5 Tips and Tricks Every AirPods Owner Should Know
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Apple AirPods made a surprise splash this holiday season with a last-minute release. Their availability is still severely limited, so chances are you don’t have them yet – but if you are lucky enough to have a pair, here are our favorite tricks and tips to help you get the most out of Cupertino’s new Bluetooth EarPods.
5. How to Connect to Your iPhone or Android Device
If you’re an iPhone user, then connecting AirPods to your smartphone is as easy as opening the charging case and tapping the Connect button that pops up on your screen.
To connect to an Android, Apple TV or other device, there’s a small button on the back of the charging case that will pair AirPods to your non-iPhone device. Just press and hold that button until you see the status light flash white — and then follow the set up prompts.
4. Check on the Battery
There’s a couple of options to check on your AirPods battery. Much like pairing, if you open the charging case near your iPhone, it’ll prompt a battery status popup to appear on your device. There’s also an option to add Apple’s stock battery widget — which also shows AirPods’ battery life — to your widget pane.
If you own an Apple Watch, you can also check the battery by opening Control Center and tapping on the battery button. In addition to your Apple Watch battery life, the pane will also give you the battery stats for your AirPods.
3. Use Your AirPods with Your Mac
While pairing your AirPods with your Mac isn’t as seamless as using them with an iPhone or iPad, it’s still pretty easy.
To do so, you need to select the AirPods as your computer’s audio output device. With Bluetooth on, just click on the speaker icon in the menu bar and select your AirPods — which should appear under Output Device. Apple notes that they’ll only show up when they’re nearby and ready to use.
2. Use Siri with Double-Tap, or Something Else
One of the cooler features included in AirPods is the ability to activate Siri without even grabbing your phone — while wearing AirPods, just give them two quick, sharp taps.
You can ask Siri to control your music and volume, make a phone call, check your battery life, or even give you directions. If you’d rather not use the double-tap feature, you can tweak it by opening Settings > Bluetooth on your iOS device, selecting your AirPods, and changing the double-tap settings. You can set it to Siri, play/pause music, or just turn it off entirely.
1. Keep Your AirPods to Yourself
If someone other than you tries to use your AirPods, there’s a neat feature built in. When they open the charging case to pair AirPods, a message will pop up on their phone to let them know that the AirPods aren’t theirs. They can still pair the AirPods to their iOS device, of course, but at least there’s a way to differentiate your pair from someone else’s.
On a similar note, you can give your pair of AirPods a custom name by going to Settings > Bluetooth on your iOS device, selecting your AirPods, and editing the name by clicking on the “i” icon.
