Just got a new Lexus and want to surprise my husband by pairing both our phones before he gets in the car. How do I most easily pair a phone with a new Lexus via bluetooth?
You’re in luck because it’s way easier to pair phones on a modern infotainment system than it was even a few years ago. Car companies have figured out that this is a relatively common occurrence and that people don’t want to read the manual or watch a training video to figure out how to have their friend’s phone paired and available for music. The biggest challenge with a new Lexus is that you have to get used to the touch panel interface – Lexus calls it the Remote Touch Controller – which can be a bit tricky if you haven’t used it before.
You’ll need to grab your husband’s phone and know his PIN so you can unlock it. Then the process is easy, though you have to bounce back and forth between the vehicle interface screen and the phone itself. Easiest is to start out in Settings > Connections > Bluetooth so that when the car is ready to pair with the phone, it’ll just show up and be ready to go. Now, are you ready to go? Let’s do this!
HOW TO BLUETOOTH PAIR PHONE WITH A LEXUS
Once you’re reasonably comfortable with the Remote Touch Controller, use it to choose “Phone” along the bottom:
Since your car shouldn’t have a previous phone already paired, it will immediately prompt you to add a new phone:
If you’re pairing a second phone or subsequent phone, you can get to this point in Setup > Phone, as I’ll show a bit later. For now, however, this is the easiest path, so just move the bright spot cursor to Yes and push on the Remote Touch Controller to choose “Yes” as your answer.
The system will then scan for available Bluetooth devices and it’s inevitable that it’ll find more than just the phone (if your house and neighborhood are anything like mine, that is). Here’s what I see as my three pairing options:
It’d be interesting to pair with my neighbor’s Samsung television, but I think the Galaxy S21 5G is a much smarter choice, so I’ll choose that, again by tapping on the Remote Touch Controller.
Now the screen changes to show you the pairing PIN:
Now it’s time to pick up the phone you want to pair and choose the Lexus option if needed:
Though most likely it’ll just display a confirmation dialog for the pairing PIN:
Looks like the same number, so we’re good to go. On the phone tap “OK” and then there’ll be a series of information access permission options that you can grant or reject. I generally “allow” all sharing, from location to contact list to phone history. Makes the experience of using it through the car infotainment interface much more pleasant!
Meanwhile, the Lexus system isn’t just sitting at that pairing PIN display either. It will have moved to actually showing the phone and giving you the phone menu and display. Choose “Keypad“, for example, and you can dial a phone number:
Congrats. You’re done with the first phone pairing task.
If you want to add another phone, the process is slightly different…
PAIRING A SECOND PHONE TO A LEXUS
Once the first phone is paired, your easiest path is to push on the MENU button on your Remote Touch Controller, then choose Setup > Phone.
You can choose “Connect Phone” then it will show you the screen below, listing the phone that’s already paired with the vehicle. Choose “Add” from the lower left and you’re ready to proceed as shown earlier.
Want to unpair a phone for any reason? You can do that from this point too. Choose a phone that’s already paired from the “Connect Phone” screen and you’ll see that there’s a “Remove” option to delete that phone’s pairing on the lower right:
That’s it. You’re now a power Lexus infotainment phone user. Congratulations!
Pro Tip: I’ve been writing helpful tutorials on a wide variety of tech issues for quite a while. Please check out my computer basics help area for lots more fun and interesting how-to guides to help you get the most out of your tech while you’re here. Thanks!
