AirBuddy 2: Allow AirPods to "connect right out of the box" on Mac

As an Apple accessory, AirPods has an excellent experience on Apple mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad. It has design animations, iCloud-based quick pairing, and a comfortable wearing experience, enough to make AirPods become The most popular true wireless headset on the market.

AirBuddy 2: Allow AirPods to "connect right out of the box" on Mac

As an Apple accessory, AirPods has an excellent experience on Apple mobile devices such as iPhone and iPad. It has design animations, iCloud-based quick pairing, and a comfortable wearing experience, enough to make AirPods become The most popular true wireless headset on the market.

But for a long time, the use of AirPods and Mac has not achieved the same experience as mobile devices. The lack of animation and the occasional failure of the iCloud quick pairing function are two places that are often complained.

Fortunately, there are many AirPods practical tools in the application market, which can just make up for these shortcomings. The AirBuddy 2 introduced today is one of them.

Thanks to the Bluetooth privacy protocol and the deep bundling of the headset with the mobile phone system, the iOS/iPadOS device can automatically activate the phone's pop-up window after detecting the Bluetooth signal of the AirPods to display the headset's pairing information, battery level and other information.

But macOS has always lacked this feature, and AirBuddy 2 appeared to make up for this shortcoming.

This AirPods tool application was first released last year, version 1.0, bringing the AirPods experience on the iOS/iPadOS platform to the Mac. The biggest highlight is that when the AirPods is turned on next to the Mac device, the screen will pop up the headset status page and setting animation , To achieve the effect of "connecting + connection animation" when using AirPods on iPhone/iPad.

Applicable models

AirBuddy 2 requires macOS Mojave (10.14.6) or higher, and also supports Bluetooth low energy Mac.

To check whether your Mac supports Bluetooth Low Energy, you can go to "About This Machine> System Reports> Hardware> Bluetooth". If the page displays "Bluetooth Low Energy: Yes", it means that this Mac supports Bluetooth Low Energy, and vice versa. AirBuddy 2 cannot be used.

In addition, Bluetooth devices paired with AirBuddy 2 also have model restrictions. All AirPods or Beats headsets equipped with W1 or H1 chips support AirBuddy 2.

However, since some headset models are developed based on the iCloud quick pairing function, to achieve all functions, there are also requirements for the system version. The specific restrictions are as follows:

Achieve effect

AirBuddy 2 supports two sizes of pop-up animations. Choose "Small" or "Large" in "Settings> Proximity> Window Style" to achieve different pop-up effects. In addition, it also supports the adjustment of pop-up window position, optional " "Left", "Center" and "Right".

Small size pop-up window

Large-size pop-up window

It is worth mentioning that the developer also thoughtfully added the touchpad gestures to the pairing interface to switch the listening mode. When the AirPods Pro is paired with the Mac through AirBuddy 2, users can quickly select noise reduction and Transparent and other different modes.

Match other Bluetooth devices

In addition to optimizing macOS AirPods pairing, AirBuddy also supports pairing other Bluetooth devices, and check the power of each Bluetooth device in the integrated control panel.

You can also check the battery level of different Bluetooth devices in the AirBuddy 2 widget in the notification center. The new widget for macOS Big Sur is currently supported.

In addition, for some users who have multiple Mac devices, AirBuddy 2 also supports Bluetooth accessories to quickly switch between different Macs (AirBuddy 2 needs to be installed). For example, the same Magic Control Board 2 can switch between different Macs. Click the switch icon in the AirBuddy 2 status bar to complete, which is much more efficient than going to the Bluetooth settings to switch.

In general, the appearance of AirBuddy 2 has a certain effect on improving the experience of AirPods on macOS, at least so that those who are used to iOS/iPadOS users will not have a big gap, and this has always been a short board of AirPods on macOS Where.

If you also want to get a better AirPods experience on macOS, AirBuddy 2 may be a good choice, but I personally feel that the price of US$9.9 is a bit high (the upgrade price for users who bought AirBuddy 1 before 2020 is US$4.9, Customers who have purchased AirBuddy 1 after 2020 can upgrade for free), maybe the price-performance ratio of seasonal discounts will be higher.

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