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Help bluetooth issue on Verizon kitkat note3

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woodbutch4

Newbie
This changed with the upgrade to Kit Kat so I'm figuring it isn't a Verizon issue. I have a helmet bluetooth setup I use on my motorcycle. I used to be able to hit phone button to trigger the phone to ask what I wanted to do. I had the phone configured to us S-voice. I could tell it to run apps or send texts. The main thing I did was to launch apps with that feature. Now it insisted on launching Google's voice app instead of S-voice. On the phone I have tried quite a variety of settings. At this point in the Language and input settings page, Google Voice typing is off, Voice Recognizer is Samsung powered by Vlingo, not Google. When I double click the Home button, S-voice pops up and works, but the button on the BT headset still launches Google Voice. And Google voice won't let me launch an app.

Any ideas?
 
with much googling I tried a couple of other things. Finally tried turning off google search/now (mistyped in first post, not google voice). Once I did that S-Voice finally responded when I hit the call button on the headset.

Then I turned Google Search back on (all data and prefs had been deleted by turning it off) and tried the headset again. Still worked after I selected which app to use and making S-Voice the default. I still haven't enabled Google Now in the Google Search app. Search asked me if I wanted to to and I told it Later. So that might break it again, but for now I have full voice functionality from my BT headset again.
 
I have a similar problem making bluetooth phone calls with my Note 3 and KK.

With JB I got to use S Voice and things worked just great. But with KK it uses the Google NOW as you said.

Spent about 2 hrs on the phone with Verizon and Samsung trying to figure out how to turn Google NOW off and get S Voice to work instead. Neither one could help. Samsung guy said it is not possible to get rid of Google NOW and all the commands and crap that GN makes you use to call someone especially if they have more than one number you could use.

But I have figured out a work around for it. Seems that with Google NOW I can tell it to "Turn on S Voice" and it does just that. And now I can make bluetooth calls like I did with JB.

Why did Google make things sooooo much harder. I would use the Google NOW if I could get rid of all the questions and crap that it asks me before it dials.

Examples of the questions: "Say a name or number to call" Then after I tell it what to call it will give me options to call each of the several numbers in my contact list for that person. Tells me to "Say option 1" or "Say option2" etc for each number for the contact. Will not let me name the option until it goes through the entire list. Then once I give GN the option it asks me if I really want to call that number. What was once a quick 2 or 3 second procedure is now like 10 times longer.

Geesh!
 
Yep, and since I'm on my motorcycle, I want quick and simple. So far my fix is working. Fortunately I don't need to use it often. Most time I just want to ride without outside distractions.
 
woodbutch4,

My solution only works once in awhile. Like I said before I talked to both VZW and Samsung and they could not tell me how to turn Google+ off. In fact Samsung says it is impossible to do.

You seem to have found a solution and I would appreciate your posting step by step instructions on how to do it. Thanks for your help in advance.
 
To turn off Google Search go to Settings, Application Manager, swipe over to the All tab/listing of apps. Scroll down to Google Search (big blue icon, about 39 mg, not the icon for the widget). Tap on it and the next screen has the Turn Off option. At that point it may same some stuff about unintalling updates. Don't worry about that. At that point S-voice answers when I try voice commands from my headset with the phone button. Then I went back and turned on Google Search again. Somewhere in that process it asked about enabling Google Now, I told it Later. Later hasn't happened yet so I don't know if that will break it again. Meanwhile, after tuning Google Search back on I tried the headset again. The phone showed the typical pop up asking which app to use to for that action. I selected S-voice and this the All the time option. Since then it always uses S-voice.
 
Spoke too soon. Google Now is back to answering the headset. So I either have to totally Turn Off Google Search or just deal with it. The problem I have is that it doesn't seem to listen to the voice from the bluetooth headset mic. Even with the setting on. Or it really sucks at voice recognition from that mic. S-Voice does just fine from the BT mic though. Anyway, wish I could pull KitKat off at this point and go back to the smooth working phone I had before. No major issues, but I've seen some quirks (Handcent SMS only was doing vibrate until I rebooted), this issue, and DoubleTwist not being able to use the SD card like before. All fine in JB, but not in KK. Not the end of the world though, just have to figure out how to change it or live with it.
 
woodbutch4 said:
Spoke too soon. Google Now is back to answering the headset. So I either have to totally Turn Off Google Search or just deal with it. The problem I have is that it doesn't seem to listen to the voice from the bluetooth headset mic. Even with the setting on. Or it really sucks at voice recognition from that mic. S-Voice does just fine from the BT mic though. Anyway, wish I could pull KitKat off at this point and go back to the smooth working phone I had before. No major issues, but I've seen some quirks (Handcent SMS only was doing vibrate until I rebooted), this issue, and DoubleTwist not being able to use the SD card like before. All fine in JB, but not in KK. Not the end of the world though, just have to figure out how to change it or live with it.
Click to expand...

I've been having similar problems. I started a thread about it here:
Flaky Bluetooth Headset Behavior since KitKat - Android Forums at AndroidCentral.com

I think this may all be due to an update to Google Search. One possible solution is to roll back the update, using Settings...Applications... and then go to the Google Play Store, find Google Search, and untick the option to automatically update.

Perhaps the reason it worked for a while is that initially the problematic update was removed, but then it did an auto update, so that you were back to where you were to begin with.

I'll try this out this afternoon when I have some time. I'd be curious to see if this works for you.
 
Well, what I suggested seems to have worked for me.

I uninstalled the updates, and then actually turned off Google Search. Once that was done, I could successfully initiate BT commands from my Bose headset (haven't tested it yet from my BlueAnt), and now S-Voice comes up. I can then initiate calls, or perform various other actions, which is just what I wanted.

Problem solved.

As of today, I don't see any negative consequences from having Google Search turned off.

Hope this helps.

ETA: I confirmed that it also works fine with the BlueAnt S4
 
Yep, I'm fine as long as I have google search turned off. But I actually kind of like it on for the Google Now widget. Just have to decide which I like better I guess.
 
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