# [Q] Use bluetooth headset mic instead of phone mic



## Dav_Edward (Jan 21, 2012)

I've searched around on the forums for an answer to this but could never find anything that seems to match up to my issue.

I have a A2DP enabled headset and want to use it with apps such as Team Speak 3 beta, Vent, and other apps. But for some reason although phone media happily plays over onto my headset. My phone continues to only use the mic built into the phone instead of the bluetooth headset mic.

Any apps designed to use the headset specifically work (ie. normal phone calls, skype, vlingo) but otherwise apps ignore the headset mic.

I already tried using apps like BT Mono and Super BT Mono Froyo but they seem to only pipe audio to the headset, but don't do anything at all with the headset mic.

Does anybody know how to get the headset mic to be selected by apps instead of just the built-in mic?

My device is a Sumsung Galaxy S II ( I9100 ). Both Stock and CyanogenMod Gingerbread


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## baoyu101 (Jan 21, 2012)

good good  good


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## Dav_Edward (Jan 22, 2012)

Still hoping someone may know how to get the Galaxy S II phone to use a bluetooth headset mic instead of the built-in mic on the phone.

I'm really stumped on how to do this.


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## Dav_Edward (Feb 14, 2012)

I still haven't seemed to have any luck finding a way to forcefully map apps to use the headset mic. I'm beginning to wounder if it's possible with the Android OS.


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## sharkck (Feb 15, 2012)

I have the galaxy s2 as well and I've retired several different things and have been unsuccessful with anything I've tried so far... Really difficult to drive and use vent without a headset.


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## lilfellabob (Apr 16, 2012)

Yeah I'm wanting to do the same thing.. I don't spose you've found a way in the last couple of months? Surely it can be done - may need to get a dev to write something for it though..


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## Dav_Edward (Apr 16, 2012)

Sorry Lilfellabob, still no luck. I find it odd it's so difficulty to remap audio settings.
Even in Ice Cream Sandwich I can't find a way.


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## zelendel (Apr 16, 2012)

The app would need to be written to accept it. Its not a matter of your phone. Its the apps. Think about it for a min. If it works on apps made to use it but another app doesn't work then where does the problem lay?


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## Dav_Edward (Apr 17, 2012)

The thing is, typically other apps should be able to re-route the app to use the headset mic. Alike how there are apps that can force other apps to use bluetooth audio instead of the phone speaker, even if the phone/headset can't use a2dp.


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## zelendel (Apr 17, 2012)

Dav_Edward said:
			
		

> The thing is, typically other apps should be able to re-route the app to use the headset mic. Alike how there are apps that can force other apps to use bluetooth audio instead of the phone speaker, even if the phone/headset can't use a2dp.

Click to collapse



Only if the code is there for it to do it. If they don't code it in then it doesn't work.


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## rwong48 (Apr 26, 2012)

I'm having a similar problem but slightly the opposite.

I pair my phone to a Bluetooth device that lets me hear phone output on my car's speakers. However, the phone tries to use Bluetooth for the microphone when none exists. I want to force it to use the on-phone microphone. I can talk and talk but no one can hear me, unless I set the phone output to speaker or handset, which implies setting the phone input to amplified built-in mic, or just built-in mic, respectively.

In the Bluetooth settings I can set to use the Bluetooth device for music or phone, but ideally I would want "Phone" to be separated into "Phone output" and "Phone input" so I could uncheck input (and thus use the built-in mic.) This should be implemented at the Android level so that the setting can apply to all apps.

The same problem occured when I wired (2-stripe phone-to-car audio only, no mic) my Palm Pre directly to my car. I just tried with my GNex and it was smart enough to use the built-in mic when a microphone-less plug was connected.


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## HtcEvo4gLTE (Sep 3, 2012)

zelendel said:


> Only if the code is there for it to do it. If they don't code it in then it doesn't work.

Click to collapse



wrong. its in the kernel. the new firmware on the android is is capable to transmit Audio Steam to Headset device as Audio only. i wont go 100% against coding to force it to but if they wanted to theres have to be some kind of exploit to do so. lets say if skype were to find that exploit or code it, it would be probably violate android policy.


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## Dav_Edward (Sep 3, 2012)

HtcEvo4gLTE said:


> wrong. its in the kernel. the new firmware on the android is is capable to transmit Audio Steam to Headset device as Audio only. i wont go 100% against coding to force it to but if they wanted to theres have to be some kind of exploit to do so. lets say if skype were to find that exploit or code it, it would be probably violate android policy.

Click to collapse



Actually, what's going on is Skype is using the 'bluetooth device' hook of some sort, just like other apps that support piping audio to the bluetooth headset. However most apps don't use the bluetooth device API/hook and just dumbly send their audio to 'default output device' and 'default input device' blindly and let the OS or Kernel decide where to send it.

The OS or Kernel when it senses a bluetooth device with the 'media' profile on it is present, it changes the default output device to the headset, but it doesn't seem to bother doing the same for the bluetooth mic for the default input device.

Because apps like Teamspeak 3 just blindly use default audio device because it doesn't use bluetooth APIs in the app itself, I have no way to make it use the headset mic.

I wish someone could make a mod or app that will allow mapping the default input to a bluetooth mic when present.


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## drgkt (Nov 30, 2012)

As far as I know, Skype has problems using the BT mike as well.  In fact, they took a user survey regarding the issue for android and iOS users.  However, I cannot find the results of that survey / study, and Skype recommendations thereof.

User choice to use BT mike seems so BASIC to me, I wonder how it was overlooked...!


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## technomooney (Jan 5, 2013)

*Rooting will crack open the full power of your Android device!*



Dav_Edward said:


> Sorry Lilfellabob, still no luck. I find it odd it's so difficulty to remap audio settings.
> Even in Ice Cream Sandwich I can't find a way.

Click to collapse





zelendel said:


> The app would need to be written to accept it. Its not a matter of your phone. Its the apps. Think about it for a min. If it works on apps made to use it but another app doesn't work then where does the problem lay?

Click to collapse



Rooting the device would give apps or the user permissions to modify system audio controller's (idk if it is anything like ALSA or anything..) settings to make app use the audio channel for the bluetooth headset... an example for the Galaxy s2 i9100 i have is the radio app "Sprit FM" has a "volume control stream" setting which allows the user to select what volume "control" will control the volume of the app's audio output  

anywho... i hope it helps a little


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## mikroma82 (Jan 23, 2013)

rwong48, I have now the same problem that you have described. Have you solved it with any app for Andorid?
Thanks!


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## sid_t33 (Feb 19, 2013)

*Solution*

I found an app that solves this problem on android devices,  it's called btmono and you can find it in the Google store.  I tried to post the link but I don't have enough posts under my belt... 

Anyways, pair your device,  open the program (such as ts3),  connect to your server and then turn on btmono. Voila!

Well,  I tried to delete this after I saw that you had already tried btmono,  but I couldn't figure out how so just disregard this message.


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## Dav_Edward (Feb 19, 2013)

I already tried btmono, sadly although it works for the output audio, it does *not* work with the headset mic. Programs like TS3 will still keep using the phone's built-in mic, not the headset mine despite using btmono. The only thing btmono does is pipe the output audio to the headset only.

Thanks for the suggestion though


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## drgkt (Feb 19, 2013)

I can't believe they haven't fixed that yet.  It is so basic...


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## rspear (Feb 20, 2013)

Hey guys I'm going through the same issues with my note 2. Svoice  was the only one that works but its painfully slow and inaccurate.
Anyways I've tried utter! robin and aivc. Aivc works pretty good but at least it uses the mic.
Utter is really promising but no Bluetooth mic. The devs have acknowledged it though. So hopefully soon.

Update: AIVC has one downfall. The app can't open if the screen is locked like utter and svoice can when prompted from bluetooth. Also, it only listens automatically the first time. If you close it without killing the app, you'll have to press the mic icon manually every time (which takes away from the purpose of handsfree).


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## Dav_Edward (Jan 21, 2012)

I've searched around on the forums for an answer to this but could never find anything that seems to match up to my issue.

I have a A2DP enabled headset and want to use it with apps such as Team Speak 3 beta, Vent, and other apps. But for some reason although phone media happily plays over onto my headset. My phone continues to only use the mic built into the phone instead of the bluetooth headset mic.

Any apps designed to use the headset specifically work (ie. normal phone calls, skype, vlingo) but otherwise apps ignore the headset mic.

I already tried using apps like BT Mono and Super BT Mono Froyo but they seem to only pipe audio to the headset, but don't do anything at all with the headset mic.

Does anybody know how to get the headset mic to be selected by apps instead of just the built-in mic?

My device is a Sumsung Galaxy S II ( I9100 ). Both Stock and CyanogenMod Gingerbread


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## mownlain (Feb 20, 2013)

Dav_Edward said:


> I've searched around on the forums for an answer to this but could never find anything that seems to match up to my issue.
> 
> I have a A2DP enabled headset and want to use it with apps such as Team Speak 3 beta, Vent, and other apps. But for some reason although phone media happily plays over onto my headset. My phone continues to only use the mic built into the phone instead of the bluetooth headset mic.
> 
> ...

Click to collapse



plz chang another rom
and chang  BT


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## ahlawat (Feb 21, 2013)

mownlain said:


> plz chang another rom
> and chang  BT

Click to collapse



I failed to use BT headset mic on sony xperia S. my phone is already rooted
Do you know any ROM that will work? 
any help in this regard will be appreciated.


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## patrickdenker (Nov 7, 2014)

*Force-enable Bluetooth headset mic with SoundAbout*

I realize this thread's ancient, but I too was looking for a way to force the phone (Samsung Mega 6.3 KitKat) to route/capture audio through the bluetooth microphone rather than the built-in handset phone mic.  FOUND IT.  This app on the Play store -- it's called SoundAbout   (sorry, xdadev won't let me post URL) -- makes it possible.  Go into its bluetooth settings and enable bluetooth microphone override.  The app takes over the BT headset while it's running, yeah, but you can kill it when you're done.  On my Plantronics Legend, it forces the mic to stay on and enabled, and while it's running, all apps which use mic input (Google Now, Google Voice Typing, Swype Dragon, ListNote, whatever) all use the BT headset mic.  Yay!


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## drgkt (Nov 8, 2014)

Good to know, thanks!
Tried it with skype?


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## levchikb (Jan 23, 2015)

I tried using this to record sound (along with video) on my Galaxy Camera (1) ... It did not work - it is still using built-in mic .... any help?

PS - blutooth is Jabra Gnm-ote4



patrickdenker said:


> I realize this thread's ancient, but I too was looking for a way to force the phone (Samsung Mega 6.3 KitKat) to route/capture audio through the bluetooth microphone rather than the built-in handset phone mic.  FOUND IT.  This app on the Play store -- it's called SoundAbout   (sorry, xdadev won't let me post URL) -- makes it possible.  Go into its bluetooth settings and enable bluetooth microphone override.  The app takes over the BT headset while it's running, yeah, but you can kill it when you're done.  On my Plantronics Legend, it forces the mic to stay on and enabled, and while it's running, all apps which use mic input (Google Now, Google Voice Typing, Swype Dragon, ListNote, whatever) all use the BT headset mic.  Yay!

Click to collapse


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## DoubleYouPee (May 28, 2015)

patrickdenker said:


> I realize this thread's ancient, but I too was looking for a way to force the phone (Samsung Mega 6.3 KitKat) to route/capture audio through the bluetooth microphone rather than the built-in handset phone mic.  FOUND IT.  This app on the Play store -- it's called SoundAbout   (sorry, xdadev won't let me post URL) -- makes it possible.  Go into its bluetooth settings and enable bluetooth microphone override.  The app takes over the BT headset while it's running, yeah, but you can kill it when you're done.  On my Plantronics Legend, it forces the mic to stay on and enabled, and while it's running, all apps which use mic input (Google Now, Google Voice Typing, Swype Dragon, ListNote, whatever) all use the BT headset mic.  Yay!

Click to collapse



Unfortunately this mode disables bluetooth audio output..... not bluetooth mic is used but phone SPEAKER is used :crying:


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## chbla (Nov 21, 2015)

is this still an issue? I cannot seem to use my headset (mic) with normal apps instead of phone (e.g. whatsapp) on a Nexus 5 with latest stock android


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## JPsy Droid (Jan 15, 2016)

Hi, same here. no way using teamspeak on nexus 5 with bt mic. Only BT Audio out OR BT mic in but then no audio out over BT. What a crap...


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## Cyga (Aug 23, 2016)

I have same problem with teamspeak. Facebook messenger, phone calls use bt mic but ts3 not. Did you find any solution?


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