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AirPods & Beats: sync headphones to all your devices

Connect your wireless headphones to all your devices in one go

One of the man attractions of Apple’s AirPods is the W1 chip. This tiny piece of silicone is designed to overcome some of the problems with pairing and connecting Bluetooth headphones and make the process quick and easy. The W1 chip is also present in Beats Solo 3 and Beats X Bluetooth headphones and those connect in a similar way.

Once you’ve connected the first time, the AirPods will connect automatically to your iPhone when it’s on and in-range. If you’ve had it selected as the output device for your iPhone, it will remain selected when it re-connects.

If you connect AirPods to more than one device (they’ll be set up automatically with other iOS devices and Macs connected to your iCloud account), it will automatically re-connect to the last device it was used with.

Connecting AirPods

1. Press the Home button on your iPhone to unlock it and make sure Bluetooth is switched on by swiping up to go to Control Center. In iOS 11, the Bluetooth icon should be blue to signify it’s active.

2. This part is like magic. Open the AirPods case and hold it near your iPhone. Wait for the setup screen to appear.

3. Press Connect then tap Done. Easy, right?

4. Your AirPods are now connected to your iPhone and to any other Apple devices signed into your iCloud account (assuming the iPhone you just connected to is signed into iCloud).

5. To use your AirPods with an iPad running iOS 11, swipe all the way up from the bottom of the screen to display Control Center, then click the wave icon on the audio control card (two arcs) and tap AirPods.

6. To switch back, follow the previous step on your iPhone.

7. To connect to a Mac, click the volume control in the menu bar and select AirPods. If they’re not displayed, click the Bluetooth icon, choose them and click Connect.

Connecting Beats

1. Unlock your iPhone

2. Press and hold the power button to turn the Beats on.

3. Hold the Beats next to your iPhone and hold down the power button for a second. Wait for the Beats animation to appear on the iPhone’s screen.

Beats X connect screen

4. Tap Connect, then Done. The headphones are now connected to your iPhone and will connect to all other devices signed into your iCloud device, in much the same was as AirPods.

This process is the same for both Beats Solo 3 and Beats X.