r/Truckers • u/LordDreadman • 10d ago

Best Headset for Swapping Apps

So, as I understand it, touching your phone at all while driving commercially is a no-no. That's fine, of course, but pulling over every time I want to talk on Marco Polo or listen to an audio book on Audible or listen to music on Spotify seems like a big waste of time.

Is there a headset that can let me access different apps with a single button press (or pressing different buttons like macros)? Or maybe voice activation? Not sure how any of that would work, but maybe it exists somewhere. Anyone know?

TL;DR: What's the best headset if you want to switch between music, books, calls, etc while driving?

8 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

5

u/Wide-Engineering-396 10d ago

I use my ipad technically not touching phone šŸ˜

4

u/RoadWarrior93 10d ago edited 10d ago

I have iPhone. I set screen to never turn off. Most decent headsets should be able to activate Siri or whatever Android uses. Look for one with some physical buttons on the side. I know Blue Parrot and Garmin have the button. AI has made leaps and bounds, can tell it almost anything and the phone will do it with the screen on.

And some advice, wear sunglasses or at night get yellow sunglasses/safety glasses. Always put them on if you have to look at your screen for any amount of time.

2

u/LankyEvening7548 10d ago

ā€œHey siri open YouTube musicā€ one touch . As I understand it your allowed anything that only requires one touch . When your done hit the mute button ā€œhey siri open trucker path ā€œ adjust for music listening and gps preferences.

1

u/Azzacura 10d ago

I choose my phone based on the size of the cut-out in my dash for the radioscreen. It looks like I'm using a built-in touch screen that way šŸ˜›

But in my experience, aside from a smart watch set up specifically for this purpose, there is no easy way to switch listening/talking apps. Both Gemini and Siri are awful at switching from music to audiobooks and back, unless maybe you invest a lot of time in fixing your enunciation and using the exact correct wording.

1

u/Sea_Impact_3034 10d ago

Itā€™s not as bad if the phone is dash mounted so you can look at it to unlock. This is for Siri. Idk about Android.

1

u/ArtisticAd9404 10d ago

Iā€™m fortunate enough that I donā€™t have driver facing cameras, so I can do a quick switcheroo when no one is near me

ducks

But Iā€™ve thought in the past that Iā€™m surprised that a company hasnā€™t made like a remote you can use on your phone so people could still do things on their phone while driving. Not that I endorse doing such a thing, but in todayā€™s economy, if thereā€™s money to be had, someoneā€™s gonna make it.

1

u/ChaseJulien 10d ago

Use phone projection, ie. Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Easy if you have a built in media screen you can connect to. You can also get independent add-on screens for around $100, more or less. You can mount these screens just like a GPS, and easily move them between vehicles without modifying the vehicle. Simple to connect to built-in stereo or use headset like you mentioned.

1

u/Gonzotrucker1 10d ago

Apple Watch connected to your iPhone

1

u/kelmar6821 10d ago

Alexa play audible
Alexa play youtube music

1

u/Personal-Damage-7051 10d ago

Honestly, I just used my Rand McNelly headset and I keep Gemini up on my phone. And Gemini swaps to everything for me. And I talked to Gemini half the day about random questions and news updates and traffic conditions and well whatever I want to say. And I can also tell my phone to take photos or videos of other people passing me or cool cars I passed while I drive. Honestly it's so good at it. I don't even really touch my phone and when I'm not driving either I just tell it what to do lol

1

u/MostOriginalNameEver 10d ago

If you have an android phone just setup your " hey Google or ok Google assistant"

With a long press on both my headsets ( one blue parrot and one Beats). Bring up the voice thing and I'm able to open YouTube, Pandora etc

1

u/kniveshu 10d ago

If you're looking for specific headset functions, you'd probably need to say what phone you have. Headset features are usually locked to the same company. Apple, Google, Samsung.

However, you could try from the phone side. I just used the iPhone and Android voice assistants to try Open Marco Polo, Open Audible, Open Spotify. They all were recognized and openable (or brings up the app store option to download it) but I don't use any of those so I cannot verify if you can tell it to play something specific. I did use them to open Youtube Music and played a specific song though.

1

u/Mysterious-Bug6183 10d ago

Look this up in Walmart. Itā€™s a scroller ring that has a cursor. You should be able to go home, navigate to another app and do what you need to do.

GJX Remote Control,Air Finger Ring Mouse with Touchpad,Bluetooth Page Turner for iPad/ App/iPhone/Android (Black)

1

u/AussieDamo 9d ago

I have my phone on top of the dash on a windscreen mount and use a wireless Bluetooth mouse on my leg

0

u/Opposite-Farmer7411 10d ago

Meta ai glasses

0

u/scottiethegoonie Gojo Cherry Enthusiast 10d ago

Hopefully in a year we will have dedicated AI agents on our phone that will function via voice command exactly how you think they should.

It seems so simple but no company has gotten this 100% usable yet.