Airpods with Two iPhones

[ufkdo]

Hi all,

I have a question to Airpods owners. Currently I am using two iPhones (one for personal use and the other for work) and an Apple Watch (connected to my personal phone). If I connect Airpods to my personal phone to listen to music, will I be able to quickly connect it to my other phone while answering a call? I heard that if I answer a phone call from Apple Watch while Airpods are connected to my personal phone, the call goes to Airpods. However, I could not find any information regarding connecting to two iPhones.

BTW, both phones are connected to same iCloud account.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[teidon]

BTW, both phones are connected to same iCloud account.

As long as the devices are connected to the same iCloud account, you can fast/easy switch between them (internally this is known MagicPairing). But I think the, er, "super easy" (= automatic) switching works only between Watch and the iPhone the Watch is paired with.

So I believe that in your use case, if the Pods are paired to your personal phone and you receive a phone call on your work phone, you will first need to select the Pods from the Control Center.

 

[ufkdo]

As long as the devices are connected to the same iCloud account, you can fast/easy switch between them (internally this is known MagicPairing). But I think the, er, "super easy" (= automatic) switching works only between Watch and the iPhone the Watch is paired with.

So I believe that in your use case, if the Pods are paired to your personal phone and you receive a phone call on your work phone, you will first need to select the Pods from the Control Center.

If it can be done from Control Center it is enough for me. I just don't want to go to the settings each time I want to switch Thank you.

 

[teidon]

If it can be done from Control Center it is enough for me. I just don't want to go to the settings each time I want to switch Thank you.

Also do notice that at least currently the switching is sometimes very slow and sometimes really slow. So if you for example get a phone call and want to use the Pods to answer the call, the call might already be over before you have managed to switch the Pods to the right phone.

Not sure if that's a bug in AirPods or in iOS, watchOS and macOS or something else.

 

[ufkdo]

Also do notice that at least currently the switching is sometimes very slow and sometimes really slow. So if you for example get a phone call and want to use the Pods to answer the call, the call might already be over before you have managed to switch the Pods to the right phone.

Not sure if that's a bug in AirPods or in iOS, watchOS and macOS or something else.

Oh, I see. Then switching is pretty much useless in its current state. I hope Apple will solve it with an update.

 

[teidon]

Oh, I see. Then switching is pretty much useless in its current state. I hope Apple will solve it with an update.

I didn't mean that it's always slow. It's kind of hit and miss. Sometimes the switch happens in a second or few, but sometimes it might take 10 seconds or you might need to try again (the connection attempt will timeout after some time). And then there are those cases where the Pods refuses to connect altogether and you have to put them in the case and take them out and try again.

But even with the problems it's still a great feature. It's kind of annoying to switch between devices if you every time need to pair them from the Bluetooth menu. You just can't expect the switch to happen in under 10 seconds every time.

 

[Kimcha]

I have paired my airpods with my phone and with my girlfriend's without any problems at the same time. I am able to switch between them

But, I also have the slow switching problem. Sometimes it is super quick and then other times it hangs and hangs and hangs... quite disappointed by that tbh.

 

[Arran]

I have paired my airpods with my phone and with my girlfriend's without any problems at the same time. I am able to switch between them

But, I also have the slow switching problem. Sometimes it is super quick and then other times it hangs and hangs and hangs... quite disappointed by that tbh.

I just tried much the same thing:

• One iPhone 6 and one iPhone 7 linked to the same iCloud account
• One one pair of 'pods that were only ever paired with the i7
• A watch also paired to the i7

When music was started on either the i7 or the watch (paired to the i7), the 'pods quickly switched to that device whenever I hit Play. About 2-3 seconds to switch. I went back and forth several times and it always switched by itself. I didn't have a problem with it.

When I started music on the i6 nothing happened. I had to go into control center and select the 'pods. It took about 8-9 seconds to switch over. I had to do the same thing (twice, actually - maybe a bug?) if I wanted to get the music back to the i7/Watch combo.

 

[jlm70]

We are in september, just launched the X, and the slow switching (or "no switching") problem is still here... Any update, Apple? Please!
Same setup with personal iPhone6 + Watch (personal) + iPhone 6s (work)...

 

[warrior30]

Slightly different situation but same problem. I have an iPhone X and iPad Pro 10.5 and I watch movies on the iPad using AirPods, but when a call comes in on the iPhone X it doesn't automatically come through to my AirPods, I need to go into Control Centre on the iPhone to connect to the AirPods, but by then the call normally goes through to voicemail, so its not very practical.

As a comparison, I have Bose QC35's headphones which is BT connected to both my iPhone X and iPad Pro 10.5, in the same scenario I could be watching a movie on the iPad and a call comes through on the iPhone, the movie on the iPad will automatically pause and the headphones automatically connect to the iPhone and I can hear the call coming through and I can answer it immediately. Once the call is finished, the movie on the iPad automatically resumes and connects through to my headphones seamlessly. I've tried it the other way as well (iPhone first, then play movie on iPad) and works seamlessly again. It's as if both my iPad and iPhone have parallel connections to the headphones and it doesn't require a 'switch' in connectivity like the AirPods.

I bought the Bose headphones about a year ago, so it's not exactly new tech now, so why aren't the AirPods able to do the same thing? I'm hoping its a software limitation that an update can sort out. But given that the functionality is still not available I fear that it's hardware related. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[rsxmachine]

Slightly different situation but same problem. I have an iPhone X and iPad Pro 10.5 and I watch movies on the iPad using AirPods, but when a call comes in on the iPhone X it doesn't automatically come through to my AirPods, I need to go into Control Centre on the iPhone to connect to the AirPods, but by then the call normally goes through to voicemail, so its not very practical.

As a comparison, I have Bose QC35's headphones which is BT connected to both my iPhone X and iPad Pro 10.5, in the same scenario I could be watching a movie on the iPad and a call comes through on the iPhone, the movie on the iPad will automatically pause and the headphones automatically connect to the iPhone and I can hear the call coming through and I can answer it immediately. Once the call is finished, the movie on the iPad automatically resumes and connects through to my headphones seamlessly. I've tried it the other way as well (iPhone first, then play movie on iPad) and works seamlessly again. It's as if both my iPad and iPhone have parallel connections to the headphones and it doesn't require a 'switch' in connectivity like the AirPods.

I bought the Bose headphones about a year ago, so it's not exactly new tech now, so why aren't the AirPods able to do the same thing? I'm hoping its a software limitation that an update can sort out. But given that the functionality is still not available I fear that it's hardware related. I hope I'm wrong.

most bluetooth headphones even super crappy ones have the ability to connect to two devices at once. the airpods cannot and I am confident it was designed that way. When you connect to two at once it introduces a host of issues and apple wanted to avoid that.

 

[teidon]

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think that...
If a Bluetooth device is capable to connect to two devices at the same time, it must have 2 Bluetooth adapters. AirPods are so small that it's not feasible to have two Bluetooth adapters in each AirPod. With only one adapter you would need to constantly switch between the two connected devices, which would likely be far to slow to stream audio to either of the two devices.

 

[warrior30]

most bluetooth headphones even super crappy ones have the ability to connect to two devices at once. the airpods cannot and I am confident it was designed that way. When you connect to two at once it introduces a host of issues and apple wanted to avoid that.

What 'host of issues' are you referring to? Are they Apple related design issues or user related issues? Reason I'm asking is that I haven't had any issues with my Bose QC35's switching automatically to and from devices since I bought them.
[doublepost=1511878767][/doublepost]

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think that...
If a Bluetooth device is capable to connect to two devices at the same time, it must have 2 Bluetooth adapters. AirPods are so small that it's not feasible to have two Bluetooth adapters in each AirPod. With only one adapter you would need to constantly switch between the two connected devices, which would likely be far to slow to stream audio to either of the two devices.

That's feasible and fits into why it doesn't automatically switch over on multiple devices like the big Bose headphones. It would be good if someone is able to confirm this so I can stop waiting for a possible future software update to allow for this and hopefully wait for 2nd gen AirPods to have this functionality.

 

[Tyler23]

I have a similar issue. I have my personal iPhone (6s) and work iPhone (7). I just bought AirPods and connected them to my personal phone. Both iPhones are signed into my iCloud account and with the same Apple ID.

On my work iPhone, I see no option to use my AirPods for music listening or for calls, and they do not show up under Bluetooth devices when searching.

Do I need to pair them separately with my work phone? If so, will that then un-pair them from my personal phone?

Curious what the solution is here.

 

[warrior30]

I have a similar issue. I have my personal iPhone (6s) and work iPhone (7). I just bought AirPods and connected them to my personal phone. Both iPhones are signed into my iCloud account and with the same Apple ID.

On my work iPhone, I see no option to use my AirPods for music listening or for calls, and they do not show up under Bluetooth devices when searching.

Do I need to pair them separately with my work phone? If so, will that then un-pair them from my personal phone?

Curious what the solution is here.

The AirPods should sync across all your devices that use the same iCloud account, in theory you just need to pair with one device and it should work for all of them. If it doesn't show on your works phone it maybe just a sync issue. Try re-pairing it again, this time on your works phone (by placing the AirPod charging box with the AirPods in them near your works phone whilst opening it up).

 

[Tyler23]

The AirPods should sync across all your devices that use the same iCloud account, in theory you just need to pair with one device and it should work for all of them. If it doesn't show on your works phone it maybe just a sync issue. Try re-pairing it again, this time on your works phone (by placing the AirPod charging box with the AirPods in them near your works phone whilst opening it up).

Strange, it is not working like that at all. I had to manually connect them to my work phone, and now they don't connect to my personal phone. It's making me re-pair when I want to switch between the two.

Definitely frustrating as that's one of the main reasons I bought the AirPods.

 

[warrior30]

Strange, it is not working like that at all. I had to manually connect them to my work phone, and now they don't connect to my personal phone. It's making me re-pair when I want to switch between the two.

Definitely frustrating as that's one of the main reasons I bought the AirPods.

Definitely something wrong if you need to re-pair them every time you switch devices. You should only need to re-connect them via the BT setting to choose how you want to output your audio. Maybe start afresh and remove the AirPods from your BT settings on all your devices and re-pair again?

 

[warrior30]

Slightly different situation but same problem. I have an iPhone X and iPad Pro 10.5 and I watch movies on the iPad using AirPods, but when a call comes in on the iPhone X it doesn't automatically come through to my AirPods, I need to go into Control Centre on the iPhone to connect to the AirPods, but by then the call normally goes through to voicemail, so its not very practical.

As a comparison, I have Bose QC35's headphones which is BT connected to both my iPhone X and iPad Pro 10.5, in the same scenario I could be watching a movie on the iPad and a call comes through on the iPhone, the movie on the iPad will automatically pause and the headphones automatically connect to the iPhone and I can hear the call coming through and I can answer it immediately. Once the call is finished, the movie on the iPad automatically resumes and connects through to my headphones seamlessly. I've tried it the other way as well (iPhone first, then play movie on iPad) and works seamlessly again. It's as if both my iPad and iPhone have parallel connections to the headphones and it doesn't require a 'switch' in connectivity like the AirPods.

I bought the Bose headphones about a year ago, so it's not exactly new tech now, so why aren't the AirPods able to do the same thing? I'm hoping its a software limitation that an update can sort out. But given that the functionality is still not available I fear that it's hardware related. I hope I'm wrong.

I'm bumping this thread up to ask the same question as I did a couple of years ago. Anyone know if the 2nd Gen AirPods are now capable of switching between 2 connected iOS devices seamlessly?