Something new, long awaited, and great I found under bluetooth settings in iOS 14.5

By Moopie Curran, 8 May, 2021

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

Hi,
I'm really excited about this, although it may have been around since iOS 14, I don't know. But I discovered a setting under each bluetooth device where you can specify what kind of bluetooth audio device your given bluetooth device is. i'm in the minority here, but I always had a huge beef with voiceover audio being routed through the phone's speaker with iOS 13, because I couldn't adjust the volume of voiceover like normal. I have a bose sound wear companion, which is a cross between a bluetooth headset and speaker. I really had issues with voiceover being pumped through the phone's speaker, because audio on the soundwear is close enough to my ears where I couldn't hear voiceover from far away if it was coming through the phone's speaker. Anyway, you go to settings, bluetooth, choose the device you want to set what type it is (it doesn't even have to be connected at the time, in fact, it's probably better if it's not, then you'll have to restart the bluetooth device). Once you find the device, swipe down, to where it says more info, then double tap, and one of the options is device type. Options are car stereo, hearing aid, speaker, headset, other, and there might be another, I don't know.
Hope someone finds this info helpful, I'm really excited about it!!!! :)

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Comments

By ftealucard on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 11:19

Very interested in what you said above regarding voiceover going through the phone speaker when a bluetooth speaker is connected. Is this by default now? I haven't used bluetooth that much but when I did the last few years, voiceover always went to the device you were connected to along with all other phone audio. I play gigs with a wind instrument and background tracks and am leary about using bluetooth for them but if voiceover could go through phone at I assume whatever volume level voiceover is at when first connected to device I would consider it. Right now I am using a booksense which means I unfortunately have to stand close to my amp when playing.
Thanks for any info or suggestions.

Hi, It's only certain speakers that pipe voiceover audio through the phone's speaker by default instead of the connected device. For example, the bose ones do this, and I think JBL and some others. I always have my voiceover speaker volume so low, that I'd forget before I turned the bluetooth device on, and I'd have to play heck to get voiceover to where I could hear it again. What bt speaker do you have? Although if you set your bt speaker to recognize as a bt speaker instead of a headset, it should work. If I were you, I'd do a test, I don't know your specific circumstances, ie if you have your instrument at your house, but I'd do a dry run somewhere where it doesn't matter. But under bluetooth device type, make sure your bt speaker (whatever kind it might be) is set to speaker. By default now, it's not set to anything, apple iOS guesses whether it's a speaker or a headset, and routes the audio appropriately to what it thinks. Good luck.

Thanks so much for the info. The plan is to eventually go to a music store and try out a couple of portable PA systems that have bluetooth streaming, (as long as VoiceOver can go through phone speaker) just worried about the reliability of connection. To be honest though, the only real bluetooth issue I've had is with cheap speakers having audio delay but that was in windows.
Will just have to give it a ttry, thanks.

By Moopie Curran on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 11:19

I haven't used windows in years and years, but based on what I've heard, bluetooth on iOS devices is way more stable than on any windows device.

By WellF on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 11:19

The volume seems to go up and down sudenly for voiceover, but not having to deal with the Bluetooth delay is great.

By Moopie Curran on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 11:19

Hi,
I'm still experimenting, but I tried the different device settings for my bose wearable speaker, and it looks as if now, it's all set to come out of the bose speaker, no matter what it's set to. Although the only ones I haven't tried yet are the hearing aid and the speaker, but when I have it set to car audio system, other, and headphone, voiceover comes through the bose speaker (where I want it to), and not the phone's speaker. Wonderful for people like me, but not so great for others. I'll have to try it under speaker mode and see what happens.

By Rob on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 11:19

Hi,

This setting is not showing up on my iPad Mini 5 running iPadOS 14.5 but it is showing up on my iPhone SE2020 running iOS 14.5. The only option showing for any devices connected to the iPad is forget device.

Hi there!

I just experimented with it this morning, and I seen this setting on my ipad 7. However, I just ran into an interesting thing though. It falls within the lines of what you're saying. Here's my theory.

First, I wonder if the setting is device-spicific in terms of the IOS device. For example, screen recignition is available on an ipad 8, but not on my ipad 7. So, I wonder if it's available on some devices and not others. I don't agree with this practice, especially with devices that are new, but not necisarily newer. Like an ipad 8 is newer than a ipad 7, but the 7 is still new. So in theory, your mini 5 should have this capability. Not sure if what I just said makes any sense, but it's how I see it from my logic. That does however, bring me to my question that I'm pondering. It falls within the lines of yours.

Is this also BT device-spicific? Here's why I ask.

Once I heard about this little goodie, I immediately went to settings and started checking it out. Because I have a stereo, and a BT. speaker that have VO. go through them when paired with my ipad. Which, for me, is quite annoying, especially with the lag. But, I have an Amazon Echo that does route VO. through my ipad speakers. So, naturally, I put my stereo as a speaker, because, that's what it is. So, I was having a fun, relaxing time listening to my music on it this morning testing it out.

Well, I went to the BT. speaker that my family uses, and looked for this setting. And the type-naming setting was not there for the BT. speaker. It was however, there for my stereo. I don't know offhand what speaker it is. But, this brings me to my question.

Is this setting Bt. device-spicific? Appearing for my stereo, but not for my other Bt. speaker? I was not connected to my stereo, or speaker while setting this up.
I was connected to my echo, when I set up my stereo. IDK if that has anything to do with it, but...

Definetely worth doing more experimenting with though!

Sorry that I couldn't give you any actual solutions. But I hope it gives you something to think about, and experiment with @ the very least.

By Dawn 👩🏻‍🦯 on Tuesday, May 25, 2021 - 11:19

Hello!

Thanks for this awesome goodie! I agree this is long-awaited and wonderful!

I have ' stereo that has Bt. capability. Which, is great, except VO. gets routed through it, and not my ipad speakers. Which poses issues not just with the lag, but, VO. cuts in and out on it. But music plays fine. Podcasts cut in and out too. The only way to mediate this is to turn both the ipad and stereo up loud. But, that's not good when you have to unpair them.

Now, thanks in big part to you, I can now injoy listening to music and other audio from my ipad through my stereo, all while VO. is going through ipad's speakers! Now, if I can get VO. to play nice with the Bt. speaker my family uses, which presents a lot of the same issues mentioned above with my stereo, I will truly be in paradise, and a very happy woman! lol But, in all seriousness, thank you for making me realize that I have the ability to listen to music and podcasts on my stereo with out any frustration!