespar

You can have your texts read to you using your Apple phone. You can not however reply to the text from that same window. I order to do this, you need to go to settings, Bluetooth, pick your vehicle, the tap the blue “i” next to it, scroll down and select show notifications. Your car will then show you a text icon when you have message. Go to notifications and select the message and then click the play button on the left side ribbon. It will read the text message.

To reply, hold the voice button for more than 3 seconds to activate, you can then say, “read me that last text messag” or r“eply to that text message”. You can then say the message (including punctuation) and Siri will compose the message and ask if you are ready to send.

When a text comes in, a little message bubble appears on your idrive screen and on the drivers dash console (although that may be dependent on dash configuration as i understand there are about 4-5 different variants). You can hold the voice button for 3 seconds and say "read messages" and Siri will read the unread SMS messages. Siri will ask you if you want to reply at the end of reading it out.
I can't get Siri to read any messages once I've read them and exited Siri.

I was really hoping that you could read the message or portion of it while the car moving like I could on my previous car, but even though I've enabled VIM, it still won't display the SMS message unless the car is in park and park brake on. If anyone has any ideas on how to enable that, it would be appreciated. Idea is not to sit there an read all the SMS's, just helps at a glance when I'm on a phone call already if someone needs me urgently, etc

On e-mails, I tried to get this working but could not. My dealer did send me some more detailed instructions and there are some pretty big limitations on what e-mail system will work with Connected Drive. Basically O365 and Exchange have security that the BMW is not compatible with. Gmail is one that does work (although I haven't tried to get that working since I don't use it).
Further, the e-mails will only be displayed if you are in park with park brake on, so again fairly limited, although I believe the system will read the e-mail to you.

Must say it was a feature I was really looking forward to as I deal with teams all around the world, so this was a major bummer that SMS and e-mails are cumbersome to deal with and limited in functionality. I probably shouldn't have assumed when the salesman said it can read all my e-mails and texts that it would just work, but the iDrive system looked a generation ahead of my Audi during my test drives...

[MarkyM]

Originally Posted by Boosh99

When a text comes in, a little message bubble appears on your idrive screen and on the drivers dash console (although that may be dependent on dash configuration as i understand there are about 4-5 different variants). You can hold the voice button for 3 seconds and say "read messages" and Siri will read the unread SMS messages. Siri will ask you if you want to reply at the end of reading it out.
I can't get Siri to read any messages once I've read them and exited Siri.

I was really hoping that you could read the message or portion of it while the car moving like I could on my previous car, but even though I've enabled VIM, it still won't display the SMS message unless the car is in park and park brake on. If anyone has any ideas on how to enable that, it would be appreciated. Idea is not to sit there an read all the SMS's, just helps at a glance when I'm on a phone call already if someone needs me urgently, etc

On e-mails, I tried to get this working but could not. My dealer did send me some more detailed instructions and there are some pretty big limitations on what e-mail system will work with Connected Drive. Basically O365 and Exchange have security that the BMW is not compatible with. Gmail is one that does work (although I haven't tried to get that working since I don't use it).
Further, the e-mails will only be displayed if you are in park with park brake on, so again fairly limited, although I believe the system will read the e-mail to you.

Must say it was a feature I was really looking forward to as I deal with teams all around the world, so this was a major bummer that SMS and e-mails are cumbersome to deal with and limited in functionality. I probably shouldn't have assumed when the salesman said it can read all my e-mails and texts that it would just work, but the iDrive system looked a generation ahead of my Audi during my test drives...

Have you tried touching the bubble when the new text message comes in? When I do that the message is displayed on idrive screen and you can select the play button to read it aloud

Not sure if region specific but I am in UK

[nogren]

Yes this sounds like regional specific limitations, and must be possible to change with Coding.

I'll give it a try when my G01 arrives..

/n

[Boosh99]

Originally Posted by MarkyM

Have you tried touching the bubble when the new text message comes in? When I do that the message is displayed on idrive screen and you can select the play button to read it aloud

Not sure if region specific but I am in UK

Actually I haven't tried that - I'll give it a go. Thanks! I find by habit due to previous car not have a touch screen I do 99% of things via dial or voice input.

[RocketRomeo]

Originally Posted by bmtespar

You can have your texts read to you using your Apple phone. You can not however reply to the text from that same window. I order to do this, you need to go to settings, Bluetooth, pick your vehicle, the tap the blue “i” next to it, scroll down and select show notifications. Your car will then show you a text icon when you have message. Go to notifications and select the message and then click the play button on the left side ribbon. It will read the text message.

To reply, hold the voice button for more than 3 seconds to activate, you can then say, “read me that last text messag” or r“eply to that text message”. You can then say the message (including punctuation) and Siri will compose the message and ask if you are ready to send.

Thank you! I didn’t know about the notifications switch on the by settings... works now!