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iOS 26: Keep AirPods Connected When You Get in Your Car

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Apr 12, 2001
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If you wear AirPods during your commute but don't want your podcast or music suddenly blasting through the car speakers when you start the engine, there's a new setting in iOS 26 that can ensure it doesn't happen.

airpods-pro-3-prime-day.jpeg

Apple has thoughtfully added a new "Keep Audio with Headphones" setting that prevents your iPhone from automatically switching audio to CarPlay or other Bluetooth speakers when you're already listening through AirPods. Here's how to toggle it on.

How to Keep Audio in Your AirPods

  1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
  2. Tap General.
  3. Select AirPlay & Continuity.
  4. Toggle on Keep Audio with Headphones.
keep-audio-in-airpods-ios.jpg


With the setting enabled, your music, podcasts, or calls will continue playing in your AirPods even after your iPhone connects to your car's Bluetooth system. Note that you can always manually switch to car speakers through Control Center or CarPlay if needed.

The feature also works with other wireless headphones, plus it's useful beyond in-car scenarios, since it stops audio from jumping to nearby Bluetooth speakers in your home, too.

Article Link: iOS 26: Keep AirPods Connected When You Get in Your Car
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/ios-keep-airpods-connected-get-in-your-car/
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It'd be nice if there was a way to geofence some toggles in Settings with Shortcuts. There are instances where I'd like to keep AirPods connected without jumping to another device, and instances where I prefer the automatic switch away from AirPods.
 
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I *kind* of get it... I'm on a call, I step in to my car, and I want to keep participating in the call... but what are we doing?
If you're starting your car, and enabling carplay anyway, get the headphones out of your ears. Time to focus on the road first and foremost... transparency mode be damned.
The feature is right there....keep audio on wireless headphones when a car is connected, but I don't understand the use if I'm behind the wheel.... maybe someone else is driving?
 
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jicon said:
I *kind* of get it... I'm on a call, I step in to my car, and I want to keep participating in the call... but what are we doing?
If you're starting your car, and enabling carplay anyway, get the headphones out of your ears. Time to focus on the road first and foremost... transparency mode be damned.
The feature is right there....keep audio on wireless headphones when a car is connected, but I don't understand the use if I'm behind the wheel.... maybe someone else is driving?
Click to expand...

My phone connects to Carplay as soon as I unlock the doors with the keyfob; long before I get in the car or even open the door, so I'd prefer to keep playing on them until I take them out of my ears. I don't drive with headphones.

Thanks for tip, MacRumors!
 
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jicon said:
I *kind* of get it... I'm on a call, I step in to my car, and I want to keep participating in the call... but what are we doing?
If you're starting your car, and enabling carplay anyway, get the headphones out of your ears. Time to focus on the road first and foremost... transparency mode be damned.
The feature is right there....keep audio on wireless headphones when a car is connected, but I don't understand the use if I'm behind the wheel.... maybe someone else is driving?
Click to expand...
Does it really matter, I'm sure someone will have a situation where it would be beneficial to them, you've already named a few use cases yourself. I personally won't benefit from it either, but happy that Apple is adding more options to do things as long as they don't remove any functionality I can't see any disadvantages.
 
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johnsmith162 said:
Some of us use them as hearing aids. (I always keep mine in transparency mode while driving.)
Click to expand...

Sure, but I would only use them as hearing aids temporarily. Real hearing aids can go a full day, or many days, on a charge/batteries, fit inside your ear..and aren't blaring white.

..And, since hearing aids are no longer a prescription-only item (in the US), you can find them for about the same price as AirPods Pro.
 
This is a great addition. I don't drive with both my Pods in my ears although on occasion I will talk with only one in my ear. But if I am walking to my car after having remotely started it while listening to a song or on a call, my car's Bluetooth will take over the connection once I am within 10-15 feet of the car. I am not even running CarPlay as mine is wired only and only starts up when I connect my phone with a wire. So this feature allows me to finish the song or call while getting in my car. Or at least switch to one ear only. I have always hated how my car's Bluetooth takes over instantly. The only option before this was to forget my car in the BT settings.
 
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This is helpful for quite a few scenarios that I have experienced over the years. The most common is someone else starting my car to move it or borrow it and because they are close enough to me while in the driveway the call I’m currently on transfers to the car. Also, I have had multiple different cars where the phone connects to the car but the audio system isn’t actually on yet. So you have a few seconds of no audio while all that gets sorted out. Letting me choose when to send the audio to the vehicle is the solution here. Simply taking the AirPod out of my ear and putting it back in the case transfers the call back to CarPlay with this new option. So now the flow is that I get into the car while on a car, get buckled up and ready to go and includes taking my AirPod out of my ear. By the time I get to removing the AirPod from my ear the car is ready for audio so no more lost seconds of audio while transferring to the car. And no more audio being routed to my car because it was started and I was currently on a car when it happened.
 
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jicon said:
I *kind* of get it... I'm on a call, I step in to my car, and I want to keep participating in the call... but what are we doing?
If you're starting your car, and enabling carplay anyway, get the headphones out of your ears. Time to focus on the road first and foremost... transparency mode be damned.
The feature is right there....keep audio on wireless headphones when a car is connected, but I don't understand the use if I'm behind the wheel.... maybe someone else is driving?
Click to expand...
I go near my van multiple times a day just to get some tools etc and it is damn annoying to have calls or music jump time after time in the cockpit even when I am not in the car or even planning to go in the car. So thanks for this setting I dont have to reach for my phone 10 times a day to switch audio back to earpods.
 
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WarmWinterHat said:
Sure, but I would only use them as hearing aids temporarily. Real hearing aids can go a full day, or many days, on a charge/batteries, fit inside your ear..and aren't blaring white.

..And, since hearing aids are no longer a prescription-only item (in the US), you can find them for about the same price as AirPods Pro.
Click to expand...
AirPods Pro 2 and 3 are approved as OTC hearing aids in the US. They don’t have the battery life like other OTC hearing aids, but they are much cheaper. Sony OTC hearing aids are about $1000, and Jabra is $1600. AirPods Pro are a pretty good deal compared to those prices.

Use the Hearing Aid feature on your AirPods Pro 2 or AirPods Pro 3 - Apple Support

AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 provide a clinical-grade Hearing Aid feature for perceived mild to moderate hearing loss, as well as a Media Assist feature that enhances the clarity of music, video, and calls.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
 
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CrashTestWalrus said:
AirPods Pro 2 and 3 are approved as OTC hearing aids in the US. They don’t have the battery life like other OTC hearing aids, but they are much cheaper. Sony OTC hearing aids are about $1000, and Jabra is $1600. AirPods Pro are a pretty good deal compared to those prices.

Use the Hearing Aid feature on your AirPods Pro 2 or AirPods Pro 3 - Apple Support

AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 provide a clinical-grade Hearing Aid feature for perceived mild to moderate hearing loss, as well as a Media Assist feature that enhances the clarity of music, video, and calls.
support.apple.com support.apple.com
Click to expand...

I know they are approved, I just wouldn't want to use them for that (long term).

My father wears Elehear, and they were around $400.
 
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So how the heck can I prevent iPhone music from automatically playing to my car when I’m trying to listen to the radio? Even if I turn off Bluetooth on the iPhone, it reconnects again a second later 😡.
 
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All the people screaming "you should not drive with earphones" have clearly never unlocked a CarPlay vehicle to grab something from it while on a phone call using AirPods. Or cleaned or worked on their car for a while during a phone call. Or had someone else wait in the unlocked car while running a nearby errand and calling somebody using AirPods.

In all of these cases, the call will eventually transfer to the car, and sometimes repeatedly so, depending on how the vehicle's head unit is implemented. It's super annoying.

Even just getting into the car with the intention of moving the call to the vehicle works much better this way, because the call will not be transferred the moment the head unit's CarPlay integration is started up, but maybe not active yet (or the volume setting isn't right). Instead of a few seconds (or more) of no audio and a "hello, hello?" back and forth with the person on the other end of the line, the transfer now seamlessly happens when you take the AirPods out of your ears and put them in the case, which any responsible driver of course does after having buckled up, and before driving off.

This is a great feature; thank you, Apple.
 
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