Making mobile phone calls - avoiding touch screen

[DaveFromSydney]

I can make calls using the touch screen but to do that I have to take my eyes off the road and press Menu, then Phone and then press the button of one of my favourite contacts.

 

I can do it with voice control by pressing the voice control button on the steering wheel, waiting for it to start up, saying "Call contact" and then after the prompt saying the name of my contact and (if it recognises it) confirming with Yes.

 

But is it possible to make calls using only the buttons on the wheel? It is possible in our 7.5 series Golf: use the dedicated Phone button on right of steering wheel to get to Phone menu, use vertical arrows to scroll through list of last calls, use OK button to make the call. 

I thought I saw something like this on the Octavia once but I cannot find it any more. The contents of the left or right areas in the virtual cockpit can be cycled through many possibilities - media, fuel consumption, etc - but not Phone.

 

Ideally not only would Phone be one of those possibilities but I would also be able to access my favourite, or even all, contacts in the Phone menu in the virtual cockpit.

 

And what about when a call comes in. Can I either answer it or reject it from the wheel?

And if a call is in progress can I terminate it from the wheel?

 

[TheUltraRunner]

Sorry for bad picture. But you can see I have the phone selected in the right menu. When connected through bluetooth you can call the last (don't know how many) dialed contacts with the steering wheel buttons. Pressing the right wheel button, then go right and then you can use the right wheel button to scroll up and down through contacts.

 

Ohh and you can only use this when phone is connected through BT. You can't use it when connected to Apple car play.

 

[TheUltraRunner]

Forgot to mention. You can answer or reject the call from the steering wheel. But to terminate an ongoing call is a bit more trickier. At least on my car. I think I saw somewhere on the facebook that it can be done differently so it could be this is a bug on my car.

 

And yes, this is far more complicated operation than on previous generation of the infotainment. It's pretty sad they did it that way. 😞

[DaveFromSydney]

So perhaps in my car the time I saw it was when I was not running Android Auto.

Today I have Android Auto on so the phone integration is not available.

That seems pretty poor. Does it work that way on other makes? No access to steering wheel phone controls when running Apple Carplay or Android Auto - which is most of the time for most people.

 

[DaveFromSydney]

1 hour ago, TheUltraRunner said:

You can answer or reject the call from the steering wheel. But to terminate an ongoing call is a bit more trickier.

How, precisely do you do that? Or is it only available if you are not using Android Auto?

 

[DaveFromSydney]

Maybe I should give up on Android Auto. The car has most of the same functions itself - music, satnav, phone calls.

The only reason I have been using Android Auto is that Google Maps is so much better at recognizing addresses, especially when spoken, and recognising vaguer instructions such as "Navigate to nearest MacDonalds."

 

[TheUltraRunner]

15 minutes ago, DaveFromSydney said:

So perhaps in my car the time I saw it was when I was not running Android Auto.

Today I have Android Auto on so the phone integration is not available.

That seems pretty poor. Does it work that way on other makes? No access to steering wheel phone controls when running Apple Carplay or Android Auto - which is most of the time for most people.

 

You should still have "Phone" visible in the right menu on the dash screen, you just can't do anything with it. At least this is how it is with Apple car play. 

Don't know how it is on other makes. But I agree with you, it's pretty poor.

15 minutes ago, DaveFromSydney said:

How, precisely do you do that? Or is it only available if you are not using Android Auto?

 

Don't know from my head. I will try to check next time when I'm in the car.

[timster]

IIRC when someone calls the call should popup on the instrument panel when you can at least answer or deny it.

 

 

[TheUltraRunner]

6 minutes ago, timster said:

IIRC when someone calls the call should popup on the instrument panel when you can at least answer or deny it.

 

 

Exactly. But you need to have phone selected in one of the menus in the instrument panel. Left or right. What it looks like the main issue Dave has is that he can't choose "Phone" in the menu in the first place.

[MCG1975]

Took me a while (and I think reading the manual) to work out how to hang up, which is similar to making a call.  As above, you need to be connected by Bluetooth.

• Press right scroll wheel so the up/down green arrows are on right side and scroll until the phone appears, if it's not already there.
• Press the bottom right button on the right hand side of the wheel (the one that switches the dash display if you've got a digital one) and it opens a new menu.
• If you're in a call you can hang up or place on hold etc, select option and press right scroll wheel.  If you aren't in a call, it shows the last dialled/received numbers which you can select and call in the same way.

Sounds complicated but when you're used to it it's as quick as using the buttons to turn off lane assist!  

 

In terms of the Android Auto query, I can make/close calls even if AA is connected, only difference is the phone shows as 'Android Auto' rather than my phone name in the right hand menu.

 

Hoping that helps in some way...

[DaveFromSydney]

4 hours ago, MCG1975 said:

Took me a while (and I think reading the manual) to work out how to hang up, which is similar to making a call.  As above, you need to be connected by Bluetooth.

• Press right scroll wheel so the up/down green arrows are on right side and scroll until the phone appears, if it's not already there.
• Press the bottom right button on the right hand side of the wheel (the one that switches the dash display if you've got a digital one) and it opens a new menu.
• If you're in a call you can hang up or place on hold etc, select option and press right scroll wheel.  If you aren't in a call, it shows the last dialled/received numbers which you can select and call in the same way.

Sounds complicated but when you're used to it it's as quick as using the buttons to turn off lane assist!  

 

In terms of the Android Auto query, I can make/close calls even if AA is connected, only difference is the phone shows as 'Android Auto' rather than my phone name in the right hand menu.

 

Hoping that helps in some way...

Thank you MCG1975.☺️

That is what I needed to know. I never suspected that the Android Auto entry was actually referring to the phone capability.

That is my main problem solved. Its a pity that the manual, with all its verbosity, does not cover such things.

 

I still find it strange that VAG group - in the Octavia and my 6 year old Golf - only expedite calling recent numbers and not favourite contacts.

 

Same with the radio. I have set up 10 radio stations as favourites. I am not interested in any others. But if one of them is playing and I press right-arrow button on the wheel I get taken to the adjacent station in frequency, i.e. totally lost.

My 19 year-old Honda could take me to the next of its 10 favourites with one button press. And since I had memorized the order that meant I could navigate to any of them easily without taking my eyes off the road.

 

Edited 1 December, 2021 by DaveFromSydney

[timster]

20 hours ago, TheUltraRunner said:

Exactly. But you need to have phone selected in one of the menus in the instrument panel. Left or right. What it looks like the main issue Dave has is that he can't choose "Phone" in the menu in the first place.

Nope, i neve have the phone on my instrument panel. When someone calls it pops up on the right side. 

 

13 hours ago, DaveFromSydney said:

Same with the radio. I have set up 10 radio stations as favourites. I am not interested in any others. But if one of them is playing and I press right-arrow button on the wheel I get taken to the adjacent station in frequency, i.e. totally lost.

My 19 year-old Honda could take me to the next of its 10 favourites with one button press. And since I had memorized the order that meant I could navigate to any of them easily without taking my eyes off the road.

IIRC you can change that. There's an option to change between stations/favorite stations.

 

Btw, i like it more to scroll trough phone book. I dont use favorites on my phone

[TheUltraRunner]

41 minutes ago, timster said:

Nope, i neve have the phone on my instrument panel. When someone calls it pops up on the right side. 

 

You need to have phone selected in order to make a call.

[timster]

5 hours ago, TheUltraRunner said:

You need to have phone selected in order to make a call.

I ment to answer/decline a call