[mproudfoot]

I have a MY2014 F31 with the NBT pro-nav (included coded enhanced BT) and currently, an iPhone 4S.

My phone contract is due to end shortly, and as I will be passing the 4S down, am looking ahead at a new handset.

At the moment, the iPhone has a fairly good integration with the F31 - the music integration, whether it be USB or BT is flawless and supports gapless audio and album art as well as playlists, albums etc. In addition, the apps work fairly well with ConnectedDrive apart from have to start each app before selecting it in ConnectedDrive and I really like the Siri integration. Obviously SMS and email is a bit hit and miss with iOS.

I have considered an Android handset as a replacement, simply because, outside of the car, I don't have any specific iOS requirement - I really just use the handset for calls, checking business email and the odd bit of browsing. iOS does all this fine, but the iPhones are a tad overpriced - particularly the 64Gb models which I'd need to cover my (320Kpbs) portable music collection which takes up around 28Gb on my current 4S (also 64gb). With most modern Android handsets havind micro sdxc support, storage isn't an issue and the feature set is otherwise comparable.

I've browsed a lot of forum threads but couldn't really see specific answers to some of the Android integration queries that I have and so I'm wondering if people my be able to confirm/clarify the following:

* Does the Android connection (via USB and/or BT) support album art and playlists? I believe in some cases, the NBT would just see the Android handset as a dumb USB drive which is what I want to avoid - i.e. is it possible to use (for example) the Sony Walkman app on the Experia Z1/Z2 handsets (which supports gapless audio now I believe) to function much as the iPod app does on the iPhone when connected to the NBT?

* Does connected drive work properly with Android handsets (assuming Kit Kat)? What apps are supported?

* Do SMS and emails now work properly with Android (again, assuming Kit Kat)?

So basically, I'm wondering how much functionality in my BMW I'll be able to keep (or what I'll gain or lose) if I move from the iPhone to an Android handset (looking mainly at the Experia Z2 at the moment). I'm not terrible bothered about connecteddrive or email/sms, but music is definitely a factor. If I cannot retain the music functionality I have with my current combination, then Android is out (unless I perma-connect an iPod to the USB port and use the Android handset via BT but replacing one device with two doesn't seem very efficient).

TIA!

[jaffab]

I have an F32, with EBT and SATNAV PRO. My phone is a galaxy S4 running kitkat...

* Does the Android connection (via USB and/or BT) support album art and playlists?
> Via cable = yes, via BT = no. I thought with EBT you got album art, but in my case, no album art is shown on BT.

* Does connected drive work properly with Android handsets (assuming Kit Kat)? What apps are supported?
> On the android Connected Drive app (android) it current shows options for facebook, twitter - but I have not used these. I dont actually connect my phone via cable as its too much of a pain, I just use BT, o cant really answer this question. In terms of the actual conected drive, I can get emails and sms messages - so that kind of works.

* Do SMS and emails now work properly with Android (again, assuming Kit Kat)?
> So more detail. SMS messages do work - but all you get is a notification ding and a envelope icon on screen - you have to go 'pull' the message via the menu OFFICE > MESSAGES option - I was expecting some sort of pop-up and auto read option. The same is true for emails, but for emails there are no alerts (that I can find), you have to manually go pull them via CONNECTED DRIVE > MY BMW > EMAILS and then it pulls them down (very slowly). But yes, SMS and emails so work.

In terms of basic functionality... contacts works well (for calling, guide to, etc), calls work well, BT streaming works well (with the exception of art work), PLUS the integration with Google NOW works well - a long press on the voice control activates Google NOW so you can talk to your phone (rather than your car)... so you can say stuff like "Send text to my Paul and say I am running 15 minutes late" or "Remind me at 5pm to pick up some beer" or "How many miles is it to New York".

[mproudfoot]

Many thanks for your detailed reply jaffab, that's very useful. I believe the connected drive email process you talk about is going through the connected drive servers in Germany (via the inbuilt SIM) rather than the phone though right? With the iPhone, you can get email to work through the phone by killing the email app and then connecting the phone. After that, any new email that comes in on the phone, shows up as a little envelope icon (as with SMS) and you can go into messages to read it. I was hoping that the Android implementation would be better - i.e. not having to start the email app before connecting.

I did that full office functionality is available on some BB handsets but as that seems to be going the way of the dodo, I'd mainly looking at iOS, Android or possibly even a Lumia with Windows mobile 8.1

[jaffab]

Originally Posted by mproudfoot

Many thanks for your detailed reply jaffab, that's very useful. I believe the connected drive email process you talk about is going through the connected drive servers in Germany (via the inbuilt SIM) rather than the phone though right? With the iPhone, you can get email to work through the phone by killing the email app and then connecting the phone. After that, any new email that comes in on the phone, shows up as a little envelope icon (as with SMS) and you can go into messages to read it. I was hoping that the Android implementation would be better - i.e. not having to start the email app before connecting.

I did that full office functionality is available on some BB handsets but as that seems to be going the way of the dodo, I'd mainly looking at iOS, Android or possibly even a Lumia with Windows mobile 8.1

Sounds about right to me - email is almost unusable via ConnectedDrive - so I quess what you are saying is correct. At the moment, its the only way to get email working via an android phone that I have found. I am about to post a question about email and EXCHANGE myself to the BMW peeps as I cant get exchange to work at all, and would prefer to get it working via my android phone.