This is exactly why I have the old-school style with a wire connecting them that sits on the back of your neck. I had my toddler rip an earbud out just once for me to realize that was a design feature I had to have. As an added bonus, I find they're way easier to throw on and off (just loop them around your neck and tuck them in your shirt) in between tasks.

Something like this: https://en-us.sennheiser.com/headphones-bluetooth-momentum-f...

> I had my toddler rip an earbud out

and then put it directly into their mouth right (airpods are the perfect choking size)? Yeah, i can totally see the need to have them attached together in that situation. heh what is it about toddlers that makes them constantly try to kill themselves.

Curiosity.

I had the opposite experience - I had the ones with a wire between them when my kid was a baby and had to stop using them as soon as he was able to grab things. That wire was so tantalizing and the buds got forcibly ripped out of my ears every time! I switched to some very cheap (and relatively large = easier to grab out of a small mouth if necessary) AirPod knockoffs and only put in the ear on the other shoulder from where I was holding the baby.

Now he's older and when he gets hold of them he tries to put them in his ear rather than his mouth. I've been cutting down on wearing them when I'm around him anyway, since he's copying everything now.

The problem with this design is that anything that rubs or bounces against the cable transmits sound into your ear (like a children's cup telephone). This makes them annoying to use while exercising. I find that the style connected by a solid hoop mostly avoids this.

in-ear will never work for me. I feel raped when I have to put them into the ear canal.

Beats Flex have the same BT chip as the AirPods and a different design that holds both ear pieces to the back of your neck.

This cord works (although I found that they helped to pull the airpods out of my ear): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089B5T9L7?psc=1

These hooks are a much better solution: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B089B5T9L7?psc=1 Despite their flimsiness, they have not failed on me once while running, etc.

Both of these "solutions" have the obnoxious problem of needing to be removed to charge the airpod. The Powerbeats Pro has built in hooks that are nice and sturdy, but the case is obnoxiously massive compared to the airpods case.

My problem is that I must have freakishly small ear canals, because neither of these earbuds actually fit into my ears - despite trying nearly every aftermarket replacement eartip.

The Shokz openrun pro doesn't need to go into my ear and kinda works, but the sound quality sucks for music and the head loop protrudes from the back of my head and isn't adjustable.

Over ear headphones don't work with hats or bike helmets, so those are only good sometimes.

My next step is to pay $150(!!) for a custom piece of silicon to attach to the airpods (which will still have to come on and off for charging): https://www.adv-sound.com/products/eartune-fidelity-custom-f...

I guess I could pay $500 for these: https://www.adv-sound.com/products/m5-tws-custom

Or maybe I could get surgery to enlarge my ear canal (haha)

If anyone reading this has any better advice, I'm all ears (hahaha) Sigh -

Aftershokz Aeropex, silly name aside, is a decent product that gets you a Bluetooth device you can wear all day without losing

I love my aeropex, but i’d be half inspired to write a similarly styled article about the annoying uniform beep notification UX- especially if you’ve paired with multiple devices and one is not quite in range.

That's exactly what I use. I have a set of airpod pros I use most of the time, but I can't stand having my ears sealed all day, and having waterproof ones I an wear in the shower is awesome.

My only gripe with them is that the quality is way lower than even fairly cheap normal ear buds, so I mostly use them for podcasts and books.

I've got these, bluetooth on them works great, and the bone conduction is really interesting. It's really nice being able to hear your surroundings while having some kind of audio playing. Or if you don't want the surrounding sound, they come ear plugs. Really comfortable to have on too, I barely even notice them (if at all) when I'm wearing them.

Should be mentioned though, for the price the music quality is worse than what you'd get with other devices. It reminds me of a higher quality phone speaker. Definitely not bad compared to some headphones I've used, but it's not amazing. Hasn't been an issue for me though, I happily use them when working. Voice audio sounds perfectly fine. IMO you get them for the other benefits, not because they're the best sounding thing on the market.

Agreed. They're great for walking around outside while on a phone call, listening to a podcast, or listening to music while exercising outdoors – not for "getting into the music". Airpods are better at doing both, based on what I've heard.

Shure as well, one you use the over the ear loop style it's hard to downgrade to anything else.

Which ones are you referring to?

Agreed. They're pretty great.

Don't know if Apple sells them but they do make third party neck things that slip around the stems and are basically what you're asking for.

From a sibling comment:

> Aftershokz Aeropex, silly name aside, is a decent product that gets you a Bluetooth device you can wear all day without losing

Make sure if you get bone induction headphones that you test them out in louder environments before running or getting them dirty. For me, I had to turn them up so high when outside with normal street noise that they gave me a pretty terrible headache.

>I had to turn them up so high when outside with normal street noise that they gave me a pretty terrible headache.

You have to be really careful doing that. It's very easy to screw up your ears with bone conduction headphones if you try to drown out background noise by increasing the volume.

Yeah, I returned them! Thanks for the heads up regardless.

I have a pair which have a cord between them and hooks over the outside of the ears, because regular headphones don't retain in my ears. I don't think I could last even a day with airpods without losing one of them.

Do you have the model number?

Just got AirPods 3 and pro to try out and I have not had it just fall out that way with either.

I have fumbled with the 3s while trying to remove them while walking. I think it’s the stem and how light they are.

I use the "PowerBeats Pro" for this. I don't know if they've been updated with some of the newer features, I bought mine a couple years back when they came out.

The current version of the Powerbeats Pro has separate buds for each ear, but I have the newest revision of the regular Powerbeats for this exact reason.

They even have the H1 chip and all of the quick pairing/built-in Apple magic that Airpods do.

An eyeglass strap works great for this. Put the loops around the airpod stems instead of the eyeglass arms.

I’ve thought about this, but y’know they won’t fit into the charging pod anymore with something (anything, really) on them.

I only endorse this approach for when exercising outdoors, riding the train etc.

And actually most of the time when I'm outside the house I prefer to be able to hear my environment, for safety reasons.