Very in reach and not at all blocking my windshield or any controls on the dash.

 

Is that Honda Fit? That dashboard looks different than my EX-L bought in the USA.

That looks like a cool mod. Do you have another picture that isn't so close? I'm having trouble figuring out exactly how the iPad appears to the driver. So you removed the integrated touchscreen to add a mount for an iPad?

 

The Bluetooth Headset Profile (HSP) is different from the Hands-Free Profile (HFP). In both specifications, the mandatory and optional requirements for both the Audio Gateway (AG - the phone) and Headset (HS) or HandsFree (HF) unit are found in Table 3.1. Neither profile defines what a button press does, but the HSP specification notes it may be implementation dependent.

 

So, does "press and hold" of the talk button ( the same that activates Siri hands-free) send an AT +BVRA command to activate voice recognition? If so, any phone that supports voice activation should respond to it. If not currently, this seems like something that could be easily fixed with a software update.

 

It would appear to be so. See Apple's Bluetooth Accessory Design Guidelines for Apple Products - Release R7, section 6.3 Initiating a Siri session, paragraph 6.3.1, Initiating a Session from the Accessory.

 

So then the question becomes, does the Honda system refuse to send the command if the Audio Gateway (phone) is not an iPhone? That would be infuriating. I need to see if I can find a utility to discover all my phone's BT supported profiles and capabilities.

 

I think that's unlikely because it would call into question their compliance with Bluetooth specifications.

IIRC, you have a Moto G LTE. Perhaps this will be fixed when you get the Lollipop update, but perhaps not. In my experience, Motorola often prefers to use their own proprietary "standards" in lieu of others and the issue with VR activation may be in their firmware or OS driver. While you also may consider they scrimped full implementation on a budget phone, I'd even have doubts about the compatibility of their new gargantuan Nexus 6.

 

I hope you are right, but..

Yes, that is the phone I have. I suppose it is possible they scrimped in the BT stack features, but the experience is mostly "pure" Android with just a couple of extra Moto apps (Moto Assist, etc). I also don't think so because I have a BlueAnt ST3 handsfree speaker in my older car and when I "press the button", the Moto G prompts me to say "call name or number". That says to me that it supports Voice Recognition BT profile feature. However, I think I just found a workaround by enabling the "Ok Google" detection to work from any screen so that I don't have to actually touch the phone to initiate it. My wife has the Fit today. I will have to play later.

 

Well, there IS a proprietary AT command the head unit could send asking the phone if Siri is available and enabled. But it's not required to activate it. I share your consternation if Honda is using this to decide whether to try to activate VR.

I asked Chris via PM to test it on his Nexus 5, and he did... without success. I'll leave the details for him to fill in, if he wishes.

 

At Fitmo's request, I tested the long-press "speak" button with my Nexus 5 and received a message indicating "This smartphone is not supported". So whether this indicates that a proprietary method is being used to trigger Siri, or the Nexus 5 doesn't support the standard trigger, or the car is in some way preventing the Nexus 5 from making that available, or maybe even the car is surveying the phone and whitelisting only certain ones and rejecting others that might have worked, I can't tell.

 

FWIW, I get exactly the same error with my dumb flip phone that doesn't have VR.

 

My Fit didn't come with any audio, I ordered it that way when I bought it (why Honda in the US doesn't do this as well, kind of dumb that they don't). Also, I know this is a GK specific forum, but I like browsing to see what people are doing with their 3rd gen Fit and mine is a 2010 GE8 in Japan. Just happened to come across your post and decided to show what I did with mine. I'm using a RF 3Sixty.3 (that can be seen sort of in the 1 pic) to get sounds to my amp with the BT module that comes with it. I don't really have another pic, but I will post 2 that may somewhat give a better idea of how it appears to me in the driver's seat.

 

I got the same result with my Moto G tonight: "This smartphone is not supported"

I also enabled the "OK Google" on my phone. When the phone is connected to the Fit via BT, I can't get it to recognize any voice commands and I can't hear any prompts. I think the phone might be piping the VR and voice prompts through the "Phone Audio" link but the appropriate audio connections are not active. That might be something that a long press on the talk button initiates (if the phone on the other side is "supported"... grrrrrr ).