How's your experience with Tesla / Apple iMessage been?

[Chris Barnes]

I've been very unimpressed with the integration of iMessage and the Tesla system. That damn button in the bottom left never works for me. Curious if others are frustrated with the experience or maybe its just me.

(image via notateslaapp.com)

 

[jjrandorin]

You dont push the button on the screen, you push one of the scroll wheel buttons to reply. I dont remember which one because my hands do it instinctively at this point.

As for how it works, its a bit glitchy, sometimes the texts come to the car, sometimes they dont. Seems to me that it depends on whether I hve my apple watch on, and the state of my phone screen (whether its awake or not), but have never put in time to troubleshoot it much.

 

[Chris Barnes]

You dont push the button on the screen, you push one of the scroll wheel buttons to reply.

But it literally says at one point to "double tap" that icon to send/re-try or something. In the screenshot in my original post it even says "Press to reply". It's a button on the screen, my friend!

 

[EVRider-FL]

As the previous reply noted, it's not a button on the screen, it's telling you to press the voice command button (right scroll wheel in your case) to respond. However, I thought it was a button too the first time I saw it.

Other than that, the integration works fine for me.

 

[Chris Barnes]

As the previous reply noted, it's not a button on the screen, it's telling you to press the voice command button (right scroll wheel in your case) to respond. However, I thought it was a button too the first time I saw it.

Other than that, the integration works fine for me.

So you're telling me EVERYTHING on the screen is a button that does something EXCEPT this which says "press"? C'mon!

 

[jjrandorin]

But it literally says at one point to "double tap" that icon to send/re-try or something. In the screenshot in my original post it even says "Press to reply". It's a button on the screen, my friend!

I dont stab at the screen to push any buttons while driving, so I have no idea if its actually a button on the screen that works or not. I am just telling you that I use one of the scroll wheel buttons to reply.

 

[jjrandorin]

So you're telling me EVERYTHING on the screen is a button that does something EXCEPT this which says "press"? C'mon!

View attachment 1048181

No, we are telling you that you dont have to push that button, you can do something else. I thought you wanted help with the functionality, not to discuss the button on the screen though.

Anyway, good luck with it.

 

[Chris Barnes]

I dont stab at the screen to push any buttons while driving, so I have no idea if its actually a button on the screen that works or not. I am just telling you that I use one of the scroll wheel buttons to reply.

I'll give it a try! If this is the case and I've been using it wrong all along I'll change my response to "a little glitchy" since there aren't clear directions/bad indicators on the screen.

 

[Chris Barnes]

I thought you wanted help with the functionality, not to discuss the button on the screen though.

Is the button (or lack of clear instructions to NOT use the not-button) not part of the functionality? Maybe I'm just old. My first car had an AM radio with buttons you pull to set as pre-sets... so... yeah.

 

[jjrandorin]

You dont push the button on the screen, you push one of the scroll wheel buttons to reply. I dont remember which one because my hands do it instinctively at this point.

To finish this comment here, its the right button as described in the manual:

============================

Model Y Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn how to pair your phone to your vehicle and customize vehicle settings based on calendar events.

www.tesla.com

Messages: Displays message in chronological order with the most recent message listed first. You can view, send, and receive text messages. Instead of typing a text message, touch the microphone button on the right side of the steering wheel to enter text using your voice.

============================

In any case, Its still a bit glitchy for me like I said in my first post.

Anyway, as I mentioned, good luck with it, hope it works better for you.

 

[EVRider-FL]

So you're telling me EVERYTHING on the screen is a button that does something EXCEPT this which says "press"? C'mon!

No, but if you look carefully at the image in your screenshot, you'll see that it's actually showing you the right scroll wheel on your steering wheel. It's a bad UI design.

 

[Chris Barnes]

touch the microphone button on the right side of the steering wheel

Not to split hairs but to for sure reinforce better instructions are needed... that not-button on the screen is LITERALLY a microphone image (not-button) button on the right side of the steering wheel (lower left corner of the screen, to the right side of the steering wheel).

Anyway - I appreciate the feedback and will endeavor to try other ways and report back on my experience!

 

[Benito1283]

Yes it’s a little unclear about pressing the screen vs scroll wheel. Probably okay to move on from that.

What annoys me most is that it begins every text with a lowercase letter. It’s been like this for a long time. How hard could it possibly be to correct this? The voice recognition is also just generally poor. It’s much better on my wife’s Rav4. Also it’s time to support group texts for iPhone.

 

[gx9901]

I didn't realize that you can press the right scroll wheel button to reply texts until I saw this thread. I rarely use the text function in cars, but when I did, I would hit the on-screen button as the OP did. I will say that sometime in the past few months this on-screen button started to not work well at all. Previously when I hit the on-screen button to reply to a text, it had worked fine, certainly a lot better than now. So to me something had changed for the worse with this function. But since I so rarely use it, I'm not sure when that happened. Good to know that the right scroll wheel works though. Next time I feel the need to reply to a text via voice in my car I will try that.

 

[Chris Barnes]

Yes it’s a little unclear about pressing the screen vs scroll wheel. Probably okay to move on from that.

What annoys me most is that it begins every text with a lowercase letter. It’s been like this for a long time. How hard could it possibly be to correct this? The voice recognition is also just generally poor. It’s much better on my wife’s Rav4. Also it’s time to support group texts for iPhone.

I mean... for an AI company that makes cars as a side business you'd think Tesla could do this better!

I didn't realize that you can press the right scroll wheel button to reply texts until I saw this thread.

THANK YOU!! I don't feel so bad now that I know I wasn't the only one doing this! (and happy this thread could help someone!)

 

[SDPCH]

Like OP I never realised that icon was of steering wheel. I push button on screen, speak, text appears then I press to send and then it fails to send giving an error message. It’s crap. I think I read elsewhere that it depends if you’re responding to an Apple ID or a mobile number. I just don’t use it anymore as it just doesn’t work. I don’t think I’ve successfully sent even one iMessage using Tesla message app. The windscreen wipers are more reliable.

 

[jmaddr]

My main gripe with iMessage is lack of group messaging.

 

[LikesToys]

I turned on messaging in the Tesla and reluctantly allowed my contacts to be copied, then verbally asked Siri to composed a text message and stated the name of the person to send it to. I expected iMessage to send the message to an iCloud user - all very Apple Standard - I do this often while driving.

Instead Tesla grabbed the text message, chose the recipients home phone land line and sent a text message to it. My cell provider then charged me 10 cents to convert the text to voice and left the message on an old answering machine. All I could do was laugh, but it shows how Tesla and phones aren’t integrated and I much prefer the Apple experience.

Tesla will never compete with Apple or Google as both those companies have much more to invest in their technology.
Needless to say I turned off Messages in Tesla and removed the contacts.

Oh and I’d like my dime back.

 

[Chris Barnes]

Tesla will never compete with Apple or Google as both those companies have much more to invest in their technology.

My previous car before the Tesla MY was a Kia Nero EV. I hated that car but at least it let me use CarPlay which, in my opinion, works fantastically!

 

[tstafford]

Maybe I'm not getting it, but why not just say "hey Siri" and respond to the text that way?