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Can't Get AirPods Pro To Announce Workout Notifications
- Thread starter MikeMcCollister
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I don’t think iOS 16 and watchOS 9 have fixed this. I don’t notice any changes.
Anyone have a different experience?
Anyone have a different experience?
Does not look like it has been fixed. I had it work once since the upgrade to iOS 16 but it has not happened since.
Things that I have tried:
- Try listening to a podcast at 1x speed instead of 1.25x speed.
- On iOS notifications, set the Watch announce notifications to announce notifications and set to "all notifications".
- On iOS notifications, set the Health announce notifications to announce notifications and set to "all notifications".
Regards,
Mike
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Fascinating that it worked once for you then stopped after the upgrade. There must be a setting somewhere that keeps defaulting back to an “off” position.
I’m always listening to music, not podcasts, when this doesnt Work for me, so I can confirm that listening to music instead of a podcast makes no difference.
I’ve just re-checked my notification settings on my iPhone and watch. Some seemed to be incorrect so I switched them around. I’ll see if this makes any difference tomorrow.
I’ve tried again twice on two days and no luck. Still doesn’t work After checking and changing some notification settings.
I’ve also got a series 3 Apple Watch and I will try it and see if it functions properly As the next step.
I’ve also got a series 3 Apple Watch and I will try it and see if it functions properly As the next step.
Right now I am running watchOS 9.0 with iOS 16.0.2. Today I tried something different during my walk. Instead of starting the podcast with my iPhone, I started it using the Podcasts app on my Apple Watch. After that, my 1 mile notification played on my Air Pods Pro. However, the lockscreen controls on my iPhone show that the podcast is not running. It seems like there is a miscommunication between the watch and iPhone.
That's an interesting discovery. I'll try that one myself by starting music through my Apple Watch and see what happens.
I swapped over to my Series 3 Apple Watch the other day and did some cardio at the gym listening to music from my iPhone and running the Workout App on my Series 3 Apple Watch. The same fault existed with no notifications coming through my AirPods Pro.
I'm running iOS 16.0 and watchOS 9.0 (On the Series 4) and watchOS 8.7.1 (On the Series 3).
I tried starting the music on my Apple Watch and then starting the workout on the Apple Watch. Same as you, Workout milestone notifications came through on the AirPods Pro.
Reverted back to the usual way of doing things and it bugged out again.
I lodged a service report with Apple. They have got me to do some tests and extracted some data. Fingers crossed that there is a resolution.
As a follow up to this, Apple have analysed the data logs.
The conclusion of the engineers in the Health App team is that all of this is expected behaviour. I really can't believe this for two reasons: (1) I am absolutely certain that it functioned properly before, and (b) it is an absurd behaviour to have the watch speaker make announcements when you have AirPods in your ears (and in noise cancellation mode no less!).
The only suggestion that the Advisor from Apple could offer me was to lodge a complaint/enhancement request on the feedback page, which I will do right now.
I agree with everyone here that the way it is working now is not at all idea. My solution was to use a third party app to track my workouts as it gives me the option to have workout announcements announced through the watch or through the phone depending on what you want. This way I can start my workout on the watch and still stream music from my phone to my airpods while having the workout announcements routed to the airpods 100% of the time.
Would you mind sharing which workout app you are using?
Does this app integrate back into the Apple Health and Activity apps?
Yeah, it's called Workoutdoors and the dev has an ongoing thread here and is very responsive. The app uses the Apple Health kit and using it does integrate back into health, close rings, etc. The only thing that I have noticed is you don't get certain accomplishment badges when using this app, but I think it applies to all third party apps.
Sound like your AirPods is connected to iPhone, not the watch.
If that’s the case then it is like this since as far as I remember. For example, if I initiate run on Nike Run Club on iPhone, the phone will announce. If I initiate NRC on the watch the watch will announce.
Workouts is on watch only so you have to connect AirPods to the watch for it to announce.
Honestly though it doesn't have to be this way. If I go out for a run or a bike ride and I'm bringing my phone it's because I want to stream music from it. I have the GPS only version of the AW 7 so the only reason for me to pair my airpods to my watch would be to listen to music that I have previously downloaded to it, limiting what I can listen to.
When I was in the samsung ecosystem and had a galaxy phone, watch, and buds it worked like people here expected these devices to work. I could initiate a workout on my watch while having my buds paired to my phone and all the workout announcement would come through the buds regardless. I see no reason Apple can't do it if Samsung can, at least give us the option.
The AirPods are paired to the phone and are also paired to the watch. The "active" pairing is iPhone-AirPods when I am listening to music and doing a workout. The ecosystem should automatically change to Apple Watch-AirPods to take the announcement from the Apple Watch Activity app and then change back after the announcement is made.
The "magic" of Handoff is that it is supposed to be able to switch the sound between AirPods and iPhone automatically. Apple even say this in crystal clear terms on their website "AirPods are connected to your iPhone and Apple Watch at the same time. Sound will switch between them automatically." (source: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT212204). (My emphasis in bold and underline).
I have also had an Apple online technician agree with me that Handoff is supposed to be able to do this, in terms of the specifications of what Handoff is supposed to do across apps and devices.
There is no reasonable technical reason why this switching should not be occurring. It is either a bug in the system or the apps have been developed deficient of this capability and the deficiency is too major an issue to properly rectify.
I also don't believe that it has been like this all the time as I am certain that it worked "as expected" previously.
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Thank you for the link.
It has never worked for me like that, ever. It works automatically from watch to phone, not the other way around. For example, if I listen to music on my phone & I want to switch it to my watch, simply playing music on my watch will not get the watch to connect to my AirPods. I need to tap my AirPods on my watch for it to work. That's manual, not automatic.
Hey all!
I just recently upgraded my phone and began having basically the same problem where I wouldn’t receive iMessage notification announcements while listening to music or podcasts. After some digging, I found this reply at the end of an apple forum.
“Resolution!
Hey guys! I had the same issue going on for months! I wanted to share with you two things I did to make things work again.
I was not receiving notifications / reminders from Siri, nor was she talking when I spoke to her.
1st - I started off by saying “hey siri” while the Siri bubble was up I turned my volume up, it was on silent. this fixed the issue of not hearing her voice.
2nd- I went to settings, clicked on Siri , then under Siri settings I turned off the listen for “hey Siri” tab, and went through the prompts for Siri and my voice. I had to do this twice, but afterwards Siri talked and sent me my reminders. I hope this helps!”—https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253475658?login=true&page=2 (most recent reply as of now)
This should probably work for your issues, and it fixed mine too. Let me know if it does or doesn’t.
I just recently upgraded my phone and began having basically the same problem where I wouldn’t receive iMessage notification announcements while listening to music or podcasts. After some digging, I found this reply at the end of an apple forum.
“Resolution!
Hey guys! I had the same issue going on for months! I wanted to share with you two things I did to make things work again.
I was not receiving notifications / reminders from Siri, nor was she talking when I spoke to her.
1st - I started off by saying “hey siri” while the Siri bubble was up I turned my volume up, it was on silent. this fixed the issue of not hearing her voice.
2nd- I went to settings, clicked on Siri , then under Siri settings I turned off the listen for “hey Siri” tab, and went through the prompts for Siri and my voice. I had to do this twice, but afterwards Siri talked and sent me my reminders. I hope this helps!”—https://discussions.apple.com/thread/253475658?login=true&page=2 (most recent reply as of now)
This should probably work for your issues, and it fixed mine too. Let me know if it does or doesn’t.
I receive iMessage notifications fine, as well as all others, except for workout notifications as I have outlined earlier in this thread. I doubt this solution will fix the problem I am having.
Out of curiosity, did you ever end up trying the WorkOutdoors app? It solves this problem for me completely but it does require a one-time purchase of a third party app.
Created a MacRumors account to participate in this topic...
Having the same issue. I found a workaround. Scuffed, but it works.
The issue:
When connecting AirPods to both iPhone and Watch, it won't play sounds from both devices simultaneously. I confirmed this by playing music from Music app on iPhone to AirPods, then activating AirPlay on the Watch to the AirPods, and immediately the music stops, but Workout Announcements start. As soon as I press Play in the Music app, the music starts playing again, but Workout Announcements stop.
The workaround:
Go to the Watch app on iPhone -> Music app settings -> click 'Add Music' and add whatever Playlists & Albums you want to be able to play directly from the Watch without requiring your phone. Then when you wish to start the music, you have to choose AirPods in the AirPlay setting and then use the Music app on the Watch and also make sure you choose the Playlists that were uploaded to the Watch, and not whatever music is available from the iPhone (both iPhone and Watch playlists will appear if the Watch is connected to the Phone, so you'll have to make sure you choose the right one).
I find this scuffed and annoying because it requires manually adding music to the Watch, and it also means you're unable to play/pause or have any control over the music via your iPhone - you have to use the Watch. But... it's guaranteed to work, at least until they fix it. Maybe in iOS 17 + WatchOS 10 COPIUM.
Also, this is clearly not a problem with 3rd party apps like WorkOutdoors and literally any other app - because they usually come as an iPhone app + a Watch companion app. This whole problem originates from the fact that Apple Workouts is purely a Watch app, without an iPhone counterpart.
Having the same issue. I found a workaround. Scuffed, but it works.
The issue:
When connecting AirPods to both iPhone and Watch, it won't play sounds from both devices simultaneously. I confirmed this by playing music from Music app on iPhone to AirPods, then activating AirPlay on the Watch to the AirPods, and immediately the music stops, but Workout Announcements start. As soon as I press Play in the Music app, the music starts playing again, but Workout Announcements stop.
The workaround:
Go to the Watch app on iPhone -> Music app settings -> click 'Add Music' and add whatever Playlists & Albums you want to be able to play directly from the Watch without requiring your phone. Then when you wish to start the music, you have to choose AirPods in the AirPlay setting and then use the Music app on the Watch and also make sure you choose the Playlists that were uploaded to the Watch, and not whatever music is available from the iPhone (both iPhone and Watch playlists will appear if the Watch is connected to the Phone, so you'll have to make sure you choose the right one).
I find this scuffed and annoying because it requires manually adding music to the Watch, and it also means you're unable to play/pause or have any control over the music via your iPhone - you have to use the Watch. But... it's guaranteed to work, at least until they fix it. Maybe in iOS 17 + WatchOS 10 COPIUM.
Also, this is clearly not a problem with 3rd party apps like WorkOutdoors and literally any other app - because they usually come as an iPhone app + a Watch companion app. This whole problem originates from the fact that Apple Workouts is purely a Watch app, without an iPhone counterpart.
I was able to get it to work in a manner similar to this way too, some time ago. The downside that I found was that running the music out of the watch absolutely flogged the battery life on the watch if it was for a long workout - like a 2 hour walk, bike ride etc.
I have since upgraded to an Apple Watch Ultra and the problem persists.