This will only really work with two sets of Bluetooth headphones that have their own volume controls. If you try it with a wired set, that wired set will always be at full system volume. If you're watching a video or listening to music in iTunes, you can use the iTunes volume slider to set the "max" volume (which will be the volume for the wired headphones) and then adjust from there with the Bluetooth headphones' internal volume controls.
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How to Output Your Mac's Audio to Two Pairs of Headphones at the Same Time
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Cant for the life of me get this working. My little sound icon is greyed out when I select the new joint audio option. Any ideas?
I remember doing this last year with two wired headphones, but I didn't like that I lost volume control. In the end we used one AirPod each.
So why can't this be done on the latest Apple TV? Works fine on my 2013 Mac, but not my 2017 ATV? Such a useful feature. At home we have two sets of AirPods and Beats Solo 3. Would be great to listen to loud movies at night, without worrying about disturbing the neighbours - especially with this hot weather (windows open).
Lets hope someone brings out an ATV app.
Lets hope someone brings out an ATV app.
It can be done if you're using AirPlay. For example, I can play a movie on my MBP, with the video sent via AirPlay to a display connected to the Apple TV, and the sound going to 2 sets of Bluetooth headphones.
See my earlier post.
Not true. Perhaps specific airlines prohibit it, but not all:
British Airways
Virgin Atlantic Airways
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This is great but more often I want the inverse: one pair of headphones (usually Bluetooth) streaming audio from several devices simultaneously. Eg. Listening to audio on my work computer, pick up my phone and listen to a short message, then quickly resume working—without going into menus on each device to switch.
I stand corrected!
I regularly travel between England and Spain and the air stewards always ask for phones and devices to be put in Airplane mode which turns off all transmissions from my phone. I just use wired headphones.
However it seems bluetooth can be reenabled whilst in airplane mode and googling restrictions it seems it is fine to use during flights.
"All Bluetooth accessories (for example wireless keyboard, headphones, etc) may only be used during the flight but must remain switched off for taxi, take-off and landing"
Yes. It should not be this hard. It definitely shouldn’t require the use of another app.
And, there should be a way to do this on an iPhone, particularly the 7, 8, and X considering Apple removed the headphone jack — and there’s no Lightning audio splitter, either. Yes you can still do it with the Lightning audio adapter, and an old school splitter, but then you can’t use your expensive AirPods, nor the included Lightning EarPods.
Apple pushing everyone to Bluetooth and then failing to support basic functions people used the headphone jack for before is ridiculous. Maybe the first year, but certainly not the second ...
And don’t get me started about how you can’t use Lightning headphones on a Mac, nor any non iOS product for that matter.
I suspect it consumes some processing resources that an iOS device would have more trouble dealing with on battery? Just an educated guess. But yeah, that would be a great little addition.
I do this regularly with my Bose QC35 headphones. They connect to my iPhone and MBP simultaneously, so if a call comes in while I'm listening to something on the computer, I just pause what I'm listening to and take the call. No switching or selecting required. I wish my AirPods would do the same thing.
That’s why I’m holding off on buying a pair of AirPods. I’m pretty sure the 2.0 version will support that, while the 1.0 will be left behind. Gotta have some reason to make people upgrade ...
Can I simultaneously use or easily alternate two voice inputs on a windows machine? I use AirPods and usb headphones for dictation
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Interesting, I didn’t know there were headphones that could switch automatically like that. I wonder how it works and why Apple couldn’t build it into AirPods (and my Beats X). But ideally there wouldn’t be any need for switching at all, it would just be continuous simultaneous streams. Or an option to choose. Hopefully in some near-future Bluetooth iteration.
The Bose headphones don’t switch. They’re continuously connected to both the iPhone and Mac.
Really? So you could for example listen to music on your phone and watch a video with audio on your Mac at the same time?
Yes. For example, I can listen to music on my phone and simultaneously watch and listen to a YouTube video on my Mac, and if a call comes in, it mutes the audio from the iPhone music and the YouTube video on the Mac to announce the call, then resumes both automatically when the call ends.
Sounds like Apple needs to change their protocols so the Bose headphones can’t do that until Apple brings the same features to market. ;-)
While I would love it if AirPods had the same functionality, it's understandable if such tiny in-ear headphones don't yet have all the functionality of much larger over-the-ear headphones. The proper response isn't for Apple to remove the functionality, but simply to produce its own products that match it.
No Apple headphones have this as far as I know, regardless of their size.
The proper response is for them to have had comparable wireless headphones ready to go when they removed the headphone jack. But it took months for the AirPods to make it to market and the Lightning headphones can’t be used with anything else, even Macs. There’s still no way to share an audio stream from an iOS device over BT headphones, much less wireless EarPod replacements, or instant switching between two BT sources, even Apple ones.
The humor here is typically, Apple disables anything third party manufacturers find to exploit when it competes with their own products abilities.
How many Apple branded headphones are there? To my knowledge, none are the size of the Bose model I use.
You are shifting your argument from a policy regarding functionality, to a marketing strategy. They are not the same thing. Whether or not Apple introduces headphones with this functionality, or even if Apple chooses to get out of the headphone business, like they did with displays, still an appropriate response is not to remove this functionality from headphones that can deliver it.