BMW R1200RT/R1250RT Forum

So after 3 years and 20k miles on the bike I've finally got around to connecting my iphone 8 to my nav 6. Question is, what exactly does it do? The phone icon on the nav is greyed out. In apps, it says Smartphone link, which shows my phone. I then go into live traffic or safety cameras, (for instance),and it says see service details in smartphone link on your phone. What app is that?Bike is a '15 with built in audio, I don't use a headset although I could.Not really bothered as I don't want to make or take calls whilst riding, music from my phone and traffic alerts might be useful tho.Ta Nick
EDIT - OK it's the garmin smartphone link. Would still be interested in using my phone / playing music from it if possible. Ta

I use a USB stick with loaded with music and can then scroll through tracks using the wonder-wheel on the handlebar, rather than trying to manipulate the phone somehow. BMW do an iPhone interface cable but it's bulky to fit in the cubbyhole.


The phone will pair to the Nav6 via bluetooth - have you tried pairing them?

I use the Garmin app (smartphone link) to search for locations I want to Nav too. So I search on the app, find the location by address and then send the destination to the Nav. It is just easier than going through the Nav where to screen. Music wise, I don't have a radio, but do have blue tooth headsets. Think the phone is greyed out, because the Nav expects you to have a bluetooth connection to use the phone from the Nav.

Casbar wrote: I use the Garmin app (smartphone link) to search for locations I want to Nav too. So I search on the app, find the location by address and then send the destination to the Nav. It is just easier than going through the Nav where to screen. Music wise, I don't have a radio, but do have blue tooth headsets. Think the phone is greyed out, because the Nav expects you to have a bluetooth connection to use the phone from the Nav.

Until I read this thread I hadn't given the smart link app much thought. Just dowloaded it and as you say it seems an easier way to enter basic destinations by postcode etc.

MikeS wrote:
Until I read this thread I hadn't given the smart link app much thought. Just dowloaded it and as you say it seems an easier way to enter basic destinations by postcode etc.

I actually use it to put in full addresses, such as house number, road etc and if it finds it, it's accurate.

Fair point. It seems to use the same maps as the HERE app which I use on the phone in the car. Always been reliable.

MikeS wrote: Fair point. It seems to use the same maps as the HERE app which I use on the phone in the car. Always been reliable.

I would hope it does as HERE are the Garmin maps  8)

Casbar wrote:
I actually use it to put in full addresses, such as house number, road etc and if it finds it, it's accurate.

I use Google maps on my phone to find hotels or places where I want to go then share it to Garmin Smartphone Link, then next time my phone connects to the nav it asks if I want to navigate to the destination.

Casbar wrote:
I would hope it does as HERE are the Garmin maps  8)

You'll have to forgive my ignorance. To put it into perspective you're dealing with a bloke that's had a Nav V for 5 years and only realised today that he can connect it to an app.

MikeS wrote:
You'll have to forgive my ignorance. To put it into perspective you're dealing with a bloke that's had a Nav V for 5 years and only realised today that he can connect it to an app.

Lol, I'm only such a smart arse because I use My Route App and you get to plan routes using multiple different maps and HERE are the Garmin ones

simbo wrote:
I use Google maps on my phone to find hotels or places where I want to go then share it to Garmin Smartphone Link, then next time my phone connects to the nav it asks if I want to navigate to the destination.

What kind of phone do you have, and how exactly do you share from Google Maps to the Garmin Smartphone Link app?

I can't see the benefit of using google maps, it doesn't matter what you get from google maps, if it's not on the Garmin HERE maps, the nav won't navigate to that point. So you might as well use the app or a HERE map app. I know I have put a route into the Nav VI to a house up a track that wasn't shown on the HERE maps, but was on the google maps (My Route App lets you plan routes using a variety of maps although not google anymore, they use an open source as an option). The route transferred ok, but when I was navigating, it just stopped at the point on the road where the track should have been, because it wasn't on the HERE map.

Rambler358 wrote: What kind of phone do you have, and how exactly do you share from Google Maps to the Garmin Smartphone Link app?

It's a Samsung Galaxy s7 edge (android) and all I do is find a hotel or destination by dropping a pin on google maps then you get a screen like this
[attachimg=1]
Then touch the photo and a screen comes up with the option to share
[attachimg=2]
Click on share and it gives you options on where you want to share it to, Garmin Smartphone link
[attachimg=3]
and then from your phone/tablet send it and it'll send the gps coordinates to your Nav
[attachimg=4]


It worked very well for me in Spain.

I'm no expert ( as has been previously shown) but I've tried google and all it does is transfer the destination via the smart link app, not the google route. The thing I like is that the google package gives the overview of the hotel, a few pics and a review. Once you've looked at the google page you can transfer the destination straight to the sat nav.

Didn't know it did that, so you are basically doing the same as the Garmin Smartlink app.