Any way to push contacts to car kit?

PhAndersson · 1 Apr 2025, 12:16

Hello again,
I was able to pair my newly installed Pixel 3a with the car kit of my Skoda Octavia, and I'm glad to report that everything seems to be working:

I'm able to use the car sound system to listen to music played by the phone (selecting Bluetooth as source on the car Media Centre)
the car displays the phone's battery charge and GSM network strength
when an incoming call is received, the ringtone comes through the car sound system
I'm able to take the call from the dashboard and the voice goes through the car sound system as expected

Now for the question: is there a tool that would allow me to push my contacts to the car kit over Bluetooth?

Thanks in advance.

Ph. A.

PhAndersson · 1 Apr 2025, 12:16

OK, to start answering my own question, based on information found in other posts in this forum, there appear to be 2 apps that could be used for this:

"Bluetooth File Transfer", the original app by Ian L., reportedly working but no longer updated since Oct. 2018
"Bluetooth File Transfer", a clone of the first one made by Ruben Carneiro ported to a different architecture, but non-functional based on the reports I could find -- that one dates back to 2021

Both of them are still listed on the OpenStore when accessed through the web site, but none of them show up in the OpenStore app (perhaps because they're not compatible with my phone / UT version).

Vlad Nirky · 1 Apr 2025, 13:29

@PhAndersson

Well, in my car, (Citroën Berlingo) when I connect my phone to the bluetooth, the car asks me what type of phone and I can check off calls / contacts / (I don't remember the third one but when I get home from work I'll have a look).
And I don't have to do anything else, I can search for a contact by name or number and when someone calls me, their name is displayed correctly.
So it must depend on the OS in the car.

naizena · 1 Apr 2025, 16:15

@Vlad-Nirky Perhaps also depends on the device (in my case Volla X) because my Berlingo (from 2019) allows you to call and receive calls, but does not allow access to contacts.

Vlad Nirky · 4 Jan 2025, 18:25

@naizena
My apologies, I don't have all the contacts I thought I would (I always call the same people, obviously). They may be from an old connection via my Android phone (when I was using one).
Well, here's a new challenge to smash.
Maybe due to a security problem (Android connection asks to allow contact visibilty)

stanwood · 1 Apr 2025, 18:31

@Vlad-Nirky I think it's because Contacts sync are currently broken, but it would maybe be fixed in Noble as I heard (let's see)...

wally · 4 Mar 2025, 00:53

EDIT: Turns out I hadn't tested this in a long time, and my whole report below was incorrect. : - /
Worked in Xenial, not in Focal.

~~My car (Subaru) asked if I wanted to import contacts after initial BT connection, and it all just worked. I was kinda shocked by how simply and successfully it went, both with Oneplus 5T and later a Oneplus Nord N10. I've never had android or iOS, this was definitely all through UT.

All functions listed by @PhAndersson also work, as well as voice commands such as "Call Yumi" or whatever. Clearly the voice recognition is a feature of the car's OS.
It also offers to (import/sync, I can't recal) SMS, which I haven't yet tried, but would test if that were useful to anyone.

I have no experience with either of the BT File Transfer apps, but based on timing, they probably were never updated to 20.04 (probably because they weren't working?)

Maybe worth a try going through any menus on your car just in case there's a way to import the way that mine did? But maybe I just got lucky with a car that happens to play well with UT.~~

Vlad Nirky · 4 Feb 2025, 06:51

@stanwood
At the moment, i can't even connect car to UBT 24.04 but there is a lot of work to complet before release I guess.

lduboeuf · 2 Apr 2025, 08:29

@wally said in Any way to push contacts to car kit?:

My car (Subaru) asked if I wanted to import contacts after initial BT connection, and it all just worked. I was kinda shocked by how simply and successfully it went, both with Oneplus 5T and later a Oneplus Nord N10. I've never had android or iOS, this was definitely all through UT.

All functions listed by @PhAndersson also work, as well as voice commands such as "Call Yumi" or whatever. Clearly the voice recognition is a feature of the car's OS.
It also offers to (import/sync, I can't recal) SMS, which I haven't yet tried, but would test if that were useful to anyone.

I have no experience with either of the BT File Transfer apps, but based on timing, they probably were never updated to 20.04 (probably because they weren't working?)

Maybe worth a try going through any menus on your car just in case there's a way to import the way that mine did? But maybe I just got lucky with a car that happens to play well with UT.

humm i'm surprised that it worked for you, thought it was broken since Focal.
Or maybe just the initial import works.

stanwood · 2 Apr 2025, 19:29

@Vlad-Nirky Oh... Sad to learn. Indeed, Blutetooth works pretty well in Focal (Seat Alhambra 2014 + Ford Fiesta 2017, both run pretty well with no issue). It also runs nicely with all BT audio devices I did connect.

But indeed, Noble is not yet ready for stable release. If you need those services as you daily driver, you may stay on Focal for now.

wally · 4 Mar 2025, 00:49

@lduboeuf Shoot, my mistake. I tried today, and Contacts hadn't actually imported. I guess it said "Importing Contacts" when I first connected the new device, but then failed. I very seldom connect to my car, so hadn't noticed.

I'd stayed on Xenial for a long time, and this must have been when they worked successfully. Sorry for the false report.

PhAndersson · 4 Apr 2025, 12:16

Many thanks to all those who responded, first of all.

Based on the initial comment by @wally, I made some further tests yesterday night. Indeed, the car kit has a button/function to import the contacts from the phone, but it fails to import anything. Its message is that maybe I need to authorize the sharing on the phone.

I also tried to export all contacts to vCard on the phone (successfully), then to browse to that file in file manager, then shift-left and click on the sharing icon, but that only listed "Messages" and "Dekko" as potential targets. New import attempts from the car kit ended up with the same error message.

So I guess that this "sharing" icon is where a "BT File Transfer" app would need to register itself. For the record, this is how I used to send contact info to the car kit from my Nokia N900, using a BT transfer app called "Petrovich'.