Apple AirPods are great wireless headphones, but you need to take care of them to get the most out of them. Here are some tips to clean your AirPods, prevent damage, and more:
If you’ve invested in a pair of true wireless headphones (single earphones that don’t use wires to connect to your phone, or to each other), chances are you’ve chosen the Apple AirPods.
Not everyone was sure about the AirPods’ wire-free design when they were first released, but now there’s no doubt that they’ve become an Apple staple for style-conscious listeners.
We’ve seen a lot of competition though, with products like the Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless coming to market in recent months, and you can see our full list of AirPod alternatives in our best wireless earbuds guide.
However, if you do sit down with your new AirPods, here are some simple steps to take to get them going.
AirPods can be used with Android and iOS devices. However, if you are connecting to an iPhone, you only need to do steps 1-2 before you get a prompt on the screen for connection.
1. Charge your AirPods
You will need some charging before you start listening. The bottom of the case has a Lightning connector to charge the case, which can hold eight hours of charging along with the four hours of charging for AirPods (so 12 hours total). The tip LED light inside the case will illuminate green when it has reached full battery.
2. Turn on your Bluetooth
Next, make sure that Bluetooth is enabled on whatever device you’re trying to connect to, so you can stream audio wirelessly. There’s usually a Bluetooth shortcut from the top of your smartphone or desktop, though you can also head through your Settings.
3. Activate AirPods pairing
This might cause you to trip: To connect your AirPods to your smartphone, laptop, or other streaming device, you need to make sure both earbuds are inside the white charging case the AirPods come in.
Then flip the AirPods charging case over. See that little white circle? That is the pairing button. Hold it down until the status light inside the case glows amber before turning white.
4. End the pairing
On your smartphone or laptop, go to «Pair New Device», although this may be different on different operating systems, and select the AirPods.
You are already connected! Then all you have to do is choose an audio source, open a podcast, audiobook or YouTube video, or start making hands-free calls to start hearing that true wireless audio.
How to Connect Apple AirPods to a MacBook (or Mac)
If you want to know how to connect Apple AirPods to a MacBook or Mac computer, you’ve come to the right place.
Apple’s AirPods had a mixed reception when they were first released in 2016. Other than that, the completely «wireless» design looked a bit odd, leaving you with two little white stems dangling from your ears every time.
But, after a slow start, the idea of totally wireless in-ear headphones has really taken off.
The little white AirPods are now a common sight in my hipster locals, and many other manufacturers have jumped on the wire-free bandwagon in recent months as well.
AirPods were innovative in other ways, too. They use a standard Bluetooth connection for music streaming, but Apple’s custom-designed W1 chip provides additional features when AirPods are used with other Apple devices.
Some of these features, such as the ability to use only one earpiece to take phone calls, are designed specifically for use with Apple mobile devices, such as the iPhone or iPad.
However, you can also use AirPods with a MacBook laptop or Mac desktop.
We used a MacBook Air running Mojave (macOS 10.14), but the steps shown here will work with any Mac desktop or laptop running Sierra (macOS 10.12) or later.
Older Macs, as well as Windows PCs and other non-Apple devices, can still treat AirPods like conventional Bluetooth headphones, though they won’t be able to use all of the other AirPod features.
1. Pairing AirPods via iCloud
AirPods, of course, are primarily designed for use with an iPhone. And, if you’ve already set up your AirPods to work with an iPhone or iPad that’s signed in to your iCloud account, then they’ll automatically be available for use with any MacBook or other Mac that’s also signed in.
This means you can immediately see which AirPods appear in your MacBook’s Bluetooth control panel, for example, even if you don’t have Bluetooth turned on yet.
2. desktop controls
When you turn on Bluetooth, you can simply connect to the AirPods by double-clicking on the control panel.
There’s another option, too: If you click the ‘Show Bluetooth in menu bar’ button, you can quickly connect or disconnect your AirPods at any time using the Bluetooth drop-down menu that appears in the MacBook’s main menu bar.
This menu also shows other details, such as the battery level for AirPods and their charging box.
3. Pairing AirPods without iCloud
If you haven’t previously set up your AirPods with an iOS device, then there’s a quick way to get started—and you don’t even have to take your AirPods out of their charging case.
Make sure Bluetooth is turned on on the control panel, then open the lid of the charging case and press and hold the small button on the back of the case for about three seconds, until the charging light flashes white .
The AirPods will appear in the Bluetooth control panel and you can click the «Connect» button to complete the pairing process.
4. AirPod Options
Once you’ve connected the AirPods, a new ‘Options’ button will appear. Click this button and you’ll see a number of options to control the way your AirPods work.
You can issue a series of commands simply by double-tapping on each earbud while you’re wearing them, perhaps using the left earbud to activate Siri voice commands, while the right earbud controls your music.
The ‘automatic ear detection’ option triggers a motion sensor inside the AirPods. This will automatically pause your music when it detects that you’ve removed the AirPods from your ears, and resume playing when you put them back.
However, you can disable the sensor and control the AirPods manually, if you prefer.
5.iTunes audio
By default, AirPods are now selected as the primary audio output device for the MacBook, and audio from any app running on the MacBook will play through the AirPods.
However, it is also possible to play audio from different apps through different devices. Let’s fire up iTunes and have a blast of Abba to brighten up a gray winter day.
If you click the AirPlay icon in the iTunes menu bar, you can select the AirPods as the audio output for your iTunes music. This overrides the system-wide default setting and tells macOS that iTunes will always play through the AirPods.
6. Sound settings
Switch back to System Preferences on the MacBook and take a look at the sound control panel.
You can now select the MacBook’s internal speakers as the primary sound output, so you can have a PowerPoint presentation or a BBC news bulletin playing its own audio through the MacBook’s speakers, or a larger set. of external speakers connected to the MacBook, while listening to Abba on iTunes through AirPods.
This is useful if you sometimes need to switch between audio outputs when running multiple applications simultaneously. It’s also possible to quickly switch between the MacBook and AirPods speakers using the «Sound» dropdown in the main menu bar.
7. Hey Siri!
Like the iPhone and iPad, newer Mac models can now use Siri voice commands, and as we mentioned earlier, you can activate Siri simply by double-tapping one of the earbuds…