1250GS - any benefit to connecting helmet comms and smartphone to bike?

I'm currently streaming music from my smartphone to my helmet comm system (Cardo Packtalk Slim). I see that my 2022 1250GS allows wireless connection between the "dashboard" and my smartphone and helmet comm system.

What is the benefit of connecting the bike's dashboard to my helmet comm system or smartphone?

The advantage is having the handlebar controls to change/select music choices.

Thank you, that makes sense. I'll give that a shot.

That's what I've done.

I have my phone connected to the "TFT" and for the most part all works fine, I can use the Wonder Wheel to do some stuff. However, on my ride today the BMW Mottorrad App froze somehow and I lost all connectivity to the phone from the TFT. Couldn't do anything for music (except change volumn) and the Navigation screen was frozen on the TFT. So, while I didn't like that, for the most part it works fine.

Before this effort I was able to stream music from my iPhone to my helmet radio (Cardo Packtalk Slim).

Today I wirelessly connected the 1250GS TFT display to both my iPhone and Cardo unit. I can access media with the wonder wheel (image below). I see music playing on the TFT and on the iPhone display. But I can't hear anything in my helmet.



In this mode does the music first go from the phone to the TFT, then from the TFT to the helmet? If so, maybe I'm supposed to disconnect the Cardo from the iPhone? Or other?

I've been wondering what the benefits are, too. The salesman at the dealership last week had me pair my phone and my Cardo Packtalk Bold to the bike (R1250RT.)

I can control the music via the wheel but now the voice commands for the Cardo don't function. Neither do the buttons on the Cardo.

Also, when I stream music there's a slight pause in the music at random intervals that interrupts the song for a second and all I hear is myself singing along in my helmet. Super annoying. I don't have this issue when the Cardo is paired directly to my phone.

I'm wondering if I can connect the Cardo to my phone for music and connect the my phone to the bike for navigation? I may try it today...

Things are still not working for me. I thought the signal flow was:
- phone to TFT to Cardo
...so I disconnected the phone-Cardo connection in my iPhone settings. Still no music could be heard.

About 20 minutes into a quiet ride, music started breaking through my Cardo sporadically, but I ended up stopping the tune as it was more annoying than anything. And this happened when I could see a helmet icon and a phone icon in the TFT.

I get the utility of being able to control media with the "wonder wheel", but I think I will go back to phone-to-Cardo as that worked reliably. I'll ask the dealer about this when I go for 6k service.

No Phone to Headset.

I have an iPhone 7, a Sena 50S headset on my helmet, the TFT on my '22 GSA and a Garmin Zumo XT.

I originally hooked up my phone to my Sena to "program" it but I don't have it connected when things are set up.

My iPhone is connect to my Zumo but only for "Garmin Drive" - there is a configuration menu where I can pick what does and doesn't come through to my Zumo from the iPhone.

My phone is connected to my TFT and keep the BMW Mottorrad App running, all the time, on my iPhone along with Garmin Drive (for the Zumo) and Spotify for music. Then, my TFT is connected to my Sena as "Phone 1" while my Zumo is connected as a GPS device.

All this lets me run a route on my Zumo and I'll hear turn commands from the Zumo although it isn't very clear so I need to work on that. I'll unpair and re-pair it as a GPS and if that doesn't work I'll re-pair it as "Phone 2" and try that.

On the TFT I run get turn by turn directions from the BMW Mottorrad App from my iPhone and get spoken directions from the TFT. I also get my music from the TFT but interestingly enough, each song "pops" up on my Zumo and I can control my music on my Zumo as well although I find using the Wonder Wheel seems easier.

Oh, and I can make phone calls through the TFT without an issue.

Now, what problems do I have? Well, nothing that is critical at this point but:
1) My GPS turn directions aren't very clear, there is some clipping, more noticible at higher speeds.
2) I need to adjust the turn by turn directions from the TFT to be louder "in relation to" my music as it is hard to hear again at higher speeds.
3) I can't use the wonder wheel to scroll through various albums on Spotify, I can skip songs but that's it. However, I can use Siri and with that, if I know what my albums are I can "Hey Siri, play Oldies on Spotify" (assuming "Oldies" is an Album I've set up). So that's not bad. The Wonder Wheel really wants to work with the tunes I have on my phone (Apple Music).
4) The Sena controls for pausing, skipping songs etc., don't work. Don't know if I can get them to work or not. The only time this is an issue so far is if I want to pause sound because I want to talk to someone - I now just turn the wonderwheel to decrease the volumn as it takes too long to get to the menu to pause.

I suspect I can get some of the above solved, I just need to spend more time with the system but when I have time I prefer to ride!