Pixel Bluetooth issues

[quangtran1]

No Problems with mine on Bluetooth at all. Works I both of my Acura's and my brothers Mercedes SUV. No problems with my 2 Beats headphones. No skipping and no drop calls. I use it for calls some an hour at a time.

Same experience here. I wonder why some have issues, that's unfortunate. I have 7 smart watches, the Merc C300, my cheap Jabra headset all connected and never ever dropped. Can be frustrating for sure.

 

[Applejunkie66]

Never have had an issue audio wise. Making/receiving calls in my Honda?? Total garbage...But music via BT in my car has zero issues.

 

[jskinvest]

I tried turning off WIFI but the clipping/skipping/popping over BT still persists.

 

[Citizen Coyote]

I have not had any issues with my Pixel and a 2016 Mazda 6, or my 2014 Moto 360. Both paired right away with no issues. I haven't tried connecting it to anything else yet.

 

[billykac]

I believe that as of now, BT issues are the Pixel's Achilles heel. Issues with BT signal range, BT signal integrity/consistency, and BT pairing, especially in automobiles are common.I've been vocal on the Pixel Community front, and have pointed Google resources back to this thread. I got a response today from a community leader that the Pixel team is working on this issue now. Of course, this doesn't help people like the poster above that needs to depend on solid BT performance for work. For many of us, it's simply an inconvenience, and one I am surprised that we are seeing with a flagship device in 2016. Dependable BT connections are something we came to expect years ago with devices that are downright primitive compared to the Pixel.It'll be interesting to see how committed Google is to resolving this issue in a timely manner.

Well, it's 2017 and we've had some updates, but I experience nothing new on the BT front. Consistently skipping audio and the shortest BT range I've ever seen from a phone still plague the Pixel, for me and many others.

The Pixel is hands-down the best phone I've owned in so many respects, so it's a keeper for me. But man, it's like BT is a new frontier still to be conquered for Google/HTC. I think it's this stark contrast that makes this issue seem so problematic - at least for me.

 

[Gdwheel]

My bluetooth issues are actually worse since the update. Perhaps the new problems are coincidental, since it does not seem that the January update was anything other than the security update. I hope Google plans to address the bluetooth issues, but i have not seen any indication that they do -- perhaps I missed it. That would really be a problem since many people, including me, rely upon BT functioning properly. The Pixel User Community has more than a 1000 comments on BT functionality problems in vehicles.

 

[jskinvest]

Same here. It seems the bluetooth crackling/stuttering is the same if not worse after the January security patch. Hoping for a fix soon. It is definitely a problem on what is an otherwise perfect phone.

 

[DJM626]

I wish we had a complete change log with all of these updates so we can see what has or has not been addressed non security related

 

[tribbleorlfl]

I believe I've said it before, but this makes me so nervous since the BT issues I've had on my S7edge are the whole reason I'm going w/ the Pixel (ordered my XL on 11/28 from Verizon, still waiting).

Could there be something inherently wrong with Android itself that could be causing these kind of BT issues?

 

[DJM626]

Some have said on this forum and others stated on the Nexus forum that all was well until 7.1 came along. People that experienced no previous issues encountered them all of a sudden

 

[DJM626]

But again it's different for everyone. This is what I personally noticed with most of the issues is that it is not consistent for everyone which makes it even more difficult to try and figure out

 

[DJM626]

At least you can exchange if it does not work out for you

 

[jskinvest]

You may be right. I got my phone on October 20. I did not notice this bluetooth stuttering/crackling issue until sometime in December. So..yes it may be a bug with 7.1.1.

 

[tk-093]

Here is a solution for the Honda Pilot issues that was found by someone on the Pixel User Community Forum. Search for JTHockey17 solution on December 6th. This helped me out with my issues connecting to my Honda Pilot.

https://productforums.google.com/d/msg/phone-by-google/SZrziPyWiHw/zxvNqFvsCwAJ

Thanks for posting those. I tried it once and it seems to be acting the same way but I'm not convinced I didn't mess up some steps. All you need tod o is install that Bluetooth Phonebook app? There is nothing that needs to be configured in it?

 

[dwboston]

I've got a 2016 Honda Accord rental for a week or two while my car is in the shop. The Pixel XL paired right up to the Honda HandsFreeLink and bluetooth audio streaming has been fine with no skipping or issues. Phone calls have been issue-free as well.

 

[dwboston]

But again it's different for everyone. This is what I personally noticed with most of the issues is that it is not consistent for everyone which makes it even more difficult to try and figure out

It's different for everyone because, despite the fact the Bluetooth is a standard, auto manufacturers and phone OEMs have their own implementations and hardware differences. The Pixel has worked really well so far for me with both a 2012 Audi and a 2016 Honda from a bluetooth perspective, but I'm sure others are having issues. And I wouldn't be so quick to pin them on Google, except in the cases where a Pixel update caused something that was working previously to break.

 

[Gdwheel]

And I wouldn't be so quick to pin them on Google, except in the cases where a Pixel update caused something that was working previously to break.

The issue, at least for me, is that no phones with Marshmallow have these same issues with the same vehicles. They work flawlessly (S7 Edge, G5, etc.). It seems to me that it is a Nougat issue that first started with the Pixels, since they received it first. I am sure other phones will have similar issues as they update to Nougat unless the manufacturer puts time into resolving those issues before releasing the update. I know the HTC 10 had these issues after the update, but not before (at least for me). I suspect others will follow. I am interested in seeing what happens with the Samsung phones when Nougat is released to them. I would expect Samsung to change Google's code as much as, or more than, other manufacturers and perhaps pick up those issues in testing. The thing that concerns me the most is that if Google does not fix the problem, these other phones could have the same issues going forward.

 

[dwboston]

The issue, at least for me, is that no phones with Marshmallow have these same issues with the same vehicles. They work flawlessly (S7 Edge, G5, etc.). It seems to me that it is a Nougat issue that first started with the Pixels, since they received it first. I am sure other phones will have similar issues as they update to Nougat unless the manufacturer puts time into resolving those issues before releasing the update. I know the HTC 10 had these issues after the update, but not before (at least for me). I suspect others will follow. I am interested in seeing what happens with the Samsung phones when Nougat is released to them. I would expect Samsung to change Google's code as much as, or more than, other manufacturers and perhaps pick up those issues in testing. The thing that concerns me the most is that if Google does not fix the problem, these other phones could have the same issues going forward.

I'm not disagreeing with you, but the issue could just as easily lie with the car manufacturer. Clearly the bluetooth stack Google is using in the Pixel phones causes some issues with some cars, but it's possible that Google's implementation of Bluetooth 4.2 is closer to the "standard" than the auto OEM's systems, and they are the ones that need to update (which they won't, at least not quickly). I drove Hondas and Acuras for several years and the Honda/Acura HandsFreeLink system was always a bit quirky in terms of what phones would work/not work. With the Accord rental, the Pixel XL paired right up and all phone functions worked, signal/battery displayed correctly on the screen, and streaming worked fine.

It's not an easy thing to have a phone work seamlessly with multiple car manufacturer's infotainment systems, when they all have different bluetooth implementations. Bluetooth is supposed to be a standard, but unfortunately it's not implemented that way in practice.

 

[andrew_ackley]

I believe I've said it before, but this makes me so nervous since the BT issues I've had on my S7edge are the whole reason I'm going w/ the Pixel (ordered my XL on 11/28 from Verizon, still waiting).

Could there be something inherently wrong with Android itself that could be causing these kind of BT issues?

I think it's a nougat issue. I have the same issues now on my Moto Z after the Android 7 update.

 

[andrew_ackley]

The issue, at least for me, is that no phones with Marshmallow have these same issues with the same vehicles. They work flawlessly (S7 Edge, G5, etc.). It seems to me that it is a Nougat issue that first started with the Pixels, since they received it first. I am sure other phones will have similar issues as they update to Nougat unless the manufacturer puts time into resolving those issues before releasing the update. I know the HTC 10 had these issues after the update, but not before (at least for me). I suspect others will follow. I am interested in seeing what happens with the Samsung phones when Nougat is released to them. I would expect Samsung to change Google's code as much as, or more than, other manufacturers and perhaps pick up those issues in testing. The thing that concerns me the most is that if Google does not fix the problem, these other phones could have the same issues going forward.

Yup that's why my Moto Z has it now.