How to set up Tesla Text Messaging to send and receive messages (2024)

Teslas have the ability to send and receive text messages. Any message you receive while connected to the car will display the sender's name on the screen. You can then have the car read the message to you or dismiss it.

Being able to receive text messages is as simple as pairing your phone and turning on a few settings. If you’d like to reply or send a text message, you can do it completely through your voice.

How to Set Up Text Messaging

• Tap the Bluetooth icon at the top of the screen to go to Bluetooth settings.
• You’ll see a list of phones and devices paired to your car. You’ll want to pair your phone now if you haven’t done so already.
• You’ll need to make sure the phone you’re setting up messaging for is already connected. Then tap the name of your device on the left side.
• You’ll see options for that device on the right side. You will want to have the “Sync Messages,” option turned on. It may also want to turn on the “Chime on New Message” option if you’d like the car to have an audible alert every time you receive a new message. If you leave this option off, the car will still display a notification on the car’s screen, but without a chime.

How to Send a Text Message

The only way to send a text message through your Tesla is using your voice.

• On a Model S or Model X, tap the voice button on the top right side of the steering wheel.
• On a Model 3 or Model Y, push in the right scroll wheel to start a voice command.
• Then use the voice command, “Send text to Name”, Name being the person in your phone’s contacts that you’d like the message to be sent to. You’ll need to have your contacts synced to your car in order for this to function.
• If you’d like to send or view text messages already sent during your trip. You can tap the Apps button (denoted by a ^) and choose Phone. From there tap the Messages tab and you'll see a list of all the contacts and messages you have sent and received during this trip. Messages already on your phone or sent in a previous drive will not show up here.

How to Receive a Text Message

If your phone is connected via Bluetooth and you have the sync messages option turned on, you’ll now receive an alert every time you receive a text message.

You’ll hear a ding and the alert will appear on the screen along with the sender’s name. The message will be obscured until you choose it to be shown and read.

• Model 3 or Model Y
• To view a text message and have the car read the message to you, press the right scroll wheel.
• To dismiss a message, you can press the right scroll wheel twice.
• To dictate a reply, you press the right scroll wheel once, followed by your reply. Once you're done, you can press the right scroll wheel again to send the message.
• Model S or Model X
• On the instrument cluster you will see different options that you can select with the scroll wheel and the select button that will let you view, reply or dismiss the text message.

Tips

Car doesn't recognize a name

If the car has a hard time recognizing a name in your phonebook, there are a couple things you can do. You can duplicate the contact on your phone, giving the second contact a name that the car will recognize. Alternatively, you can favorite the contact. By favoriting a contact you'll be able to easily start a text message with them by going to Apps (the ^ icon ), Phone and then Favorites. Each favorite or contact has a Call icon next to their name along with a Message icon that you can use to start a new conversation.

Re-dictate a message

If you have a Model 3 or Model Y, and you reply to someone, only to have the car not understand what you said, you can dictate your message again by pressing the right scroll wheel in twice. On a Model S or Model X, you have a selectable option to let you re-try dictating the message.

Stop reading a message

If the car is reading a long text message and you'd like to stop it, you can press the right scroll wheel two times to dismiss the message.

Playback volume

Although it would be a great feature, there is currently no way to adjust the volume at which text messages are read.

Troubleshooting

If you’re not receiving text messaging in the car you will want to confirm that your phone is paired and connected. You’ll also want to confirm that the ‘Sync Messages’ option is turned on in the car's Bluetooth settings.

You'll also want to check your phone's Bluetooth settings to make sure the phone is sharing the relevant data with the car. You'll want to go to Bluetooth settings and find your device which you're connecting to, which is the car in this case. It should be labeled as Tesla followed by the model and the name of your car. Then you can tap on the ( i ) icon for iPhone's or the gear icon for Android and you should see device specific settings. You will want to be sure that the car is sharing contacts and notification or text message data with the car.

If you’re still having trouble, you may want to try rebooting your car. If it still doesn't work, you can try unpairing the phone and repairing it again. Delete the device from the car's Bluetooth settings and also delete the car from your phone's Bluetooth settings. You can then repair and enable text messaging again.

Keep in mind that sending group messages or replying to group messages is not currently supported on some devices, including iPhones.

Tesla is set to release FSD Beta 10.69.1 tonight. Beta 10.69.1 is expected to be largely bug fixes, but it looks like it will go out to a wider pool than 10.69.

Tesla released the much-anticipated beta, version 10.69 to 1,000 beta testers late on August 20th.

Since then we've seen numerous videos of the beta in action. With so many changes in a release, some regressions are expected as well, which is why Tesla is being a little more cautious with this release.

Last night Elon Musk revealed some additional details on the next release. He spoke about who will receive the next update, which appears to indicate that the beta is still on track for tonight. In his tweet, he said that 10.69.1 will only be available to the existing testers on version 10.69, at least initially.

If there are no major issues found with the release, then Tesla will release it to another 10,000 testers, or roughly 10% of Tesla's current FSD Beta pool after a few days.

If you were one of the first 10,000 beta testers in the US, then there's a possibility you'll get the latest beta this week, however, there's no way of knowing whether Tesla will go out to testers in order.

Most beta testers in the US and Canada will not receive 10.69.1 and instead receive the next version, beta 10.69.2

That beta is expected to be a more stable build and go into "wide release," which is expected to include all current FSD Beta testers.

Elon mentioned that 10.69.2 will "hopefully" go out next week.

FSD Beta 10.69 video

More Testers

If you're currently enrolled in Tesla's Safety Score in hopes of getting into the FSD Beta program, there may be a chance Tesla increases the beta pool after 10.69.2 is rolled out, but I wouldn't expect that to happen before all current testers have received the latest beta and Tesla feels that the beta is performing well.

The last time Tesla added additional beta testers, they include owners with a Safety Score of 95 or higher, however, there were also reports of some users receiving it with lower scores.

If you haven't been following the FSD Beta 10.69 release, you can view the release notes.

Elon Musk is a diligent leader who is dedicated to achieving a more sustainable future for mankind. In Tesla’s early days, Musk had a “very disciplined” approach to managing the automotive company.

Carl Medlock, a former territory manager at Tesla, discussed what it was like working for Musk on an episode of “The Iced Coffee Hour” podcast, which is hosted by real estate investor Graham Stephan and Jack Selby.

Medlock joined Tesla in 2009 during the recession. He was offered a healthy six-figure salary and 40,000 stock options that he reluctantly had to sell due to divorce proceedings, according to the New York Post.

“You don’t argue with him,” Medlock said. “When Elon stands up at the end of a meeting and says, ‘This is the direction we’re going to go,’ you stand up from your chair and you better head that direction. Because he’s not one for people back-talking - he’ll just let you go.”

When Tesla was going through “production hell” for the Model 3, Musk was consistently working upwards of 120 hours per week and sleeping on the Tesla factory floor.

“I actually saw him sleep on a desk once,” Medlock said. He even took a photo of the unusual situation, but then deleted it almost immediately.

“I deleted the photo. I should have kept the photo, but I deleted the photo out of respect. I took the picture and thought, ‘Oh my God, you’re going to get fired for this.”

The stress and difficulty of running one of the world’s most valuable automakers - and one of the only automotive companies in the United States to never go bankrupt - added to the hefty burden of saving humankind.

When Medlock was interviewing at Tesla, one of his final interviews was with Musk in which they discussed his customer service and real-world experiences.

“We just had a conversation and I got the job,” Medlock said.

But despite Musk’s unprecedented work ethic and rigid management style, Medlock said he was a good person. Musk wasn’t very social in the workplace, but he said Musk is very intelligent and easy to talk to.

“He’s actually a really good guy,” Medlock said. “He’s incredibly smart, so he’s intimidating in that regard, but if you look at it based on his kids. The guy loves his kids, he loves his family, he’s a good dad and he’s just easy to talk to.”

Interview

You can watch the entire interview below.