Can an iOS device chat to an Android device?

The pair of goTennas that I received work between my iPad and my iPhone, but I can’t get my iPhone to communicate with my Android device or vice versa.

The battery level shows on both apps, so they are bluetooth-paired with the goTennas.
But when I send a chat message only the goTenna paired with the sender blinks, not the receiver. The same for Shout. And it’s identical behaviour whether I chat/shout from the iOS or the Android.

Between iPad and iPhone using the same goTennas I don’t have that problem.

Can you double check if you are using the correct goTenna IDs (GID)? You can check a devices GID within the app. The GID will be displayed within the Side Menu in the app (lower left).
Also, do note that phone numbers are required to have a country code.

I don’t use phone numbers. Just GIDs.
Even if I did get the GID wrong (I didn’t), Shout should work shouldn’t it?

If iOS<->Android is intended then I’m wondering if
a) I should have unpaired from the iPad before pairing to the Android (too late now… the iPad has gone)
b) Messages can’t be sent if GPS is not enabled. Might explain why shout doesn’t work.

Could a or b be the reason?

Check if the Bluetooth connection is still active on both devices.
Some Android phones require GPS to be enabled for proper Bluetooth operation.

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I have not checked to see if both sender and receiver blink when a message is sent between my brother (Android) and I (IOS). But we can send messages back and forth just fine.

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Thanks for the encouragement StorminMatt
I’ve worked it out

That means the bluetooth connections to the devices are both okay, but the communication is failing between the devices, despite having worked when used by iOS devices.
The problem is caused by the fact that when the device pairs it resets the frequency settings, so when it paired with my android device lacking gps it set the radio frequency to the US requirement, but the gotenna paired to my iphone (gps enabled) was set to the european frequency, so the devices couldn’t communicate with each other. Duh!!!

Happy that I now know what was causing the problem :slight_smile:

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I’m curious what your android device is!? We sometimes see a little pairing difficulty if an android device doesn’t have location services enabled.

Also-- thanks for this info! If other users reports this we’ll know what’s up!

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Nothing special about the android tablet. When I downloaded the gotenna app I accidentally denied gps and because I’m not familiar with android and since I only wanted to test chat quickly at home I left it that way.
So the android tablet never worked out that it was in europe and needed to switch to the european frequency.

I guess in practice that won’t happen, but if you were worried about that you could add the region as an extra setting or display-attribute to help fault-finding.

pairing difficulty if an android device doesn’t have location services enabled.

The bluetooth pairing won’t suffer. But the gotenna pairing will for sure (outside the States)

I was stumped by your issue. I never thought about what would happen if you were outside the US and had one device with GPS / one without. Perhaps they can either try another way to determine the devices location based on regional settings or straight out ask during setup when GPS is not available. Thanks for coming back and sharing what you learned.

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Hi guys
Digging into this thread as I seem to have a similar issue. iphone 5 and iphone 6s. Both are paired to respective gotenna mesh’s. When I send a test from the iphone 5, it’s gotenna flashes. When I send a test form the iphone 6s, it’s gotenna flashes. Neither will pick up each others messages. Neither gotenna will flash/receive the other’s message.

Location Services is enabled on both phones. Bluetooth enabled on both phones. Both gotenna apps connected successfully to their respective gotennas. Using correct country code (64 for NZ) on both. I did have both gotennas talking successfully between my sisters Iphone7 and my iphone 6. Since then I unpaired both devices and paired to the iphone 5 and iphone 6.

Shouts don’t work between phones.

is there a way to check which frequency each device is running on?

Make sure you’re running the latest app on both phones. If both are up to date, go into Settings in the goTenna app, and go into About. Make sure the firmware version is 0.13.48. It should also list the set region.

Hello! I’m going to send you a direct message to fix this!