ZedZed

Tell me about your phone experiences please (in 'native mode, not in Android Auto or Carplay). The reason I ask is that on my unit the phone app is terrible. I can't get it to read the phone book into its storage, it is terrible to use and incoming calls just display the number not the name. The call quality is fine - it's the interface that is horrible. This hasn't mattered at all up to now as we have been using Android Auto, and the phone experience with that is great. But I know some of you guys use the 'native' interface, and my wife is keen to try this out for an extended trial, but she, rightly, says, she can't really use the phone when in that mode.

I downloaded a couple of phone apps from the Play Store, but the HU doesn't seem able to use them, which is odd. The HU is just an Android phone really, adapted for in-car use, so I have no idea why it refuses to run phone apps from the Play store.

Anyone able to shed light? Thx.

Porsche_nuts

I don't have Erisin, but my HU phone experience is fine in native mode. No issues with contacts, calling, or receiving.

Chuck245

Did you check the settings options for telephony? They may help enabling features on the current phone app or making other phone applications work. If you didn't, you can access them from the Factory Settings using access code 99992. Note that I have no experience with these options as I mainly use AA for calls. Good luck.

ZedZed

That makes me think this is an issue common to the Erisin-style unit then. I don't have a problem in my Panamera unit either - although I don't like the GUI much. I use AA in the Panamera though, pretty much exclusively.

ZedZed

I don't think there are any telephony options with the Erisin-style units. The phone works with my unit, but the interface is so awful that it makes it, in practice, unusable.

How do other owners of the Erisin-style units find this? Same as me or not?

I am out all day on Sunday, but on Monday I will make a video showing just how bad it is. The thing I really don't understand is why I can just download and use a different phone app? I can do this on every Android phone I have ever had (at least a dozen) but not, it seems, on my HU.

andy2111

I have exactly the same problem as I have also wanted to get the new unit fully working with native apps.

Incoming calls connect OK but the dialler is awful, doesn't sync with my phone and is one of the worst pieces of UX design I've seen in a long time!

I have also tried 3rd party diallers with no luck, somehow the Erisin dialler is hardwired as the only option.

Maybe we need to lean on Erisin support again because this cannot be expected behaviour?

Chuck245

My Erisin-style HU has the telephony options. Just try the access code I sent and see if it works on your HU. No reason it doesn't.

One reason why you cannot get a different phone app working could be because our HU's are based on the Vastking KingPad SA10 EEA (model A007) tablet and from what I found; this tablet is not available with cellular access. Most likely, Erisin has developed a proprietary phone app to run on the Vastking Android distribution.

I mentioned the factory settings for telephony because if I'm right that Erisin developed some proprietary telephony software for this HU, the settings might control their proprietary telephony and possibly allow to setup other phone apps. Yes, a long shot, but should be easy to check.

And fully agree with you that the HU's standard phone app is not up to usability standards. I would suggest that owners of the official Erisin HU's ask Erisin about how to install phone apps.

andy2111

I just looked at the telephony settings. There are loads of very technical settings but nothing obvious to help. The App menu had nothing useful to offer.

There is a software update option but mine timed out when I tried it.

Chuck I assume your phone is syncing fine with the head unit eg for contacts and call history? Do you have an Android or iPhone?

Chuck245

Yes, my phone is connecting fine and syncing my contacts and history with the Erisin native phone app. The calls are also fine with good voice quality on both directions. My only critic is that the UI is a bit clunky. Pictures below:

Chuck245

Another long shot suggestion: install the new phone app and then go to the Factory Settings telephony menu and see if the newly installed phone app is listed under the "Application" menu. Note that more I think about it, the telephony menu is most likely managing the cellular connection through the HU's SIM card when used. Because there is an application option in the menu, I would still check my suggestion.

@ZedZed , can you point me to the specific Android phone app that you are trying to get working? I can try on my HU's just to validate the issue is across all the units.

andy2111

I'd try the Google dialler app...
Phone by Google - Apps on Google Play

ZedZed

Thanks for the comments on this. @andy2111 - yes, we seem to have the same experience. Call quality is good. My wife can answer incoming calls easily enough, but the GUI only shows the phone number and not the caller's ID. I assume this is because the phone book has not been correctly imported from her phone. This irritates her because she has taken spam calls thinking it might be one of her contacts. The only phone number she recognises is mine - like most people, all the others are 'names' in her phone contacts rather than 'numbers' IYSWIM.

@Chuck245 Thanks Chuck. Good point about the unit being a tablet that doesn't have cellular connectivity. However, my old Samsung tablet also has no cellular connectivity, but I can still download and run phone apps onto it and they work as expected, except of course they can't dial out. But our HUs may be different again of course. I have tried various phone apps, but the one Andy suggests you try (the Google dialler) is the best for your experiment as I would think that if any phone app was going to work on an Android unit, it would be Google's own.

Thanks for your help with this guys. Andy, I think you are right - Erisin should look at this since the dialler is clearly not working as intended if it can't import the contact list from the attached phone. As you have a line of communication established, would you mind being the one to contact them? Please add my ID to the list. Or, if you give me their contact details I can contact them directly, but remember my unit is Erisin-style rather than Erisin so they may tell me to do one.

ZedZed

Chuck - at least you have your contacts showing. I can't get that to happen. I want to see my contacts, with name details, as they are displayed on my phone (using any dialler app available). Something like the way the phone app in Android Auto works.

This is how I expect the UI to look:

andy2111

Yep, when I get a chance I'll take some pics showing it not syncing/working as expected so I have something visual to illustrate the problem

Chuck245

Re:Chuck - at least you have your contacts showing. I can't get that to happen.

Did you tried the sync button? I had to use this and wait a few minutes to get my phone contacts to transfer to the native HU phone app. It's the button on the right side with two arrows circling.
Still, fully agree with your expectations for a modern phone application. The native phone app is really rudimentary.