Stop Switching Devices Manually: Your Guide to Multipoint Bluetooth Audio

Switching between digital devices has become a necessary part of many people’s daily lives, whether it’s keeping up with text alerts or making sure you don’t miss an important call during a Zoom meeting on your laptop.

Multipoint Bluetooth was designed to solve the problem of having to disconnect or access the Bluetooth menu every time you want your headset to connect to another device. It helps you stay informed about incoming calls, email or messaging notifications, allowing you to easily go from personal to professional without interrupting your task.

Introduced in 2010 as part of Bluetooth 4.0, advanced multipoint allows two devices to be connected to your headphones simultaneously, allowing you to switch between them. For several years, the feature was problematic, unreliable, and poorly supported, especially for truly wireless earbuds. But that is changing.

Recent advances in hardware and software have greatly improved the stability and power consumption of multipoint, and the feature is now available on many wireless headsets and truly wireless earbuds, including those from Bose, which has been slow to adopt the feature due to reliability concerns.

Apple and Google support systems that behave similarly to multitouch (automatic device switching) which switches source devices when it detects playback on your target device. The caveat is that these are technically fast auto-pairing systems rather than connecting two devices simultaneously, and you must be signed in to the same Apple ID or Google account on both devices for this feature to work.

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The advantages and limitations of multipoint Bluetooth

When multiple devices are in the same digital ecosystem – Apple, Samsung or Google – and you’re signed into the same account on them, you get smoother (and often automatic) switching, whether through Apple’s Handoff, Google’s Fast Pair or real multipoint Bluetooth.

If, for example, you’re swapping between your Apple iPad and your Android smartphone, you’ll usually have to pause a device manually (semi-automatic switching) before the audio switches, although you still get the benefit of not having to do the Bluetooth disconnect/connect mambo.

Multi-touch is not a universal feature and its performance may vary depending on the specific model. Multipoint Bluetooth was (and still is) easier to implement on standard wireless earbuds because the earbuds are connected via a single primary Bluetooth connection. Truly wireless earbuds are more complex since the left and right earbuds must be wirelessly synced while avoiding interference issues, and a third wireless channel (and more processing power) is required for multipoint pairing.

Note that multipoint Bluetooth doesn’t necessarily mean you can stream media from two devices simultaneously.

Setting up multipoint Bluetooth

Update device firmware: Your phone, tablet, and laptop should always be up to date, but it’s best to double-check to make sure your operating system supports the latest features.

Install the app: Download and install the companion app for your headphones or earphones on your primary device, usually your phone, unless you use your tablet primarily for calls.

Pair it with your primary device: Put the headphones or earbuds into pairing mode (usually by pressing and holding a button on the headset or case) and pair them with your phone or tablet using the device’s Bluetooth settings.

Update headset firmware: Companies are continually improving switching and connection reliability through firmware updates. To keep your headphones or earphones up to date, update them through the app settings menu. Re-pair if necessary and test the connection by streaming audio.

Enable multipoint connection: Open the companion app settings again and enable your connection with a toggle switch labeled something like:

• Allow multipoint connection
• Connect to 2 devices simultaneously
• Pair with a second device
• Automatic switching

Pair it with the second device: Return the earbuds to pairing mode and use the second device’s Bluetooth settings to pair them. Test the connection by streaming audio.

What to expect from multipoint Bluetooth

At this point, you should be able to easily switch between devices (and vice versa) by starting a stream on the second device – or pausing the first if your devices are from different operating systems (iOS and Android, for example). Note that due to Bluetooth bandwidth constraints, you may not be able to use some “high resolution” audio codecs like Sony’s LDAC in multipoint mode.

It’s a good idea to test a few different scenarios with a combination of calls and media to see how things work with your particular combination of devices and apps. Even if all your gear comes from the same ecosystem, you’re somewhat at the mercy of the apps you use and how they’re prioritized by device operating systems, as well as how they handle change.

But if all goes well, you’ll be able to move between your digital devices easier than ever and you’ll wonder how you ever got by without multipoint Bluetooth.