2013 iDrive Android

[swunder]

So the 2013 1 series have CIC iDrive and not iDrive 5/nbt correct?

My car runs bluetooth over android basically fine - Google Music and Pandora metadata shows up OK and I can skip songs from the steering wheel or idrive controller.

But I plugged in my old iphone 5 work phone I hardly ever use and BMW Apps is pretty cool. Showed the album art for pandora, and had thumbs up/down buttons. Could even change channels without the phone.

So I guess this doesn't work over android? Android Apps support is only for 2014 and newer cars? Plugged my Samsung s8 via USB and nothing was recognized.

I'm almost considering buying the snap in adapter for iphone 5 and just leaving that in the armrest for music. Then again, my Android Google Maps Nav wouldn't come over the speakers in that case soooo hmmm.

[zx10guy]

Yes, the 2013 iDrive for our cars is CIC and not NBT. Even if you have the newer tech system from what I've seen, Android support/features still lag significantly behind iOS. And I've been saying this for a long time that BMW has a long standing stance of giving us Android users the middle finger in terms of functionality.

While it's not perfect, I use a combination of an iPod Touch for music connected into the USB port under the arm rest and my Android phone sync'd to a Bimmer-Tech Smart View module and the car's Blue Tooth.

[swunder]

Yeah, seems like my main phone at least still works for calls over bluetooth even when the iphone is playing pandora over the bmw app.

Do you have to manually start the connected app on the iphone and sync the apps in the car every time you start up?

Its amazing how little info there is out there about... any of this.

[zx10guy]

Originally Posted by swunder

Yeah, seems like my main phone at least still works for calls over bluetooth even when the iphone is playing pandora over the bmw app.

Do you have to manually start the connected app on the iphone and sync the apps in the car every time you start up?

Its amazing how little info there is out there about... any of this.

I have an iPod Touch not an iPhone. But you do bring up a good point which I haven't looked in to which is seeing if I can install the BMW Connected Apps on my Touch. I'll look into it. As of right now, I only play music stored in the Touch.

Also FYI, BMW has periodically released firmware updates for part of the iDrive system covering phone connectivity. You definitely want to look into this as I know there has been a few updates since I bought my car new in 2014. The nice part is you can do the firmware update yourself without going to the dealer. You just download the firmware to a USB stick and plug it into the USB port in the car. There is an option to update the firmware from the iDrive menu.