tvOS 14 and AirPods Pro automatic device switching

[Drzed]

tvOS and iOS 14 are meant to have automatic switching of your AirPods from one device to the other as you change devices however it doesn’t seem to work. Anyone had it successfully change automatically without having to manually go into the settings and select your AirPods?

I have both on the same iCloud account, rebooted both devices and even manually installed the AirPods under Bluetooth settings but nothing seems to work.

 

[seezar]

Is it meant to work that way on tvOS? The seamless switching in ios14 works really well between my iPhone and iPad but it doesn’t auto switch to my ATV. I didn’t think it was supposed to with tvOS.

I’m not sure I’d want auto switching with tvOS. If I sit in the living room to listen to something on my iPhone with my AirPods while someone is watching a movie on the ATV, I wouldn’t want the sound on the ATV to switch to my AirPods and that person lose sound to the movie.

 

[Drzed]

I think you might be right. I could have sworn I read in many publications that it was also meant to work like that on tvOS BUT looking at this Apple support document there is no mention of tvOS so it looks like it probably won't happen as I suspect there worried that the AirPods taking over the audio on ATV when someone else is watching may be problematic.


"Note: Automatic switching works on supported models of AirPods and Beats products and requires iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS Big Sur, or later."

iPad User Guide

Here’s everything you need to know about iPad, straight from Apple. This definitive guide helps you get started using iPad and discover all the amazing things it can do.

support.apple.com

 

[Blowback]

I think you might be right. I could have sworn I read in many publications that it was also meant to work like that on tvOS BUT looking at this Apple support document there is no mention of tvOS so it looks like it probably won't happen as I suspect there worried that the AirPods taking over the audio on ATV when someone else is watching may be problematic.


"Note: Automatic switching works on supported models of AirPods and Beats products and requires iOS 14, iPadOS 14, macOS Big Sur, or later."

iPad User Guide

Here’s everything you need to know about iPad, straight from Apple. This definitive guide helps you get started using iPad and discover all the amazing things it can do.

support.apple.com

Works for me. If I put in my AirPods Pro...listen to a Podcast then lay my iPhone 11 Pro face down and go to my iPad Pro the AirPods follow (and I get a brief message on the iPad). Try the above for a test.

 

[Weiser878]

I’m sure I’m one of the few who largely used their AirPods to watch TV but I live with roommates and find this the most convenient.
I can live without the automatic switching to the TV, but what I hate is that you can no longer just hold the play/pause remote button to switch to the AirPods on the TV. Now you have to hold the menu button, navigate down to the airplay icon, click it, then select the AirPods, then exit.

This is an issue because when I take the AirPod Pros out and pop them in the case and go to the bathroom or whatever, when I come back to my room, with my iPhone asleep, the AirPods are no longer connected to the TV and have instead connected to the iPhone even though I wasn’t watching anything on it (force-closing the music app sometimes stops this but not always).