How to Stop Bluetooth Speakers From Disconnecting Your AirPods

There are times when I feel like my AirPods are pure magic. It’s always impressive how they automatically switch from my Mac to my iPhone when I get a call, or how I don’t need to reconnect them to my iPad when I want to start watching a show. But when it comes to automatically transferring my audio to Bluetooth speakers, it can get pretty jarring.

Often the speakers and audio outputs will pick up sound from my AirPods when I’m wearing them. This happens every time I get in my car wearing just one AirPod, usually while listening to music or podcasts (I wouldn’t recommend driving while using both AirPods). As soon as I turn on my car, bam, media starts blaring through my car speakers whether I like it or not. Until recently, there was no cure for this problem (other than manually pausing and then resuming playback from the AirPods themselves).

It seems I wasn’t the only person annoyed by this though. In iOS 26, Apple introduced a dedicated setting that prevents speakers from picking up your audio when you’re wearing your AirPods or other wireless headphones.

Here’s how to try it. On your iPhone running iOS 26 and above, go to Settings > General > AirPlay and continuity then activate the new “Keep audio with headphones” setting.

Credit: Khamosh Pathak

Don’t worry. This doesn’t mean you can’t use your car speakers or other audio outputs. Your device will always connect to your car speakers when they are available and you can access them manually using Control Center.

As for the rest of your car, in iOS 26 Apple is also starting to play nice with AirPods and CarPlay, adding official support for AirPods in CarPlay systems. So if you access content through CayPlay, you can still use your AirPods to listen to music or answer calls.

The best part? This won’t remove the auto-switching feature from your AirPods, as it’s powered by Handoff. If you want your AirPods to never automatically switch between any devices, you can turn off the To put back functionality of AirPlay and continuity menu.