Useful Voice Commands & Bluetooth Info - 2009

Hello all:

I recently purchased a 2009 Prius, package 5.

As others have mentioned here, the user manual, although possessing some good information, is sort of like a "Where's Waldo" game: finding that needed nugget of information can be a challenge at times. I've done a copious amount of reading of the forums in the last couple of weeks, which has been immeasurably useful. As such, I want to thank all of the seasoned posters here. I am indebted to you for sharing your knowledge and experiences.

Recently, I started setting up the Bluetooth functionality for my cell and my wife's. This has probably been the only really frustrating part of my user experience so far. It seems from some of the posts on this topic that others have been equally befuddled.

As such, I thought that it would be good to start a thread that contains a list of useful Voice commands and tricks for phone dialing and usage, and for general as well as "obsure" Bluetooth info. I have put the year in the thread title, since some of the existing threads are quite old. My thought was that this could be a good place to put everything related to 2009 and previous models.

Please feel free to add your knowledge here, including links to other existing posts that would be useful for newbies like myself. I will add more info as I come across it during my learning curve. Anything that may be obvious to a seasoned user, but may be easily missed by a newbie, would be especially appreciated.

Thanks!
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To "Dial by Name" from the steering wheel without touching the MFD (Multi-Function Display):

• Press the "Talk Switch" ("talking face button") on the steering wheel. (Note: this will not work if you are already in the main phone screen; you need to be in another screen, such as Audio, Climate, etc). This will put you into "Voice Recognition" mode, and present you with the "Say a Command" prompt.
• At the prompt say "Dial by Name"
• After the phone book loads, press the "Talk Switch" again and say the "name" of the person that you want to dial. (Note: you must have already recorded a "voice tag" for the desired number; see the Owner's Manual for details).
• Wait until the voice prompt has completely finished before preceeding to the next step; advancing too soon will abort the process. And the voice prompt is so slooowwwww....
• Either press the "Off Hook" button on the steering wheel to dial the selected number, or press the "Talk Switch" again, then say "Dial".
• the selected phone book entry will be dialed.
• To stop the call, press the "On Hook" button on the steering wheel.

This functionality allows you to keep both hanks on the wheel, such that the MFD screen does not need to be touched at all during the process of placing a call.


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Prius Voice Dialing

One thing that surprised me was that I expected the Prius' Bluetooth function to basically work like my Jawbone headset: With my Blackberry 8830, I click the hook off/hook on button on the Jawbone, and it activates the "Voice Signal" voice dialing software on my Blackberry. Then I have direct access to all of my Blackberry's contacts. And my I don't have to record a "voice tag" for each contact, as the Blackberry'svoice dialing incorporates word recognition, so that is usually figures out what contact I'm saying without having to "teach" it.

The Voice Dialing on the Prius is much more primitive. The Prius Bluetooth functionality cannot directly access the Blackberry 8830's phone book or voice dialing capabilities. Rather, it can only access the Prius' phonebook. And the word recognition on the Prius requires that you first record a "voice tag" for every entry in the Prius' phonebook (assuming that want the ability to voice dial every contact). It can't read the contact entries and guess at the pronounciation.

So using the Prius to connect with your Bluetooth enabled phone is not as simple as pairing a Bluetooth headset with your cellphone.

 

Using the Prius only as a simple handsfree device

There is a way to use the Prius as a simple handsfree device without having to use the Prius's own phonebook:

• pair the Prius with your cellphone (see Prius Owner's Manual)
• Set the Prius to AutoConnect with your phone (see Prius Owner's Manual).
• Set the your Prius as "Trusted" in your cellphone's Bluetooth properties, so that when the car's Bluetooth turns on it automatically reconnects with your cellphone without having to accept a prompt (unless you don't want to do it this way).
• To place a call, initiate the call via a speed dial button on your cellphone (Or dial from your cellphone's address book, or number dial, if allowed in your area)
• When the call is placed, the sound will come over the car's audio system (driver's side speaker); the microphone is on the roof near the map lights.
• You can terminate the call via the "On Hook" button on the steering wheel.
• Incoming calls can also be received by simply pressing "Off Hook" button on the steering wheel to pick up the call.
• When the car is turned off and locked, the Bluetooth connection to the cellphone is terminated.

 

Various Meanings of "Register" in the Prius' Bluetooth controls

I found this to be confusing when first reading the Prius's Owner's manual. So here are the different meanings:

• "Register" your cellphone: this basically means "pairing" your cellphone with the car. You can register up to 6 phones with the Prius. But only one can be active at a time. Use "Select Telephone" to change the active paired phone.
• Manually "Register" a phonebook entry: basically the same as creating a new "contact" for your car's phonebook. You can have up to two phone numbers per contact. A total of 1000 contacts are allowed. Alternatively, you can transfer contacts from your cellphone's phonebook to the Prius' phonebook (if your phone supports it).
• "Register" a Speed Dial: assign a Speed Dial key to a contact.
• "Register" historical data: assign a call log record to a contact.

 

Prius "Caller ID"

When receiving a call, the MFD will display the number of the incoming caller. If that number is already in your phonebook, it will also show the name of the caller as you have entered it in the phone book.

However, the caller ID will not work if you have a "1" programmed in front of the contact's phone number. In other words, you should just have the 10 digit number (for North America) entered in your phonebook.

For most users this will not even be an issue. In my line of work I travel quite a bit, and in years past I would sometimes have problems dialing numbers when "roaming" out of my home calling area, if I did not have a "1" (long distance) in front of the number that I was dialling.

Because of this I still have the habit of putting a "1" in front of my phonebook entries. However, doing so in the Prius' phonebook will cause the Caller ID function to fail, so that only the incoming phone number is displayed, without the benefit of the caller's name.

 

Recording phonebook Voice Tags

Recording single-syllable names for the phonebook Voice Tags will often fail, as the system will say that the name is "too short".

The work around is to really "draw out" the syllable.

For example: Let's say that you've entered your home phone number into the Prius' phonebook, and you want the voice tag to be "Home". When recording the tag, say it something like "Hhooommme".

"Drawing out" the pronounciation of the syllable will allow the system to recognize the word.

Multi-syllable words do not suffer from this problem.

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Another thing to keep in mind: when you record a voice tag: that recording is what stays linked to the contact name. So when your spouse or friend uses the system, they will hear your voice repeating back the contact names!


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Voice Tags for Contacts with 2 phone numbers

When a phonebook contact has two numbers (i.e., both a home and cellphone, etc.), the Voice Tag can only be applied to one of the phone numbers for the purpose of "Dial by Name" (voice dialing).

When recording the Voice Tag, pick the appropriate one that you want dialed when the contact is selected. So if a contact has both a home and a cellphone number, be certain that the "microphone" icon appears next to the correct one of the two phone numbers. That will be the the one that gets dialed when you say the contact name.

For example: you've entered two numbers for your contact "John Doe". The first number is his home phone, the second is his cell. But when you use Voice Dialing, you want the cell number to be the one that gets used. So when adding the Voice Tag, select the second number (the cellphone number) when recording the Voice Tag.

After recording the Voice Tag, the contact can be edited should you ever want to use the same recording, but switch numbers. So in the previous example, you can edit the contact information and re-assign the Voice Tag to the "home" phone.

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Unfortunately, when Voice Dialing you can't choose "on the fly" from the two numbers for the same contact; that has to be done ahead of time by properly assigning the Voice Tag.

The work around to this issue would be to make two completely separate contacts in the phonebook for the same person. For example, one could be "John Doe Cell", and the other "John Doe Home".

 

I guess there could be several issues. But the one that immediately comes to mind is that you cannot say "Dial by Name" when actually in the main Phone menu screen. It only works when you are in a different function already.

So press the "Info" button on the steering wheel to go to one of the two info screens (you could also be in Audio, or Climate, or whatever.) If you press the "Talk Switch" button from one of these screens, you should be able to say "Dial by Name", and it should then take you directly to your address book, which will take a few seconds to populate. If you can get this far, the remainder of my post should get you to the point of actually placing the call.

Have you tried this? Let us know.

 

Hello Boppo:

Well, that is weird. I see that you have a 2006, so I don't know if the feature set changed between the 2006 and the 2009 models.

Can anyone else here with a 2006 test their "Dial by Name" function as described at the beginning of this thread? Thanks.

Possibly the feature set was expanded for later models? I can only report on how I see the 2009 model behaving.

One last stupid question from me: is your phone actually synched to the car when you try this? Sorry for asking, sometimes it could get overlooked. If there is no valid Bluetooth connection, some functions just will not work.

 

Hello Boppo:

Sorry to hear that it's not working. We can only hope that someone with a 2006 or earlier reads this thread and can provide us with some feedback.

I'll take a look at mine again this weekend and see if I notice anything that I've overlooked.

Best wishes,

 

Accessing the Voice Command Help topics

Hello Boppo:

Since you added your update as an "edit", I almost missed it. Good to hear that you've had success! Congratulations!!

For the benefit of others, I wanted to add some information about how to find the "Voice Commands" that are available on your Prius. Disclaimer: since my model is a 2009, I'm not certain that the following applies equally to all previous G2 model years.

• From "Ready" (or even "Accessory" or "Ig-ON" on my car), if I press the "Talk Switch" and then say "Help", the "Command Help List" appears on the MFD. On the right hand side their is a "frame" with various function topics. On my car, those are "Navi", "POI", "Dest.", "Audio", "Tel", and "Climate".

If I press "Tel", all the upper level menu commands are listed: "Dial by Name", "Dial by Number", "Cancel", and "Help".

If is use the "down arrow" on the left hand side of the screen, I can see the sub-menu commands for any given upper level menu. So if I scroll down to "Dial by name tag", it lists "<Name>", "Next Candidate", and "Dial". So This tells me that when have said "Dial by Name", after I say the <name> that I want, I can press the Talk switch again, and then say either "Dial" or "Next Candidate" commands.
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• Again for the benefit of all, not all phonebook functions will be available in all driving modes, either through voice commands or MFD buttons. Sometimes through neither, sometimes through Voice Command but not MFD buttons.

For instance, you can only manually access your phonebook while the car is almost stopped. Once you get moving at anything above a creep, most of the phonebook options get "grayed out". But the voice command "Dial by Name" is still available, which is why using this feature is so helpful.
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• What is really unbelievable are some of the other available Voice Commands on my 2009. For instance, I can press the Talk switch, say "68 degrees", and it will turn on the AC and set the system to 68 degrees! How cool (no pun intended) is that!!!!

 

Re: adjusting the microphone volume - 2009

It has been mentioned that although the Bluetooth speaker volume in the Prius is usually quite good, the microphone volume can sometimes be low. However, in the standard user screens there is no way to adjust the microphone volume. So I am posting the information here on how to get to the hidden menu that will allow you to set the microphone volume.

Others threads have some of this same information. But it still seemed to me a little confusing when I tried to find the correct menu. After a little experimentation I was finally able to find the correct menu, and made the required change.

Following are the exact steps and menu titles for my 2009 G2, as well as photos of each menu screen:

1. Turn the car “Onâ€, then press the “Info†button on the MFD bezel
2. Press and hold the “Display†button on the bezel. While holding the button, turn the headlights “On†and then “Off†three times quickly (NOTE: this means you rotate the headlight switch from "completely off" to "headlights on" and then back to "completely off" again, three times in a row). One second after the third return to “Offâ€, the MFD will go into Diagnostics mode.
3. After a few seconds, “Diagnostics Check 1†will complete.
4. Press the “Menu†softkey in the upper right corner.
5. At the “Diagnostics Menuâ€, press the “Bluetooth TEL Check†softkey.
6. At the “Bluetooth Handsfree Check Menuâ€, press the “Handsfree Voice Quality Set†softkey.
7. At the “Handsfree Voice Quality Set†screen, use the up and down arrows to adjust the “Send Voice Levelâ€. (Our Prius came with both the "Receive" and the “Send" voice levels set to “0â€).
8. After making the desired changes, turn the car “Offâ€. The MFD will go back to normal operation the next time that the car is started, and the changes will have been saved.