I just picked up a 2020 M4 Heritage and am disappointed with lack of idrive features

[atzekovsky]

Hey guys.. just bought my 2020 M4 M Heritage Edition back in December. Absolutely fucking love it.. but I'm disappointed by the lack of connecteddrive features.

I checked my subscriptions in the My BMW app and everything that's on there is active. I can remote lock/unlock, honk horn, flash lights, automatic ventilation, and I can send my GPS an address. But I do not have anything like online speech recognition, I can't text from my phone, have no idea if and how the hotspot works, I don't have weather (I do have automatic map updates somehow).. but this drives me nuts. I had to download some app so I can get certain features like spotify on the connecteddrive tab on the idrive (under phone apps) but only very basic things show up under the bmw apps.

I've searched the web and I really can't find posts on this after 2020. I know they changed over from the connecteddrive app to my BMW but does that mean there's no way to get the features mentioned above back? Would the dealership be able to help with this?

I appreciate any and all help, thank you!

[jaylazy2020]

Are you iPhone or Android?

I find CarPlay so good for iPhone I never use idrive system

[alex2364]

Originally Posted by atzekovsky

Hey guys.. just bought my 2020 M4 M Heritage Edition back in December. Absolutely fucking love it.. but I'm disappointed by the lack of connecteddrive features.

I checked my subscriptions in the My BMW app and everything that's on there is active. I can remote lock/unlock, honk horn, flash lights, automatic ventilation, and I can send my GPS an address. But I do not have anything like online speech recognition, I can't text from my phone, have no idea if and how the hotspot works, I don't have weather (I do have automatic map updates somehow).. but this drives me nuts. I had to download some app so I can get certain features like spotify on the connecteddrive tab on the idrive (under phone apps) but only very basic things show up under the bmw apps.

I've searched the web and I really can't find posts on this after 2020. I know they changed over from the connecteddrive app to my BMW but does that mean there's no way to get the features mentioned above back? Would the dealership be able to help with this?

I appreciate any and all help, thank you!

If you wanted the latest and greatest, you should've gotten a G8x. I have all those features on my 2023 X3 M40i, which has iDrive 7. My 2020 M4 has iDrive 6, which only has weather from your list. I can get texts using Apple CarPlay, but have never been able to get it from native iDrive.

[N1rve]

Originally Posted by atzekovsky

Hey guys.. just bought my 2020 M4 M Heritage Edition back in December. Absolutely fucking love it.. but I'm disappointed by the lack of connecteddrive features.

I checked my subscriptions in the My BMW app and everything that's on there is active. I can remote lock/unlock, honk horn, flash lights, automatic ventilation, and I can send my GPS an address. But I do not have anything like online speech recognition, I can't text from my phone, have no idea if and how the hotspot works, I don't have weather (I do have automatic map updates somehow).. but this drives me nuts. I had to download some app so I can get certain features like spotify on the connecteddrive tab on the idrive (under phone apps) but only very basic things show up under the bmw apps.

I've searched the web and I really can't find posts on this after 2020. I know they changed over from the connecteddrive app to my BMW but does that mean there's no way to get the features mentioned above back? Would the dealership be able to help with this?

I appreciate any and all help, thank you!

I do have to agree that the iDrive "features" are lacking. They removed the feature to text through iDrive with the introduction of Apple Carplay in 2018. It used to be some sort of Mobile Office or something.

Weather should be updated with like the normal connected drive subscription. Not sure why this isn't working for you.

Online Speech Recognition is just voice command when you press the microphone button on the steering wheel. I think this only helps aid in recognizing your voice/speech pattern.

Im not sure about the hotspot feature. I think you need Wireless charging for this to work.

[WhiteFox]

Weather is available just need to enable this.

[NealfromNZ]

System was designed over a decade ago with minor tweaks.since 2016. CarPlay was the lastest tech of the time.

Fxx platform had 4 different platforms in that time but didn’t get idrive 7.

However audio wise you can get better sound quality results than the later systems with digital audio integration.

It’s certainly no Tesla with Netflix and Disney + and self drive.

[WhiteFox]

I have a Tesla M3P and honestly very rarely have I used Netflix etc. First few months of owning yes probably played around but now 3 yrs on hardly use it.

The BMW infotainment is still current to most car manufacturers today and even has Alexa integration.

CarPlay is what I use so would not care too much about the rest.

[atzekovsky]

Originally Posted by WhiteFox

Weather is available just need to enable this.

How do I enable it? I can't find the option for the life of me

[WhiteFox]

You need to enable connected drive package with the app first as without this you won’t see them on the idrive

[alex2364]

Originally Posted by atzekovsky

How do I enable it? I can't find the option for the life of me

You need to verify there’s active BMW ConnectedDrive subscription. It’s free during the first 4 years of the car. After that you need to pay every year.