Knowledge base
Using a smart phone with Grid
Grid can connect to your smart phone to allow you to make calls and send text messages.
What can you do when you connect a smart phone to Grid?
- Send and receive calls via Grid
- Use your Grid voice on calls
- Listen to your calls through your device
- Send and receive text messages
- Read symbolised text messages
- Read out your messages
Getting started
You will need:
- Grid for Windows (Grid 3) version 48 or above
- Your communication aid needs to have Bluetooth
- Your smartphone must support Bluetooth
Phones supported
We have tested with a wide range of smartphones, both old and new to make sure that the phone feature works as expected, however there are many different devices out there!
We always recommend trying a few options to find the right phone for you before buying.
Android
Android devices running Android 6 and above (Samsung, Google Pixel, Sony and more)
iPhone
iPhone 6S and above running the most recent OS (iOS13 at time of writing)
How to connect your phone
If you have never connected a smartphone before please go straight to Step 4.
Removing Remote phone
Step 1:
Turn off Service Status in the Remote phone app on your phone.
Step 2:
Forget the existing Bluetooth connection on both your phone and computer.
Step 3:
You are now free to uninstall Call Centre from your device and your phone.
Step 4:
Check you have Bluetooth switched on, both on your phone and your communication aid.
Step 5:
Open Grid, select the menu and select Settings – Phone.
Step 6:
Discoverable phones will appear on this screen.
Tip: If you don’t see your phone on the list, you may need to set your phone to be Discoverable. On iPhone, this is a toggle on the Settings – Bluetooth screen. On Android phones, this can vary, certain phones have a discoverable toggle on the Bluetooth settings screen, other phones only become discoverable if the Bluetooth settings screen is open.
Tap Connect next to your chosen phone’s name to begin pairing.
Your phone will display a notification to confirm, often with a pin code. Select ‘Confirm’ or ‘Yes’ to continue pairing.
Tip: Your communication aid may show a similar prompt, ignore this!
You may also get a couple of additional prompts and notifications on your phone while it pairs. These are to allow Grid access to various functions. Accept all of these.
Step 7:
Once pairing is complete you will see a list of what your phone can do while it is connected to Grid.
Your phone will also begin to sync messages and calls, so you may start to see pop-ups in Grid.
Setting additional permissions on iPhone
In addition to the setup instructions you will need to set the below IOS permissions.
- On the iPhone open your Settings app
- Select Bluetooth from the settings options.
- From the Bluetooth settings select the ‘i’ symbol next to your connected device, for example, ‘Grid Pad’ ( the device name can differ depending on the model of grid pad you have )
- Ensure that Show Notifications is on (the tab will be green).
Phone audio settings
On the Phone settings screen you can choose how you want to send your voice and where you will hear your callers.
Speaker
This drop down box lists all the audio devices you have connected to your communication aid. This allows you to send your call audio through either your device’s speakers, or another device like headphones or a Bluetooth speaker
Microphone
Choose where you want to send audio from. Your device will often have a microphone built in, and you can also select any connected headsets. No matter what you choose, you will always be able to send Grid’s voice directly.
Tip: It is best to use headphones if you are intending on using a microphone otherwise you can cause the audio to feedback!
There is also a toggle to use the phone speaker and microphone, this will disable Grid’s audio being sent to the phone.
