TMobile HTC 8x 8.1 Developer Preview Here Drive+ Loss of Voice Navigation

[kchilaka]

Folks,
Here is the situation. I have a Tmobile HTX 8x. I installed the 8.1 developer preview on it. Almost everything works fine, except one of the most important features of Windows Phone 8.1. The Here Drive+ app does not give me voice enabled turn by turn directions. I installed and uninstalled the application (Here Drive+) but nothing seems to fix it. The Here Drive+ application itself seems to work but the voice prompts for upcoming turns does not work. I enter an address for Navigation into Here Drive+ and I get one single voice command from Here Drive+ saying that I should continue on the road I am and that is it. i dont get any other voice prompt. The screen has the right instructions with the upcoming turn but no voice prompt after the first instruction. Has anyone else had a problem with the drive+ app on Windows 8.1 developer preview on an HTC 8x?

 

[Dhileepudu Jambula]

I got the same feeling initially but just tested with my headphones plugged in...
When you initially set the destination it doesn't speak...click back bottom and then the green arrow in left button one...thats it the voice command started for me...try it out...

 

[kchilaka]

I hit the start button after choosing to navigate to an address.. I don't get a green arrow.. Do you have a screenshot available to point at it?. I will try the same thing with bluetooth disabled on my phone and see if it changes things...

 

[kchilaka]

I figured out what the bug is !! This might be useful to owners of other phones as well.
Here is the situation. I have a car with a Bluetooth enabled receiver. The bluetooth receiver in my particular car supports only the Bluetooth Voice/Handset Profile and not A2DP. The HTC 8x is paired with the car and is connected. When it is connected, all audio from the HTC 8x regarding navigation voice prompts gets muted. Thats probably because the Here Drive+ app is trying to use the a2dp profile to send audio to the bluetooth receiver but since the receiver is not a2dp compatible, no sound is produced. Now, there is a setting in the phone under settings-bluetooth, to use an alternative method for audio. This apparently forces the phone to use the voice/handset profile. Now, the audio comes through the car speakers but it is unusable and only a small fraction of the audio command words are heard. The only way i can use navigation is to disconnect the bluetooth of the phone from the car. This is a clear bug, either in Windows 8.1 or in the Here Drive+ application. The behavior should be to send audio to the phone's speaker if the bluetooth device does not support a2dp. I think the fix for this should be made in the OS rather than the here drive+ application because other applications will be treated the same way.
Btw, most BMWs in the 2007-2008 vintage probably only support the handset profile in bluetooth so other people will face this issue as well.