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.