Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 aren’t playing nicely with Pixel phones
Apple recently announced the AirPods 2, which the company intends for you to pair with an iPhone, Mac, or iPad. Google has a similar idea with its Pixel Buds lineup and the Pixel phones, but that doesn’t stop customers from cross-pairing and using AirPods with Pixel phones or vice versa. They’re Bluetooth headphones, after all, so they are cross-compatible. However, the new AirPods 2 don’t seem to work well with thePixel 6a,Pixel 6,Pixel 7, and other Pixel phones.
Reports on Reddit(via9to5Google) suggest numerous people trying to use the new AirPods 2 with Pixel phones face disconnection issues. The true-wireless earphones refuse to play music from the phone for over two minutes. After that, they remain connected to the phone but don’t play audio unless they are disconnected and re-connected. Even people using their AirPods Pro 2 with an iPhone or iPadreportedthis issue. Imagine being able to listen to your music for a minute at a time. Plus, phone calls are basically impossible this way.
We aren’t sure what is causing the issue but thankfully, Android lets you tinker around with the settings, and a temporary fix exists. You can disable Bluetooth A2DP hardware offloading in the developer settings on your Pixel phone. However, some users report this results in lower-quality audio because your Pixel takes over the audio processing instead of leaving it up to the AirPods 2 Pro’s H2 chip.
Given this appears to be a widespread issue, we’d hope that a fix will be in the works, but we’ve yet to hear anything official. Pixels don’t seem at fault here because people are reporting similar issues with the earphones paired to Apple devices. This is a rare instance where we hope you have an iPhone, iPad, or Mac lying around to update the AirPods Pro 2 firmware when Apple releases a fix.
Carriers get the upper hand
Things get red hot for Magenta
Some scary urban digital legends
An advanced, compact, purpose-built device
No more excuses
It’s $30 off for a limited time
