Using Waze with bluetooth without music playing

[2007GTI]

So I use the Waze app pretty much all the time, not just as a Sat Nav, but have it on for the alerts, police, accidents, etc.  Obviously this is blue toothed to the car, however music is always playing from my phone, and sometimes I just want the Waze on its own, so I can hear the directions. I have tried turning down the music, pausing it, on my phone and the head unit, but then it just kicks in again if I turn the volume back up on the stereo to hear Waze.  There doesn't seem to be a way to stop it playing music from my phone, so end up turning bluetooth off, so the Waze comes out of the phone speakers instead. I read on other threads on the forum that this is just the way it is.

I have come up with a work around, I found an MP3 file online that is a few hours of total silence, so I can play that if I need to.

Thoughts?

[2007GTI]

bump! anyone?

[fredgroves]

Mib1 I assume?

[2007GTI]

yep, 2014 model year

[fredgroves]

So the problem is that when you connect your phone to Bluetooth it plays music and can't be stopped? What phone is that?

[2007GTI]

yes correct, iPhone 8.

[fredgroves]

I've just Googled that... What a piece of junk!

The only sensible solution seems to be a silent music track...

Or buy an android phone... I didn't think you could run waze on apple anyway?

[GTI_Ant]

I use Waze a lot with my iPhone SE and no issue.  The phone connects via bluetooth to the MIB1 however the Waze info still plays only from the phone speakers and I can have what I like playing on the car system.  Is there not a sound setting in Waze that allows sound from phone only?

[2007GTI]

I’ve been using Waze on Apple for years!

The phone isn’t a piece of junk, it’s the headunit.

No there is no setting in Waze, it’s not an issue with Waze, exactly the same thing happens with Google maps.  The issue is with the MIB1 auto playing music from the Bluetooth device, in this case the phone.

@GTI_ant, you say you can have anything you like playing, but can you have nothing playing at all, no music at all and still hear Waze?

[fredgroves]

Its not the head unit.

Its a conscious decision by Apple to assume that when a Bluetooth audio connection is made (A2DP), then start playing the music.

Sure, the car could use the remote control protocol (AVRCP) to automatically send a pause command back to the phone, but why should it? Anything that does do this is only to deal with Apple devices...

Android media playback doesn't suffer from the same thing, its absolutely an Apple feature (not a bug, a feature) and looking around it seems like the usual intransience from them with regard to user complaints about their design decision.