An application programming interface (API) is disclosed for interfacing a vehicle electronic component with a smartphone, wherein the vehicle electronic component and the smartphone each make use of a short range wireless transceiver for wirelessly communicating with the other, and wherein the smartphone includes an application running thereon. The API has an interconnect API disposed in the electronic component. The interconnect API also has a software library of command and function definitions that are able to be implemented by the API. A connect library is also used which resides within the smartphone and which is configured to communicate with the application running on the smartphone. The interconnect API and the connect library cooperatively operate as a translation mechanism to implement a plurality of functionalities when communicating with the application, according to the electronic device's capabilities.