Google voice search prompts do not obey volume sliders

This is my biggest gripe with this phone, and android in general... Bluetooth sucks. For me, the initial prompt is so low you can't hear it while driving, and then the command response is like 20dB louder.

That's when it manages to send it over Bluetooth. Half the time it comes over the speaker, and sometimes half of it comes over one and then switches to the other.

I'm gonna ask Santa for an Android Bluetooth stack that actually works as expected; seems pretty clear Google and/or Motorola is incapable of delivering one.

aviwdoowks said:

Are you unrooted & what build?

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Unrooted, stock 4.4.2.

If you are talking about the prompt after you say "Okay Google Now" with that response volume being very low, this is an issue that Moto is aware of. For a temporary fix, from your home screen you can press the volume down button a few times, then turn it back up. That fixes it for me, usually until I have to restart the phone.

Try that and see if it works for you.

hbar98 said:

If you are talking about the prompt after you say "Okay Google Now" with that response volume being very low, this is an issue that Moto is aware of. For a temporary fix, from your home screen you can press the volume down button a few times, then turn it back up. That fixes it for me, usually until I have to restart the phone.

Try that and see if it works for you.

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This doesn't work for me. Bluetooth volume is seriously borked in 4.4 (and 4.4.2), and it behaves erratically. Even if I lower the volume, it jumps back up when playing podcasts after accessing touchless control. I have tried to fix it (re-pair bluetooth, clear cache, clear dalvik cache, factory reset, etc.).

Really sad that one of the biggest reasons to buy this phone doesn't work as expected when you would need it most (while driving). I keep hoping for a fix, but the last two that came down from Motorola (for the Assist app) broke more than it fixed. And Google's tainted history with its bloody bluetooth stack does not have me feeling confident that this will get cleared up anytime soon.

FWIW, it was working fine in 4.2.2, and it works fine in 4.4.2 with a Moto bluetooth headset... but third party bluetooth devices (Kinivo, LG, Logitech) act as if they are haunted.

Maybe its time to just roll over on Android and go back to iPhone.

Solutions Etcetera said:

This doesn't work for me. Bluetooth volume is seriously borked in 4.4 (and 4.4.2), and it behaves erratically. Even if I lower the volume, it jumps back up when playing podcasts after accessing touchless control. I have tried to fix it (re-pair bluetooth, clear cache, clear dalvik cache, factory reset, etc.).

Really sad that one of the biggest reasons to buy this phone doesn't work as expected when you would need it most (while driving). I keep hoping for a fix, but the last two that came down from Motorola (for the Assist app) broke more than it fixed. And Google's tainted history with its bloody bluetooth stack does not have me feeling confident that this will get cleared up anytime soon.

FWIW, it was working fine in 4.2.2, and it works fine in 4.4.2 with a Moto bluetooth headset... but third party bluetooth devices (Kinivo, LG, Logitech) act as if they are haunted.

Maybe its time to just roll over on Android and go back to iPhone.

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I was talking about a different issue. There is a strange issue with the Moto Assist where, even if your volume is turned all the way up, the Moto Assist voice is extremely low. Adjusting the volume down, then up, is a temp fix to bring the Moto Assist voice back in line with the regular volume. The volumes jumping around issue is something different that I have not experienced yet with 4.4.2 (and I have my phone currently paired to no less than 4 different bluetooth speakers: a Miccus and a Jabra in the car, a Westinghouse speaker in the house, and a set of Plantronics ear buds).

Occasionally, when the Moto Assist voice is really low, the current song that is playing will also become low, but skipping the song fixes the problem. I have chatted with Moto techs, and they are working on the issue. (And I recall 4.2 bluetooth being more unstable in my use... 4.4 has fixed issues I was experiencing.)

You've listed several devices that have the volume jumping issue. Since you don't have any issues with the Moto headset, I wonder if maybe the receiving device isn't exactly compatible? What models of devices don't seem to work with your X? What version of Bluetooth are they on? Maybe that's something to investigate. And, yes, Google's bluetooth can be messy sometimes.

You may, of course, leave Android for the iPhone (or Windows phone). That is a personal choice. But I have several friends who have iPhones, and they have different issues that I, personally, couldn't put up with. If yours is the current state of bluetooth with certain devices, and you are certain that switching to an iPhone will fix that issue, then by all means do the switch.

hbar98 said:

You may, of course, leave Android for the iPhone

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That was more tongue in cheek than anything else.

In 4.4, Google attempted to unify bluetooth volume control. Beforehand, volume controls on hardware (LG Tone+ for instance) was independent of the bluetooth volume on the phone. This was no different than connecting an aux cable to an amp with its own volume control; adjusting the amp's volume control did not affect the output volume of the phone.

This makes a lot of sense as different devices have different sensitivities, and it is desirable to leave your phone's BT volume at a median level, and fine tune the audio level of each device using their own volume controls.

In 4.4, Google decided that BT devices that had their own volume controls should actually control the BT volume of the phone, and not their own input sensitivity. This may or not be a desirable feature for most (it wasn't for me), but that would be under the assumption that the implementation actually works as intended. It doesn't. Certainly not on the Kinivo BTC450 and the LG HBS730. These are popular, highly rated devices, and the end result of 4.4's changes are jumpy, nonlinear volume settings, where spots along the midpoint of the volume slider interface are significantly louder than those above it, and volume levels change depending on what you're doing on your phone.

I suppose one could write off these devices as incompatible, but these issues did not exist with them prior to 4.4, and do not exist on devices on other platforms running BT 4. And of course, BT is a standard that is supposed to be backward compatible for the protocols (A2DP in this case) that are supported.

I'm aware that 4.4 and above fixed some issues that existed in prior builds, but my recollection is that these were mostly connectivity problems. The changes to volume behavior was simply rancid icing on the cake. I just hope a fix is imminent as this is the single most frustrating bug I am experiencing on the Moto X.

Solutions Etcetera said:

That was more tongue in cheek than anything else.

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I figured as much, but I'm of the opinion that if a piece of technology does not work how you want it to, or there are issues that are deal breakers for you, and a different piece of technology does address those issues, then you should switch. The comment was by no means intended to be snide or off handed: that is how I view technology (when I am able to afford it, natch).

In response to the new way that Android handles BT audio... I suppose I'm a different use case than you. Most of my stuff is either jerry rigged to work, or I don't notice the great difference in how it handles audio volumes. I can imagine how this can be frustrating when your volume jumps up and down, and for your sake I hope they do fix the issue.

I'd still be interested in seeing if there was a common theme to devices that do the audio shifts. However, it appears that it can be fixed. According to the following link, the volume controls work properly for the LG device you listed on the Nexus 5, running 4.4.2. Unless the Moto X has issues with that particular chip, you may (eventually) be in luck. (The Kinivo device is also listed, but not much more is said than the audio quality being awesome).

http://forums.androidcentral.com/moto-x/346424-moto-x-bluetooth-apt-x-vs-nexus-5-sound-quality.html