In some ways, the old intellilink system was better. Being able to access Pandora on screen without touching your phone was nice and very convenient, along with all of the graphics showing up. I am an electronic and gadget freak and I will not use Android Auto. Texting was nice too. You would think that would continue to improve and be simpler and more convenient, not more frustrating and difficult. I think it sucks. Now, if AA was wireless and all of your apps showed up on the screen to access from your phone or to mirror your phone, it would be a pretty nice system.

Having to plug it in, losing some details such as temperature and such, it is just wonky and arduous. I am up in the mountains a lot and having the temp show is important when temperatures are around freezing and driving on the roads.

Make it wireless, especially so we can use the super small wireless charger that barely fits/works, make it agnostic so it can mirror anything your phone is showing and control from the screen, be able to access music like Pandora and Spotify from the screen AND wireless like you could with Intellilink, be able to send and receive texts wireless, etc. Now that would be a nice system. The FCA systems do this much better.

 

Receiving your messages via the Infotainment system has nothing to do with AA. During the Bluetooth pairing process, you will be prompted to allow the vehicle to access your messages. If you skipped past that, go to your BT settings and select the Chevrolet MyLink under your paired BT connections. There you can select/deselect allow messages, contacts, AAC music, etc.

 

My Silverado bluetooth connection was MyLink. The 2019 connection is MyChevrolet.

I went into the connection settings for it and everything was selected.

 

Dont know if the 2016 and 2019 infotainment are the same or not, but AA sucks on the 2016. I prefer to just use the bluetooth connection, the infotainment system will read my texts to me, but wont let me read them while driving, which is cool. But AA was just a pain in the ass, been so long I dont remember exactly why, but I only used it for about a week before coming to the conclusion I wasted a day waiting for the dealership to install it.

 

I, on the other hand, love my AA. I pair it via cable to my Samsung S8+ and it runs everything, including Spotify, flawlessly. The google voice commands make everything super easy, even reads and sends my text messages without a problem. The navigation interface with Waze is another big plus that runs perfectly for me. I am definitely an Android Auto fan here...

 

I use AA for the Goog maps projection because you don't try going one mile ON (not in) Antartica without checking the polar bear traffic and especially during the seal season.
And it works well, mostly.
The thing that bothers me is having redundancy between the AA and the Infotainment and the text reading is one of those. I get a lot of text messages from one particular little Eskimo E.G.
a member of an indigenous people inhabiting northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland, and eastern Siberia, traditionally living by hunting (especially of seals) and by fishing,
and I'm either in AA mode or Infotainment mode and the texts and reply options are handled differently. For example, the AA, using GOOG assistant, will give a voice prompt opportunity to reply. I really like AA, but I have to be using an AA function on the radio at the time for the fone to respond to "OK Google" command.

Another gripe, If I get out of the sled while leaving the fone tethered, and get back in, like stopping to feed some fish to the dogs, the damn Buletooth wont reconnect. I have to turn off the sled, get out with the fone, get in and restart for the Blu tooth to reconnect.

There are two separate systems I'm constantly juggling between. Honestly, with all the emphasis on not sledding while distracted, I mess with this radio more than any other Ive ever had.

 

I'm not a big fan of AA, but I use it. I prefer Google's navigation products, and my truck doesn't have whatever GM offers.

As to requiring it be plugged in, apparently there are a few phone/vehicle combinations that don't require that, but they are very few. Seems crazy that they didn't deal with that earlier.

 

I'm not a big fan of AA, but I use it. I prefer Google's navigation products, and my truck doesn't have whatever GM offers.

As to requiring it be plugged in, apparently there are a few phone/vehicle combinations that don't require that, but they are very few. Seems crazy that they didn't deal with that earlier.

Anything requiring a cellular data connection like the Google Assistant and Goog maps & GPS nav will require the cable. Bluetooth will not support it (the Infotainment's BT doesn't support it).
So voice, calling, and contacts functions work on Bluetooth.

 

As mentioned previously, pairing your phone with the bluetooth system will allow you to receive texts and place calls by using voice control.


AA is just an enhancement to that. Quite frankly, I vastly prefer AA over the infotainment system's implementation.