I took delivery of my 2024 BMW X3 M40i in Germany in Feb 2024. Upon delivery, I noticed that none of the myBMW apps were loaded… and wouldn’t load. So, at the suggestion of my salesperson, I drove down to Schaffhausen, Switzerland to see if my X3’s apps would automatically update, since there seems to be an issue with Germany’s/the EU’s data protection policies. Well, it worked. My apps and the Data Privacy option in the menu finally appeared, like out of nowhere. I was able to set everything up and actually use it. However, as soon as I re-entered Germany, my ability to use those features stopped. Features like being able to view what’s going on around my X3 via the cameras, the ability to send destinations to vehicle’s navigation system, the ability to plan climate control and remote start, the ability to lock/unlock, remote start on demand, honk the horn, turn in the headlights, etc. are all disabled now. Additionally, the built-in nav doesn’t provide any traffic updates. I’m sure that in the U.S. the features would work as advertised. However, I’m writing this review based on my experience here, not on what I believe would be my experience elsewhere. UPDATE: All of the aforementioned features appear to be functioning now. It’s weird… and I can’t explain it. I’ve updated the star rating to five because it now works as intended. We’ll see if it continues to do so.
Whenever you travel, the addresses you send to the car for navigation never makes it to the car. I live in NYC, and just traveled to New Hampshire. The "send to vehicle" feature worked once or twice, then the rest of the trip wouldn't reach the vehicle and wouldn't load under "Received Destinations" from the app. I tried the next 4 days. No luck. I logged off and into the driver profile in the car, and logged off and on in the app. No use. I hoped when I went to Boston it would work, but no such luck. So even in big cities, with plenty of signal, it still doesn't work. Lo and behold, when I pull into my garage in Brooklyn, in comes all the destinations that refused to load the whole trip. So when I'm home and I know the neighborhood and don't need directions, that's the only time it works, so what good is it?? This also happened before, both with this app, and the previous Connected Drive app. The other features continue to work (vehicle status, ventilate, etc). But not the "send destination to vehicle" feature, which in my opinion is the most useful feature of the app if it would work.
The apps functionality is pretty great overall, I’ve actually never had problems with checking the status of my car or giving it commands except for when service is spotty, but that is to be expected. I like that I can see how soon it will be done charging and the status of the battery. Being able to preheat the cabin is also an amazing feature! My only complaint is that when route planing, the BMW app recognizes lots of random, uncharted chargers, as well as EVgo. That’s not necessarily a problem, but it’s missing the largest and easiest charge network which is Electrify America. Depending on where you are, EVgo is ridiculously expensive and charges a fee just to start a charge. I find that stupid as you also have to pay to charge by the minute, which was outlawed in California for a reason. Almost half of all fast chargers I have seen are EA, and I’m a monthly member of their network. Because the app doesn’t recognize them, I never use the route planning. Mostly because after trying it once, it had me sit at a slow level 3 awkwardly at a dealership only for me to find out on the EA app, there was a much faster charger two blocks away. You could imagine the frustration. I think it’s time EA be added to the app, especially before the launch of the iX and i4. If you want to prove there’s places everywhere to charge, why not put them all on the map?
Despite having the capability, which worked flawlessly for about 8 months after purchasing the car, I suddenly lost this function in the old application. It simply stopped connecting. Now this new application doesn’t even recognize that I have the feature enabled, which I do. I’ve done a lot of research, tried every suggestion and reset, waited for updates and restarted iDrive to no avail. Given the amount of problems I see reported online with the remote 3D functionality, it would be helpful if BMW addressed the issue inside of the application. It would be helpful to have a proactive list of problems with troubleshooting suggestions. The only I options I see is scheduling a unique dealer visit or waiting until a normal maintenance schedule. The new application isn’t otherwise bad at all, but it lacks a clear way to communicate something that may have happened to my remote 3D feature that seems relatively common, again based on frequency of online reporting. If the app had a solution, communicated better, perhaps with a more robust troubleshooting/help section, it would certain seem to me worth 5 stars. It’s the the only thing I can think of holding it back at the moment. After all of the features this car has, the best when parked, is hands down having the car send a photo of its surroundings.
This is a joke right? It has to be a joke. “Okay we’ll update the watch app to include some useful functionality BUT ONLY IF THE WATCH IS CONNECTED TO THEIR PHONE!!!” This must be the famous German sense of humor I keep hearing about. I’m glad I thought to test this out before I tried to rely on it. Another watch app update: Turns out it’s even more useless than I thought. It only works if your watch is connected to your phone!! That’s right, we’ll make a watch app that basically gives you a tiny bit of information but only if you happen to have the phone on you and could look at that anyways… Update: now they have an Apple Watch app and are in the running for the grand prize of “most totally useless app ever made”. Can it unlock the car? Nope, remote start? Nope, tell you where the car is? Nope. literally does nothing but tell you the range and state of charge. Tried this morning multiple times to set a departure time. My car is connected and the app is connected but it keeps failing. Maybe BMW should consider hiring at least one professional developer to work on this app. Either that or contract with Hyundai who seems to have this figured out. Probably fails at least half the time I try to start pre conditioning. I have a good connection for both my phone and the car but still I get the “failed to send…” error. Pretty disappointing for a BMW.
Being able to directly send directions or destinations to the Connected app was available once upon a time, but mysteriously disappeared some months back, much to my dismay. But My BMW thankfully brings it back where it belongs. You can now find your destination using the app you always use on your phone, and push it directly to the My BMW app where it then gets sent to the vehicle. Perfect. Otherwise it’s white instead of black, and boldly makes use of the phrase “ALL GOOD”, which is neither here nor there. The Device Connection function now shows what’s connected and how it’s connected to the vehicle via Bluetooth, which is nice. A very handy addition is that vehicle odometer and VIN are shown right from the My Garage screen, handy if you want to quickly check either without walking out to the car. Feature idea: allow users to add the license plate number to the garage screen. This is handy when you want to pull that up quick, say when you’re checking into a hotel, etc. App is a smooth experience overall and aesthetically more pleasant.
I never thought I’d depend on an app for my car so much, but then I got this app and here I am checking it everyday lol. I love that I can check how much gas I have without being in the vehicle so that I can plan out a gas station stop before I even leave the house. Since I live in Deep South Texas it’s really hot pretty much all year round (try 90° in October) so the start A/C function on the app has been amazing! I can start the A/C right before leaving the house and walk into a completely cooled car. I also love that I can lock my car with the app, because my keys can really get buried deep in my purse so being able to lock my car with my phone is very convenient when I can’t find my keys in my purse right away. There are so many other features of this app that I haven’t tried yet, but if they’re anything like the basic features I’ve mentioned then I’m sure they’re great! Overall I really love this app and if you have a bmw but don’t have this app, we’ll idk what you’ve been doing but you’re missing out.
I, sadly, have not had the positive experience with my 2020 M550 some users have enjoyed with this app. I have been working with the app, always updated, to the latest version, for slightly more than one year. My vehicle rarely receives directions sent to it through the app. The 3D view and even the vehicle data such as the odometer rarely work. I can not lock or unlock the vehicle, and I can not remotely vent the vehicle. I have tried using it about once a month for this time only to have had it work for 8 to 10 days in total. In my attempts to make the app function, I have deleted the app, disconnected my car from the connected drive link and then reconnected the car and downloaded the app again. I have done this in several sequences, and I have worked with the BMW Genius line at BMW North America which yielded the same results. An engineering ticket was even created on my behalf by a “Genius”. This was never answered despite my own follow up calls roughly every 4 weeks for about 3 months until I finally gave up the effort. I am in south Florida, have strong 5G cell service with my iPhone 12, and have fast strong WiFi too. I was very much looking forward to the directions feature and the remote ventilation capability. Having the app fail to work is, for me, worse than BMW never claiming the ability.
Have uninstalled and reinstalled this App 2 times and the remote 3D is missing. Not sure what bug is causing this but really annoying. ***edit*** thank you Development team for the ridiculous response below…stating the obvious as though I’m ignorant and do not know how to use technology. THE APP DOES NOT HAVE THE REMOTE 3D feature accessible for my car. Just for your added information, I have gone through the BMW Genius, and Assist groups .. and now a problem ticket is out for the BMW engineers to figure out what is going wrong. My car hasn’t changed but something in the App update to either the old BMW connected and this “new” MyBMW app has and it is not allowing my car all of the features that I am supposed to have access to use. But thank you for letting me down in your response by not seriously considering that there may actually be a technological glitch somewhere else besides user error.
Rarely does the software do what it should. For example, issue a command to unlock the door and you have about a 20% chance it will complete….and if it does, it’ll take 10 minutes. The app will not stop nagging me about updating the software in my car, but updating is not just selecting ‘Upgrade’. I don’t know what the process is, but it’s something like open the driver’s door, turn on the left blinker, flash the headlights 3 times, connect to the car WiFi (which is NEVER used), turn off Bluetooth, take off one shoe…..and maybe if you are willing to sit there long enough the upgrade may start. It’s all just completely useless and gimmicky. We all want an app when we first purchase, then never use it again. I have had the ability to view the image around my vehicle for 5 years….I’ve used it once. If I could actually depend on the app to complete anything, and in a timely manner, perhaps it would be less gimmicky and more useful. UPDATE: I finally removed the app from my phone. It clearly states that it tracks your location. Now the notifications are popping up about buying tires and upgrading my service - nothing related to the status of my vehicle. After years of having the app, I just don’t use it.
Remote functions and 3D camera features won’t work in in Ramstein area. BMW North America said it should work in Germany yet BMW AG Connect drive says it won’t because US SPEC. BMW NA says that they need to open TSAR but dealer thinks they would have to pay for the telematics box to be swapped and once I return to US it probably needs to be changed again. Drove to Luxemburg and privacy app and everything updated and all the remote features worked. I sent proof to both NA and AG that vehicle operates as designed out of Germany. Their excuses is always my car is designed for US market. My 2024 X5 all app remote features work in Germany so it doesn’t add up. It’s Germany for sure that is doing something to avoid the vehicles from connecting. It makes no sense since it’s a German brand but BMW AG is supposedly a separate company. Make it make sense ! A brand new paid off vehicle that isn’t 100% and can’t be used to its intended potential. Such a waste of money. Still no resolution from neither side… I’m going to drive to Mannheim and Switzerland in hopes I can achieve the result of the other review on the page… as soon as we crossed back into Germany nothing worked so maybe this review will help them fix the issue so I can enjoy my vehicle as intended.
We took a long distance trip to Montana. All Along the way charging was a challenge. One charger had been vandalized. Two of the plugs did not work due to no cables. The Tesla charger worked well after we learned how to attach to the charger that had an adaptive mode (Tesla’s). It also meant a lot of wasted time. Some chargers were not identified by company and had to call. Along the way I had to get several apps, which meant several apps now have my charge card information. I hate that. Each stop was a learning experience and not a great one. Several were no better that a home outlet. Please take those choices off the system as they are literally useless. Also each one was different in how to use, how and when to attach. Etc. No matter what you say when selling the car charging is a huge waste of time and a huge level of frustration. Until you get these issues solved I will not recommend an EV to anyone for any type of distance travel.
This app is only good for viewing the VIN number. None of the remote functions work. Vehicle location is stuck on a freeway from three days ago and doesn’t refresh even manually. Deleted reinstalled multiple times with a hard restart of iPhone/iPad didn’t help. Many attempts of phone help with BMW Asist didn’t get anywhere. Except one time, everything worked for couple of hours. They opened a case and told me to “WAIT 10 DAYS BEFORE CONTACTING THEM BACK IF THE ISSUES STILL EXIST”. REALLY? Don’t even try to contact them after their business hours because your call will be routed to a different country with barely English speaking people to “help” you. They hung up on me a couple times too. Update: After 45 days of acquiring the new vehicle and not being able to use first the BMW Connect and then the My BMW apps, finally a fresh reprogramming of the vehicle’s software at the dealership, resolves the problems. Why it took them so long to get to this simple solution for an important security issues? Beats me. Hence the three stars.
Use other apps to find working ev charging stations
This app needs to network with apps that show ratings that indicate whether ev charging stations are functional as it is a waste of time and money to be led by this app to a station that requires the user to download another app like Shell Recharge that requires adding money only to attempt use the station that has no indication of its lack of functionality. It took over an hour from downloading the Shell Recharge app, adding a payment source, calling the support number to be told it doesn’t work and advised, “ I’ll try to connect you to the charger” then told why don’t you use the charge hub app to find you a working ev charging station and finally charging my vehicle at a different company’s station. I ended up calling shell recharge to get a refund. I had to cancel an appointment as a result.
My BMW i4 is a delight to drive. The momentum getting up to speed is fast, yet smooth. It is an affordable car for most everyone. This driver would encourage everyone to look more into the facts of EV vehicles, such as a BMW i4. As much as BMW has been making vehicles for many decades, getting into the EV market was swift and smooth for this German company. That means a buyer really purchases decades of BMW design and comfort, along with an electric vehicle. Foremost, is having a comfortable smile, while passing up gas stations! Finally, for general reference, I read that a gallon of gasoline weighs about 6.073 lbs. in the US; the amount of carbon in that gallon of gasoline weighs 5.5 lbs, or about 90.5% of the entire gallon. So, this comfortably smiling driver hopes that people compare their carbon footprint in relation toward considering getting an EV vehicle. Edward M. Melillo
[Update: BMW responded that they fixed the link to the privacy policy. Still no response on why they do cross-app/site tracking.] The app works fine for me but tbh I don’t use it for much other than checking that my doors are locked, or turning on the fan before I leave on a hot day. Three stars because it works fine but hasn’t blown me out of the water. What I have to wonder about is why the app is trying to do activity tracking across sites and apps? There are exactly two apps on my phone that have asked permission to do this - Facebook and My BMW. Not great company to be keeping if user privacy is something you want to appear to care about. I assume BMW are selling user information to marketing and location tracking firms, but I’ve no way to tell because the link to their privacy policy from the App Store is broken (gives a 403 error). Happy to update this if I hear back from BMW.
I use the app routinely to monitor the health of my X5 45E and I enjoy the pre-conditioning function which allows my family to warm or cool the vehicle in advance of a trip. I also use the app to set the navigation system for a trip which simplifies the process. The app monitors tire pressure, systems checks and reminds me when the car needs servicing. I can book an appointment with the dealer inside the app itself which is really helpful. The app also informs me of MPG and MGPE and compares my performance versus other users. The app also allows me to unlock the car, take a picture of the car in its location and from my phone (and Apple Watch), I can unlock and drive the car without a key FOB. It’s a great app and I would highly recommend it to others.
Everything mentioned in the title has a reason, the lack of features (mainly remote start) is a Car-by-car feature, some will have it some won’t. Second the reason why it can be slow at times, is because the signals sent to the car travel through cellular waves instead of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, it’s perfect if you need to grab something out of your car, but if you’re in a hurry or need to drive, good luck. I imagine its faster on some cars than others, the M240i Convertible I’ve been using for the past 3 years has been reliable, but the app can be slow, and I wish you could remote put the top up/down. I was also expecting the app to be faster when I got the X3M, but to my surprise it wasn’t faster at all, I bet the speed will be fixed/upgraded in the future. No complaints, but still not perfect.
Given that this App has been available for some time in the EU, I was excited to finally see it released for USA. But much to my disappointment it’s a stripped down pale version of the old BMW Connected App. I had my fair share of issues with the old App, but seriously how could BMW not build proper Calendar Integration into the first release! It’s clearly an option you can enable, but it doesn’t sync your calendar to the car!! BMW added extra steps to search or share destinations to send to vehicle in this release. In the old App, I just sat in my car and based on time/location I received a prompt on iDrive screen to navigate to my Upcoming Destinations. I seriously hope BMW is working to add this back in or fix it. Several other missing features compared to the BMW Connected App… but proper Calendar Integration, and ability to create multi-stop destinations like the old App allowed are frustratingly missing. Expensive car… Average app.
Despite all the quirkiness of the BMW remote interface (it sometimes takes forever to send command to the vehicle), the app is very decent. As usual, BMW showed great attention to details – I love how the car on the picture looks *exactly* like my car, including the wheel set, shadowline trim, and even the color of the break calipers. All the necessary information is there – total mileage, fuel level, map integration. 3D view is weird, all other cars look at least twice as high as mine lol. Luckily you can see separate pictures from all the cameras – they make much more sense than 3D. What this app really needs is Shortcuts integration – I always send command to enable ventilation few minutes before leaving for work, it would be nice if I could automate it.
This app does its BASIC job—just that. It’s not a smart app and not very interactive for that matter. You want to find information about your car? Of course you have to go to the app to check. BUT what if you forgot something like locking your car or your parking lights being on for an extended period of time without you knowing because you know we get distracted and as humans we’re prone to errors? Guess what?! You will never know because this app doesn’t have that capability of notifying you. It’s not like other apps *cough* Tesla *cough* that’ll notify you if you left your boot open or if the light is still on. I mean I guess I don’t really need these “simple wants” since I have a very nice neighbor who’ll call me when things like these happen. I mean I own a all-electric BMW vehicle so I reckon it’s not too much to ask for a little bit of good technology you can rely on. Vent now over but still feels strongly about this unless otherwise convinced. Auf geht’s!
I can’t stress enough how frustrating is software from BMW. As much as I love driving the car that much I hate the software. Everything is half-done. You can request cameras to take photos but it you will spend forever to download them. You can schedule the departure and do a pre-conditioning but you can’t get the climatization work right now. Working with maps is a nightmare, planning a custom route is impossible. It is impossible to remotely close the sunroof or windows. You have camera in the car, you have seat sensors and yet you don’t allow the elementary functions in the app. The car color is off in 3d view. Financial information sometimes works sometimes doesn’t. The video recorder data cannot be accessed via the app. Useful information and controls require a few steps while other things are on the spot. For example trips summary exists but route is not available. Maybe I liked some place I want to check it out.
App is not sufficiently reliable. I occasionally have to delete and reinstall when the Passive Entry no longer works. My wife’s Tesla also uses my iPhone and I’ve NEVER had to reinstall the Tesla app to drive my wife’s car. On another point, please consider making it easier to enable/disable Passive Entry and make the Apple Watch app mirror the status of the phone app. When walking around my house anywhere near the garage, my 2024 X5 M60i cherps to life and then back to sleep. Pretty annoying and again, not a problem for our Tesla. I’ve disabled Passive Entry in my Apple wallet on my phone, but the watch ignores this setting. I end up removing the Apple Watch app as it’s too cumbersome to click thru to disable and then tenable.
Worse than the app is replaced and that was about as bad as it got.
It got one star because I couldn’t leave it at zero. Each iteration of the BMW App gets functionally worse yet looks better. Unfortunately style points don’t cut it when it’s 100F outside and I can’t remote turn on the AC (which was one of the main reasons for buying the BMW i3 over its competitors a few years ago) and now they’ve gone one further by now even reporting the battery level and range correctly. Just remember to check it on the car rather than using the app. The charging functions are just as bad. The app tells me that it send a message to my car instructing it to charge immediately but alas no... the dash still has the clock signifying that we’re waiting until I either move the car so I can change the setting on the dash or I wait until midnight and low rates kick in and the preset timer (which I didn’t want to use tonight because there’s not enough time to charge) starts the charge process. Thankfully I pay off the car in 12 months and will be able to buy something that works...
Lots of potential held back by convoluted/wasteful UX and slow operation
The BMW app integrates with the car on a deep level and offers up many useful features…if you can get to them when you need to. The home page of the app is used up by a massive image of your car and some text that usually says ALL GOOD- so other than a few command buttons and some status info, you have to scroll or tap around a lot to get to anything. Compared to Tesla’s app, it’s a lot of menu navigation. I’d like to see charging assistance more accessible, and commands to the car to function quicker. My most used feature, pre conditioning, will take 7-10+ seconds to confirm that the command went to the car. And often it will say something went wrong or another command is already in progress. Finally, this app makes you periodically re-agree to T&C by checking a tediously small box- moderately annoying.
Feature request: For this app, can you make it easier to toggle between charging immediately and charge in schedule. In my case, if I’m charging at work then I want to always charge immediately. If I’m at home I’d like to charge within my time slot to take advantage of lower electricity rates after midnight. Currently I have to tap 3 or so buttons from the home page to make this work. It should auto sync with the car when I press the toggle. Previous review (still applies): This feedback is more about my car (2021 x3 EV hybrid). It annoys me that if I want to charge only during off peak hours (starting midnight) then I would get notified that the car will start charging at midnight only to be unpleasantly surprised that the charging did not start at all and my is completely discharged still. This is not the apps fault but perhaps there could be some notification that the car was too dumb to start charging on time.
Update: The developer responded to my review today, which I thank them for and appreciate. However, they did not answer my question. I simply asked when is the tire pressure display function in the app, which they removed about two years ago after an update, going to be brought back? Their answer was that if I want to see my tire pressure, I should go to the car and use the screen there to see it. This is not helpful at all. This app used to display the tire pressure for my 2018 X5. After an update to the app maybe two years ago, it no longer does. When is this functionality going to be brought back? The app works well otherwise. I docked it one star back when the remote tire pressure monitoring was removed and I’m docking it another star for not having brought that feature back.
App is all together solid but with a few more features it could be perfect! Devs if you’re reading this is what I’d love to see in an update: 1) would love to be able to open or close windows remotely 2) more control over the climatization (allow me to set the temperature from my app instead of whatever the car was set to the last time I got out of it) 3) would love to see some sort of crowd sourcing info in the map (like speed trap notifications and where the cheapest gas is) 4) the payment section- please let me nickname my banks…twice now I’ve paid with the wrong account and accidentally overdraft we 5) nfc…sometimes I’m standing right next to the car and it still takes almost a full minute to send the unlock signal
Note, I never review apps, so this is a big deal for me. Other than looking prettier, this replacement for the Connected app is a real disappointment. It’s feature anemic and the functionality is far less intuitive. There are less remote features. Remote horn is gone. There is no way to see if your sunroof is closed, hatch, or hood. There are features in swipe menus that aren’t as obvious as the old drop down menus. You can no longer see if tire pressure is ok. You can’t see what features within the app are enabled and disabled. I can’t understand why BMW would release an app that provides less than it’s predecessor and is more complicated. Was there any usability studies and testing done with external customers? This needs significant simplification and added features to even be on par with Connected.
BMW is by far the best business lease in the USA, I’ve been driving a leased BMW since 2009 in the USA, before I had a BMW in Australia a 320d and prior, in the 1990’s I also had two, a 740iL and a 325i, these cars weee the most reliable and least expensive to maintain of all the vehicles I’ve ever had, I’m completely sold in the BMW brand and their product, currently I have three in my garage ranging from a top model to a racing model and an economy model, I love BMW and will drive one for the rest of my life, it’s so sad that diesel vehicles cannot be imported to the USA any more, the BMW diesel is truly an amazing technology! The MyBMW app is very integrated into the driving experience and works seamlessly, I highly recommend!
Integration between sending addresses from my phone to the navigation never works with the new app (yes checked all the settings per their instructions, etc)… the App says the address is sent, it never shows up (hard wired connection or wireless, neither work). You also used to be able to see the stats of your vehicle in the Home Screen —mileage of the vehicle, mileage remaining/gallons left in the tank. Now, nothing. Also, under the old app if it was left running and you had it plugged into your connected drive port and connected to your iPhone the app would stay on and open so you could see the information while you drive. Now it turns off once you start to drive meaning you have to type in a PIN or position yourself to use FaceID while driving. At best I’d say this app went from great to half-baked. Buy hey, it has great new ways to now “buy more digital options” while you drive! 👎🏻👎🏻👎🏻
The new myBMW app is much better than the old ConnectedDrive app. The remote functions (lock, unlock, etc.) could be quicker, but they work reliably. I recently took delivery of my new 2021 X3 xDrive 30e and I love the ability to monitor charging status and range, however, I think a widget could be so helpful to check charging status and range at a glance. With the iX and i4 coming soon, I think this will be even more useful. Perhaps, the app could be redeveloped to prompt an update from the vehicle at preset intervals that the user would preselect. Additionally, I think a notification when the vehicle is fully charged would be great too! Otherwise, quite pleased with the development and looking forward to new features as they’re released.
The core functionality of this app works fine. But I have an iX and the entire charging history section just doesn’t work/show any of my actual charging history. And public stations or otherwise. And no matter where I’m charging, the app (not the car) show me the speed at which I’m charging. Just an ambiguous bar that shows 0-200 kWh. For making such a big splash with this new EV, seems the app was a bit of an after thought. Not to mention, and unsure if this is an app issue, the promised functionality of being able to share current charge data with Apple Maps and allow it to route plan still does not exist. A bit disappointed in the experience given the price tag of the car.
Stop making it worse. Just add Efficiency for EVs back
Please stop tinkering with this app and making it worse. This most recent app update messed the charging on my 2021 i3s all up by changing the “charge now” to some other default. Just add back the efficiency meter and feature the old app had. You remember, the really cool one, way way way back when it was a garden, and the more flowers your garden grew the more efficiently you we’re driving?! Or, the most recent one where it would rate different aspects of your driving and give it a 1-5 star rating for efficiency? I didn’t, and don’t need access to BMWFS in a car app, what I needed was efficiency for my EV, charge status, estimated range on current charge, unlock doors, etc.. You’re not even in the correct ballpark for what an EV owner wants or needs from this app. I say it again, BRING BACK THE EFFICIENCY METER!!!!
For BWM EV drivers who use the app to access Electrify America charging network, watch out! Over 4th of July weekend I could not charge my EV at EA and no one knew why; not EA’s help number, BMW Concierge nor the BMW dealer. Later I determined it was an expired credit card on my EA profile - which is ironic since charging on the EA network is FREE for 2 yrs. My 4 day weekend was ruined and when I asked for a concession for my time, was told ‘tough luck’. Even though I updated my credit card expiration date in the EA app, it still declines and I have to use my spouse’s credit card. Last week her credit card was stolen so until she gets a replacement I cannot charge on the EA network. All because of BMW and EAs poor e-commerce integration with VISA. If EA cannot figure it out, call me because I know a middle schooler who could reprogram your credit card verification process in 5 minutes.
So… with the new update I’m ready to give back my BMW car and its brand new 2024 . The new update doesn’t allow me to use Apple car play and I tried restarting the whole car system as well as connecting and disconnecting my Bluetooth from my phone . My bmw app doenst work anymore I can’t even heat up my car from my phone anymore it gives me error . Basically all the functions are now error . I really am ready to give back my car with the stupid BMW app update . PS: my car is new , my phone is iPhone 13 Pro so it’s not old and it’s fully up to date, and I’m tec savvy I tried everything . Hopefully they fix these issues . I also noticed that when you use another VPN the app doesn’t work either and I often use a VPN on my phone for work, and the app doesn’t work I have to disconnect from my VPN to access the app . Common BMW I expected better .
Great car, but the fact that some of the 330e, not having driving safety cameras makes them dangerous on the highways. I bought this new car with the mind that in 2023 all expensive cars are equipped with such safety light alert existing and functioning. When, I found out that it is not equipped with such feature and took it to the dealer, I was told that, first due to COVID, BMW didn’t get enough chips, therefore some of them don’t have such feature. Secondly, if would be able to return it, yes, but, I will have to sell to them $6000 less than the original price. This was not what I was expecting. I still think the car is excellent, while driving, I have to constantly watch and it doesn’t give me the comfort of driving it with ease.
BMW replaced their old app that had the ability to send directions right to the car’s GPS with a less featured and more buggy web app. I was hoping they’d get this new app up to par before disabling the old one, but no such luck! The app looks nicer, but works less good. Very disappointed in this. My main gripes are: - searching for directions based on business or landmark name doesn’t come up with as accurate results. The other app would almost always find the location I was seeking, but more often with the new app, there’s the wrong results and I have to google the address and copy and paste. - sending directions to car is both slower and this app only sends it to the messages section, which requires multiple extra steps to start the gps. The old app would send to the car faster and start the directions on the gps right away.
Not reliable enough to be useful in most situations
Status updates in general are very slow. For instance, choose “Lock” the car (2019 X3) and the command is executed fairly quickly but the fact that the car went from unlocked to locked is not reflected on the app for many minutes. The lag is so long as to cause doubt about if the command was executed successfully or not unless you are standing by the car to witness it. Pulling down on the main screen (iOS) seems to indicate a refresh/reload is happening but the status doesn’t update. The only thing which seems to update fairly quickly on the app display is thing that probably requires the most bandwidth ie updating the Remote 3D View. That works as it should. Two specific issues on my vehicle are: 1) The app shows the sunroof as open even after it has been closed for hours 2) When locking the doors remotely the side mirrors do not fold inward despite being set to do so when locking with the key fob or door handle. There is obviously some capability for the app to control the mirrors since they will fold out (after the user provides permission) to capture an image when updating the 3D view.
From user’s perspective, this is mostly a UX redesign with a few features dropped along the way like seeing some car status info. The new UX is good as far as it goes. I found it to be pretty easy to use an uneventful. One nice thing is the ability to send destinations to the app from Apple Maps or Google Maps. I’m hoping this is just an early baseline to build new features on top of, but time will tell. For the maps, I’d like to be able to plan trips along a route rather than just give destination and schedule trips based on departure or arrival time. Apple Watch integration would be great as well.
When considering bmw during my car shopping I was sold on the idea that I can do everything through the app it was such amazing technology and conveniences. Of course I ended up getting the x3 only to discover the app rarely ever works…I have done everything that many others have mentioned to no avail…im having to reset the vehicle twice a week to get some use out of the app but half of the time the remote start doesn’t work, the door lock/unlock doesn’t work, and it will tell me that the vehicle is still located somewhere that I was at days prior…a major fail for bmw so disappointed for such a brand claiming luxury and being so expensive…this is definitely deception at its finest. Sure the features are great and make your life so much easier…but they don’t tell you that 90% of the time those features don’t even work. Shame on you bmw.
App Does Not Show Accurate Battery Levels or Charging Status on brand new i4 M50 EV
Since the latest software upgrade on April 7, 2024, the My BMW App no longer shows accurate battery / charge status on my 2023 i4 M50. It will show the correct level if I view last trip, but it is incorrect on th dashboard of the App. I support gave a laundry list of instructions to fix and stated: “ Please know that our team has been made aware of an issue currently affecting charging information in the MyBMW app. Our internal teams are currently looking into a resolution. At this time, I do not have an estimated time for a fix to be implemented. Thank you for your patience.” Deleting and re-installing the App improved this on April. But no on App is not working AGAIN as of today 5/2/24. App couldn’t even work right for a whole month. Car is plugged in and vehicle dash shows charging at 20+%, but App shows not plugged in and 19%. I already deleted and re-installed the app, and that didn’t work this time. This app needs to be fixed asap and it’s getting old having to continue to email about it. For what this car costs and an EVs reliance on app accuracy for level of charge, charging status, etc… I shouldn’t be experiencing this. Vehicle isn’t even 1 year old.
The functionality of the app is great, but the application does not always control the car. (You tell the car when to charge and it ignores the instructions from the app) I have delete and reinstall the app (for the last several weeks) on an almost weekly basis, that’s ridiculous. The app broke (failed to deliver instructions to the car which are acted upon) when the car didn’t charge overnight after I instructed the car to charge. In sum, it looks and is less filling. Finally, after the big OS update to the car, BMW didn’t send a change list to the owners. I have no idea what the new map colors mean or what changes were made to the car OS.
I have to give credit where credit is due. When this app was first released, it was a terrible replacement for the old Connected Drive app. However, in the last 12 months or so, the developers have dramatically improved the experience. They brought back almost all the features of the old app and have added many new ones. It seems to work flawlessly at this point for what it does, and that is better than the old app. Unfortunately, we are still missing one feature of the old app that I used daily. When I got in my car when the old app was still active, if I had an upcoming trip, the car would automatically pop that onto the screen and allow me to select it for navigation with a single click. With this app I have to go into my car, press the apps button, navigate to My BMW, and then select the next upcoming trip. It takes five steps of clicking and scrolling/selecting to do what used to be a single click. It would be great if the old functionality could be brought back.
Great-ish app. I love that I can see my current state of charge and when my car will be at full (most needed part). I also love that I can climatize my car before I get in it and drive off. Only qualms are that the functions sometimes don’t work. Quite frankly I don’t understand why my vehicle has an issue climatizing from the app within the first press of the button. Some times you have to click twice or even three times which could total out to like 5 minutes. So if you don’t use the app 5 minutes ahead of your leave or so the climatize function is pretty useless. Other then that though it’s a pretty app snd everything else is fine
I just updated this app and my theme and all the other themes turned into these plain color blobs! Terrible update. If you like your colorful and unique theme, don’t update! Update! My colorful themes are back. The unique beauty of the vehicle display is back and I can now focus on the functionality of the app. App still does not update once the ix50 is fully charged. I have to send a command to the vehicle to get confirmation a real time update is reflected in the app. e.g. hit the lock option, once lock confirmed, status date/time updates. Wish they would fix this issue. Otherwise, app sufficient.
The app works great, and I’d love to give it 5 stars but the recent version of their privacy policy is concerning. It says that BMW can collect nearly any information about my car or activity, (including but not limited to my location, speed, and account data). This is only a small segment of the policy and it continues on to list, in detail, what information they will collect. While this is enough to warrant an issue for a lot of people, it continues to say that they can share this information with BMW entities AND third parties. I don’t agree to these terms and I think anybody that actually reads the policy would have an issue with it. It’s likely they can access this information about me regardless of whether or not I agree to the privacy policy, however I hope this is something they can change.
This app is useless. No facial recognition, not nearly as good as the Connected app. In my opinion. Followup: BMW developer sent statements that were impossible to follow. Written in computer speak, beyond comprehension unless a person is a computer wizard. Also was told to send something to profile, send something here, send something there with no email address provided. Nothing but words, no action, no interest. After reading all the other responses, many don’t like the stripped Diebner app foisted as “new and improved”, which it is not, in my opinion. The original app needs to be supported, this needs to be removed. This is just a horror show. Does anyone know what causes company to take something good, and come up with something that is worse? Who convinces this to happen? Who decides that removing items is an improvement? Who actually develops these garbage apps? This “new” app is not a positive for BMW, in my opinion. The developer could not explain in easy to understand text how to turn on facial recognition. It seems the developers don’t know how to communicate with a person who is not schooled in computer use. Maybe BMW needs to find regular folks to teach the developers how to communicate with ordinary folks.
Great SUV the 4.0 is fast and gets good gas mileage. The 4.0 runs very smooth and sounds great. The interior is very nice and comfortable for drivee and passengers. The interior has plenty of leg room and head space. Like the entire inside look including dash and electronic shifter. Sun roof is huge and extra rear sun roof above third row a great design. Exterior is very nice look and has some nice design features. My color is black Safire which looks great overall but has not warn well, many swirls in paint and some imperfections. The paint job on my 2020 is not the best. My other issue is no air ducks in third seat. Only get those with addition of 5 zone A/C. Overall great SUV and very happy with 20 plus miles per gallon.
Having the ability to check on my two prize possessions at any time of the day or night is very satisfying. Whether I’m away from home where the car are, or one of the cars is sitting in an airport parking deck, knowing the vehicle is in the same status as I left it is reassuring. I enjoy being able to check mileage on the cars or fuel level are nice features. Same goes with the ability to pull up the VIN. When my X5 standard warranty expired, I immediately subscribed to the service at my own expense through the BMW website. Suffice it to say, I’m a very satisfied customer.
With a modern design and intuitive user guidance features, the My BMW App is made to help you navigate a completely new mobility experience. Check the status of your BMW, use one of the many remote control features, plan trips in advance, book your next service appointment, or discover the world of BMW – all from the convenience of your smartphone. The My BMW App at a glance: •Immediate access to vehicle status and functions •Smart e-mobility services •Extensive navigation and map features for planning trips •Stories and news from the world of BMW •Direct access to your BMW Service •Use app in demo mode even without owning vehicle •Regular updates and upgrades for all features Discover what makes the My BMW App great: CHECK YOUR VEHICLE STATUS “All Good” – The My BMW App provides you with an overview of crucial status information like your BMW’s drive-ready state, enabling you to: •View your vehicle's location •Check your current fuel level and range •Check that doors and windows are locked •Keep vehicle software up to date OPERATE YOUR VEHICLE REMOTELY Use your BMW's features directly from your smartphone: •Plan and switch on air conditioning •Lock and unlock doors, operate the horn and flashers •Record images from the vehicle environment •Set up your BMW Digital Key PLAN DRIVES Find and send destinations, gas stations, charging stations, and parking areas directly to the navigation system •Plan trips and keep an eye on current traffic •Read detailed information on gas stations and charging stations •Find parking spaces at your destination •Consider charging times in load-optimized route planning ENHANCED E-MOBILITY Smart e-mobility support for planning vehicle range and necessary charging: •Plan electric range and necessary charging •Find nearby charging stations •View your charging history at any time EXPLORE THE WORLD OF BMW Stay up to date and find the right products for your BMW: •Discover exclusive stories and news from BMW •Receive messages in the Message Center •Link directly to BMW Shop and BMW Financial Services MANAGE REQUIRED SERVICES The My BMW App is your direct line to your dealer if service is needed: •Keep an eye on required services •Book service appointments via the app EXPERIENCE THE My BMW APP WITH DEMO MODE Explore the benefits of the My BMW app even without owning a vehicle: • Select an attractive BMW demo vehicle in the app garage • Get to know the variety of app functions, e.g. for electric mobility • Use of My BMW app to get you into the world of BMW Download the My BMW App now and try out its many features. The My BMW App is optimized for vehicles built from 2014 onwards. The availability of individual app features depends on your vehicle equipment and your ConnectedDrive contract. The availability of app features may vary between countries.
