Hi all, I am considering a pair of Bluetooth headphones. I have a number of devices which I would want to use them with: an iPhone, an iPad, a Mac Mini and a Chromebook. I don’t have a particular pair of headphones in mind yet.
How much of a hassle is it switching between devices? I’m assuming that I would be able to pair the headphones with each of the devices, but would I have to manually faff with settings every time I want to switch which device I’m using then with?
I fully understand the answer might be “it depends” - I’m just trying to get a feel for how much hassle it might be.
“If you’re signed into your iCloud account, your AirPods will be automatically paired to all other devices on your account, including your Apple Watch.”
IIRC the new Airpods can be connected to two devices at once.
I bought the Sony quiet comfort 35 headphones, and usually use them in bluetooth mode. I paired them to my laptop (Macbook pro) and my phone (Moto x4). They can be paired to both at the same time. I won’t say it’ entirely 100% glitch-free, but mostly it just works.
Once, they “forgot” how to find my phone, and I wanted to re-pair them to the phone. But I was on the commuter rail. There were a dozen headphones of that name that my phone could “see”. But you can give them a unique name, which I’ve since done.
But that was one time out of maybe 50 that I’ve used them, and all the other times they just worked.
Summary: Using the same bluetooth headphones on multiple devices is fine, if the headphones support a way to force pairing mode, and you don’t mind having to do something to make them connect to the desired device.
It depends on the model of bluetooth headphones. I have some of the in-ear kind (with a wire connecting them) and some over the ear noise-cancelling ones. Their both Chinese brands, Anker and Cowin. They also both work the same way to connect to multiple devices. While turning them on, hold down the “pair” button, and instead of automatically connecting to the last device, they will wait for a new connection.
So a typical use session for the in-ear ones when switching devices might go: Turn them on and hold the button down, as the power and pair button are the same. When the blue light begins to flash, let go of the button, then go to my phone’s bluetooth settings, and select the headphones. That is enough to connect them to the phone.
If that sounds horribly complex and too difficult for you, then bluetooth headphones might not be a good solution. After doing it once or twice, you’ll remember the steps to get into the bluetooth settings for each device. The biggest issue is that it doesn’t always work. Particularly on the over the ear headphones, even when holding the pairing button they often just connect to the most recent device anyway. Usually turning them off and on again is enough to put them in pairing mode, but sometimes I’ll just turn off bluetooth on the device I don’t want them to connect to.
Sorry, my bad: I should have mentioned that what I’m considering is over-ear headphones, not earbuds. I don’t really get on with earbuds, and I’m convinced that I’d lose something like the AirPods sooner rather than later.
Honestly I find it faaar simpler to just turn off Bluetooth on the device I do not want it to connect to if the headphones have a choice. On my phone this can be done with a simple swipe and button push…all of three seconds of effort.
Yes this describes it good, you will have manual connection efforts, plus the occasional glitch. It is not horrible, but the experience could be better.
The ease of switching between devices and users is not a function of the blue tooth, but a function of the software that’s built into the headphones.
One of the features you get with higher-end headphones is faster & easier switching ability (among other things). Lower-end (cheaper) headphones tend to require the procedure echorepy suggests. So “it depends” on how much you pay for the headphones.
I just got a pair of Jaybird Tarah Pro’s (about $150). When I’m commuting etc, I use them with my iPhone. If I’m working out indoors I use them with my iPad, but still have my iPhone with me.
When powered-on they instantly auto-connect to my iPhone first, but if there’s no signal from my iPhone, after a minute they auto-switch to my iPad. If I want to connect faster (which I do), I press the button a their side and they switch instantly (<1sec.) the my iPad. There’s never been a need to “turn-off” the BT on my iPhone or monkey wth settings.
I use them for commuting, walks and also for excersize (outdoor & indoor cycling and swimming). I picked up the Tarah Pro’s because my “must-have” features were long battery life (+12hrs), good sound and 100% waterproof for swimming. The switching ease was a bonus. They’ve also got an app which allows you to customize sounds settings.
Thanks for the responses everyone. My main takeaway from this thread is that using multiple devices isn’t going to be too much of a hassle even at its worst.
No, the biggest issue is, after you pair your headphone with multiple host devices, there’s no way to control which of those devices it connects to. If your headphone is paired with your laptop, phone and tablet, and you turn on the headphone, it will connect to whichever one is nearby and has Bluetooth turned on. If more than one of those devices is nearby, you have no control over which one to connect to. The only practical way is to turn off Bluetooth on all but one device. But you can’t turn off bluetooth on a laptop if you use a bluetooth mouse. You can’t turn off bluetooth on a phone if you use a smartwatch.
Some headphones do connect to two hosts at the same time. But even then, if you pair it with 3 devices, you run into the same problem.
Personally I find the easiest way to deal with this situation is to just have a headphone dedicated to each host device. Or two, in case of Bose devices.
As I posted two before you, that’s absolutely not true any longer unless you have really cheap BT headphones. Your Bose are obviously not cheap so I’m guessing they’re older.
We have two Bose BT speakers a 4 y/o SLIII and a 2 y/o Soundlink. We were given the Soundlink as a gift and I was dreading it because the SLIII is exactly what you say, a pain in the ass to connect to. I was blown away by how much easier the newer Bose is. It has has a button that you tap (like my headphones) and it cycles through the connection options plus it verbally announces what it’s doing “Looking for Gman’s iPhone”, “Connected to Gman’s iPhone”.
I don’t have any problem unless more than one device is in range. Sometimes I have to manually reconnect, and in the worst case go through the pairing sequence to force the reconnect (it is not actually re-pairing but I have to put the headphones/speaker in pairing mode to reconnect).
I have a QuietComfort 35 II and SoundWear, both less than 2 years old. Are you saying I should be able to pair my headphone with 3 host devices, and push a button on the headphone to select which 2 host devices to connect to?
I also have an AfterShokz Air which isn’t exactly old or cheap (2018 model, $120). I wish I could pair it with my phone and tablet, and control which of them it connects to. I haven’t figured out how.
I’ve used 3 pairs of Bluetooth headphones, one over the ear that I think was made by Sony, the original Airpods, and currently some Jabra earpods.
They… usually work fine switching between devices. But about 2-3% of the time it’s weird and glitchy, and maybe 1% of the time it’s a total mess that requires an unpair/repair cycle and/or multiple powercycles of multiple devices to get it out of some broken state.
The failure rate remains fairly constant over the different devices. On average, it’s still less hassle than cords, but it’s very erratically distributed. The vast majority of the time things work immediately, occasionally there’s a minute or two of fuss, and maybe once a month or two it takes me 15 minutes of nonsense to listen to music.
I have multiple Bluetooth speakers and headphones joined to multiple iDevices.
I do have to do anything on the speakers/headphones themselves. I simple go into the Bluetooth settings on the iDevice and select the Bluetooth device.
The only devices that ever give me issues are Airpads, because they are tied to an Apple ID. I use different apple ids for my work and home devices.
I haven’t used those Bose before (I have the wired noise reduction Bose) but thats exactly what I do with my Tarah Pro BT headphones.
If I used them with my phone during the ride home, and I want to use them on my ipad in the evening (with my phone next to me). They auto-pair with my phone, but I can either tap them or do as Wolf suggests and go to the BT setting in my iPad and tap the name there. There’s no need to unpair or shut off BT in my iPhone.
My Bose Soundlink speaker also works this way (I tao the BT button on top to switch between previously paired devices) but my older SLIII doesn’t do that: I need to unpair it first before I do a different device (pain in the ass).
I think Bose has a pretty robust website with lots of Q&A stuff (from my past experience with them), maybe worth a look to see if you can do it differently.
I have AKG headphones, Powerbeats and a MegaBoom speaker. They are are linked to my laptop (Apple), iPhone and iPad.
For my phone and Ipad, if the device is unlocked and I power on the headphones or speaker, it automatically pairs. Same for the computer and the speaker. I normally only use the speaker with the computer since the computer is for home use. The iPad took the same settings from the iPhone.
Of the 3, the Megaboom is the easiest to get along with. Mainly because I don’t have to line it up with my ears. Except it has its own charger and other chargers take longer.