Sena SRL - Samsung S10 - BMW Connected app - via 2022 TFT screen on a BMW K1600

Following some excellent advice on this forum (thank you Onahi) I bought a refurbished Samsung S10 phone, to use exclusively for running the BMW Connected navigstion app. This cured the WiFi* reconnection problems (that I had been encountering with my iPhone) at a stroke. It did though bring with it a problem, that was not present when I used my iPhone, namely that the spoken navigation instructions were very quiet, inaudible above about 60 miles an hour. Knowing that the Sena SRL has a very loud speaker system, I knew there had to be an answer. Here it is:

1. I first returned the Sena SRL to its factory settings, wiping any links it might have. I then disassociated all my devices Sena SRL, phone, Garmin XT GPS device, the TFT screen and the bike’s WiFI channel from one another, clearing the decks completely as it were.

2. I next re-paired all the devices together, following the correct pairing hierarchy. Note, owners of the 1600 will also need to reconnect the S10 to the bike’s WiFi channel; I did this at the end.




This did not address the volume issue. Knowing that the volume was fine when I used my iPhone, I strongly suspected that the S10 had to be the culprit. I was right.

A Google search brought me to the K1600 forum and a bod who had exactly the same problem, with the same Sena SRL, the same bike and the same phone. More importantly, he had shared his cure, which came from BMW’s Connected app wizards, with whom he had been talking to find a cure:

As we already discussed please check the following setting.

Please note that the labelling of the points to be clicked can be different for each cell phone manufacturer.

For your Samsung S10 go to Settings > General management > Text-to-speech > click the gear wheel in the upper right corner and select Google TTS (If you don’t have this download it from the play store) > Select Amplify speech volume. It should be noted that this is a specific option of the "Speech Service by Google". For example, if your Samsung cell phone is configured with another text-to-speech engine by default (most likely Samsung TTS) you first need to change the preferred engine in the "Text-to-Speech" settings to Google.

Re start the phone.

This should enhance the volume required for the navigation voice prompts.

Would you please call or e mail me to let me know if it is fixed or wish to discuss more” ?

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3. I did exactly as the quoted advice directed and…… BINGO! The voice directions now boom in.

4. I then turned the whole lot off again, breaking all the connections. I then turned the whole lot on again. Bingo! They all reconnected with one another and the voice instructions from both the BMW Navigation app and my XT were all beautifully clear still.

Hopefully it might help other people with the same problem.



* The 2022 1600 has its own discrete WiFi network, which it uses only to bring across the map / route data to display them on the bike’s large TFT screen. Unlike other bikes, it does not use Bluetooth to perform this function. It does though use Bluetooth for other functions, unconnected to displaying the map and route.

There's always a solution, Glad you found it and thanks for sharing this. Im looking at buying the new K16 in March.

Thank you again for the advice to use an Android phone, if only to maintain the WiFi. connection.

I think the pairing sequence is really important, if all the pieces in the chain are to talk to each other (and talk to the rider) correctly. I don’t know but am guessing that, if the owner buys say a new phone or gps device device, to replace a device that is already paired, you might have to re-pair everything again, in sequence. In other words, I guess that you can’t just delete say the old gps device from the chain and insert a new one in its place.

This is the video I used to tell me the correct pairing sequence:

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It’s not a ‘big screen’ 1600 but I guessed (correctly, as it happened) that the sequence might well be the same.

At the moment I am running BMW’s Connected app on the big screen AND my XT on the bike, too. Both are running the same bespoke routes. I am doing this for two reasons:

A. I have been involved in the Beta testing of the new BMW Connected app, which has sometimes been a bit flakey.

B. I am still learning the foibles of BMW’s existing Connected app.

Having the XT running as well is a form of insurance, if you like.

I am also running the secondhand Samsung Android phone for navigation purposes only. This means I can just leave it in its cubbyhole on the bike all day and not fiddle about getting it in and out at each stop. Unlike the cubbyhole on the RT, the cubbyhole does not not charge phone. To charge the phone, you do need a very short lead (there is not a lot of space) to act as a charging cable. You can do it with a longer lead but this makes life more fiddly still. Why BMW did not offer good quality powerful wireless charging in the cubbyhole on the ‘big screen’ 1600 is a mystery.

Unlike the cubbyhole on the RT, the cubbyhole does not not charge phone.

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That should be: Unlike the cubbyhole on the RT, the cubbyhole on the new ‘big screen’ 1600 does not charge phone.

I'm sure the wireless charging will come next year along with the adaptive cruise control. We will see.