You know the truly damning thing is that we’re all surprised by this feature working. This is exactly the sort of thing that should be completely painless.

I bought the cheapest possible Bluetooth dongle (says "Griffin" on it, whoever they are) and paired it to my Android phone.

One day I wondered what happens if it can see two paired devices - does it forget one? Is there some unusably awful UX? Does it brick them altogether?

So I paired the Linux laptop. The dongle (which says "Connected" when I turn it on normally near the phone) now says "Second. Device. Connected" when it can also see the laptop. It appeared as one of the output options in the laptop's audio settings. If you play music on the phone, or receive a call, the music on the laptop stops, and you can take the call (or listen to music) instead.

Essentially, with the cheapest available product it appears to be as you say "completely painless". What exactly are Airpods / Apple doing here that makes it worth the extra? Maybe the voice telling you what's going on is nicer?

It's been so long since I've used anything other than my AirPods I'd forgotten this isn't the usual experience.

Yeah, that's the most annoying thing about my Sony bluetooth headphones. They really don't like to switch between my phone and my Mac.

Bluetooth in general is so shitty about this. How iOS/Apple gets it right and no one else does is beyond me.

Tight OS integration is their advantage. Airpods can do things in ways other manufacturers cannot. The OS has special case Airpod code. How would another manufacturer replicate this? I don't think they could without Apple's ecosystem. Try Airpods on Windows. They aren't as simple to setup.

While the pairing process with non-Apple devices is the slightly more cumbersome standard Bluetooth pairing process, they still switch between multiple devices much more easily than other wireless headphones I own. I just tell windows to connect to my AirPods and they connect. I tell my android phone to connect my AirPods and it connects to those instead. Often with other wireless headphones I have to fiddle with the pairing mode on the headphones to get it to allow me to connect it to a different device, even if it’s already been paired in the past. My $350 Bose wireless headphones (2018 model) can only remember pairing with two devices before it needs to be re-paired. So using it with my phone, iPad, and computer is a bit of a pain. There must be other headphone manufacturers that get this right, but the AirPods are my first experience with not being frustrated by Bluetooth headphones, and the first time I’ve found wireless headphones to be less hassle than wired headphones.

I'll second this. Using the same Bluetooth headphones with three computers and a phone would be a nightmare with any other brand, but with the Airpods you just connect and it... works. No mucking around with pairing and for any Apple device you don't even need to open the Bluetooth menu.

>The OS has special case Airpod code. How would another manufacturer replicate this? I don't think they could without Apple's ecosystem.

They could if Apple would license out the W1 chip, or even sell dongles with W1 functionality that convert the 3.5mm jacks in headphones into bluetooth (like one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Receiver-TaoTronics-Hands-F...).

Of course they never will, but a man can dream.

Other manufacturers could work within the Bluetooth SIG to fix those problems for everyone, if they wanted to. They just don't care enough to make that investment.

well, they get it right just for their systems. could sony try to make their stuff work 'the same' on multiple different windows installs? possibly, but it's a lot of work, and they can't guarantee the same bluetooth radio chips or versions, etc.

Yes. For years I haven't been able to use my Bluetooth headphones with my Android phone :(

Device switching (particular between both Apple and non-Apple devices) is the primary reason I cannot switch to wireless, and cannot buy a phone without a headphone jack.

Moving AirPod pairing from iOS -> Mac works well, but going the other way is always a struggle for me. I nearly always have to go into my iOS device's Bluetooth settings to reconnect. It's tolerable, but an annoyance.

Not that in control center, you can tap and hold or force touch the music widget, then tap the “output” button at top right, then tap on your AirPods to quickly switch them to iOS device if they’re not currently paired.

Yeah, and in theory you can do so in-call as well. I've found both methods to be unreliable.

I’ll be honest about the call option. That doesn’t work for me 99% of the time.

nice, i always wondered why you couldnt do this with a force press on the bluetooth icon

now i know

What I do is put them back in the case real quick and open it near my iPhone. That seems to do the trick though it’s arguably not much better than going into Settings.

I've tried this many times, but it doesn't ever seem to actually work. If my Mac is nearby, it immediately steals the pairing back, even if they're not the most recently selected audio device on the Mac.

Selecting a new audio source from the swipe up menu seems to work pretty consistently for me.

I find it works better if I disconnect them from Mac first.