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AI Box Fix

Apps & launchersReviewed

Steering-Wheel Voice Button: Assign Your Assistant App

Make the car's voice button open Gemini, Alexa or another assistant on your AI box: set it as Digital assistant app. Carlinkit TBox Ambient, Plus, Ultra.

Quick answer

Install your assistant app, set the box's own Voice assistant setting to None, then choose that app under Settings → Apps → Default apps → Digital assistant app; the car's voice button now opens it. Four owners confirmed this on TBox Ambient and Ultra boxes, with Gemini and with a regional assistant. It cannot work on cars whose head unit keeps the voice button for its own voice control.

Symptoms

  • Pressing the voice button on the steering wheel does nothing on the AI box, or opens the wrong assistant
  • The button opens a full app instead of a listening assistant
  • The wheel's answer button hangs up incoming calls instead of answering them
  • The assistant setting resets after you close the assistant app (TBox Plus)

Applies to

Connection to the car
CarPlay and Android Auto
Firmware in confirmed reports
Carlinkit TBox Ambient: 2024-03; Carlinkit TBox Ambient: 2024-06; Carlinkit TBox Ambient: 2023-12
Highest risk on this page
Safe
Status
Workaround confirmed by the community

Why it happens

When your car passes its steering-wheel voice button through CarPlay or Android Auto, the AI box treats the press like the assist gesture on an Android phone. Android then opens whatever app is set as the Digital assistant app. Out of the box that is Google’s assistant, or the box’s own Voice assistant setting, so a different assistant only answers the button once you point that setting at it.

Two things get in the way. Some head units never send the button to the box: they keep it for their own voice control, and the car’s assistant starts instead. And the box’s separate Voice assistant setting can compete with the Digital assistant choice, which is why the FAQ sets it to None first.

Fixes, ranked

Set your assistant as the Digital assistant app

  • Safe
  • Time: 10 minutes
  • Worked for 4 of 7 reports
  • Recommended in the community FAQ
  1. Install your assistant app from Google Play: Gemini, Alexa, or a regional assistant if you use one. It has to be an app that registers as a digital assistant, not a navigation app with a voice icon.
  2. In the box’s settings, set Voice assistant to None.
  3. Open Settings → Apps → Default apps → Digital assistant app (on some builds Settings → More → Apps; the settings search finds it) and select your assistant app.
  4. Open the assistant app and turn off its voice activation (wake word). The button now does that job.
  5. Press the voice button on the steering wheel and speak a command.
  6. If sound turns distorted after using the assistant, go back to the home screen or switch to another app once.
Settings → Apps → Default apps: choose your assistant under Digital assistant app. Reconstructed screen, labels may differ by firmware.

The community FAQ links to this setup, written by an owner who checked it on a TBox Ambient with late-March 2024 firmware. An Ambient owner with a Kia in CarPlay mode followed it exactly on the June 2024 firmware and reported the assistant starting from the wheel. An Ultra owner confirmed it on the Ultra too: the button brought up the assistant, which could plan a route and start music. Another Ultra owner set up Gemini the same way and uses the car’s own voice button for calls and smart-home commands.

Three owners said it did not work for them. Two drove Chery models, where the head unit’s own assistant answered the button (one on a TBox UHD) or nothing happened at all (one on an Ambient); the third said only that the instructions did not work for them. Those failures fit head units that keep the button, covered under “Things to try” below.

Two caveats from owners. On the TBox Plus the Digital assistant choice was kept only until the assistant app was closed, then reset; the Ambient did not do this. And the Ultra owner noticed music sounding distorted after the assistant ran, until they left for the home screen. If you hear crackling generally, the wake word is the usual cause; see crackling or muffled sound.

One owner found their regional assistant responded only with its own voice activation switched on. If the button opens the app but it does not listen, try that switch, and turn it off again if the sound degrades.

Wheel answer button hangs up calls: change the Digital assistant app

  • Safe
  • Time: 5 minutes
  • Worked for 1 of 1 report
  1. Open Settings → Apps → Default apps → Digital assistant app.
  2. If Google’s assistant is selected, choose another installed assistant app instead.
  3. Ask someone to call you and press the answer button on the wheel.

A TBox Ambient owner with a Kia Sportage on the December 2023 firmware found that the wheel’s answer button rejected incoming calls while Google was the digital assistant. After switching the Digital assistant app to another assistant, the answer button worked. The owner could not explain the link, and nobody else has tested it, but the Ambient owner in Fix 1 also noticed that answering from the wheel started working after the same change.

If callers cannot hear you once you answer, that is a separate problem; see microphone not working on calls.

Things to try (unverified)

  • Hold the button for five seconds. Suggested to a Chery Tiggo 8 Pro Max owner whose short press did nothing for the box. Nobody reported back. Some head units only pass a long press to CarPlay or Android Auto.
  • Head units that keep the button. On a Chery Tiggo 4 Pro the car’s own assistant opened; another owner explained that their head unit gives its own voice input priority and cuts the box’s audio channel. A Chevrolet Equinox owner saw a “language not supported for your region” message from the press. In these cases the box never receives the press; check the head unit’s voice settings or the protocol you run.
  • Stop Google’s assistant from answering the button. Owners whose car assistant clashed with the box’s were told to deny microphone permission to the assistant apps. A Haval owner who switched the assistant off still got a prompt offering to turn it back on at every press. Unresolved.
  • TBox Plus: keep the setting. One owner kept settings changes on a TBox Plus by unplugging the box right after changing them, so the change was written before the next restart. Untested by others.

If nothing works

Write down the box model and firmware date (Settings → About), the car’s make, model, year and head unit, the protocol (CarPlay or Android Auto), the assistant app and its version, and what a short and a long press do. Test the button with your phone connected directly to the car: if the phone’s assistant does not answer the button either, the head unit is keeping it and no box setting will change that.

Send box-side faults to Carlinkit support ([email protected]). For other engineering-menu settings that affect audio, see the engineering codes reference. If steering-wheel voice control is essential, check how your car hands the button to CarPlay or Android Auto before choosing a box; start here.

Related fixes

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Changelog

  • Last reviewed against new community reports:
  • Confirmed by 5 community reports on Carlinkit TBox Ambient.
  • Page updated:

"Confirmed" means a community member reported that the fix worked on their unit. We have not tested it on our own hardware. How we verify.