Why are Airpods and Beats products the only Bluetooth devices supported?

Question

Why are Airpods and Beats products the only Bluetooth devices supported?

iPhone SE, iOS 13

Posted on Jul 7, 2020 4:29 PM

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Answer 1

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kb1951

Level 10

126,083 points

Jul 7, 2020 4:37 PM in response to CameronNAspen

You are free to use any Bluetooth device that you want. I have LG Bluetooth headphones that work well with my iPhone and iPad. I have 3 Bluetooth speakers from different manufacturers that all work well too.

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Answer 2

Jul 7, 2020 4:43 PM in response to CameronNAspen

Supported by what?

Airpods and beats support special features because they use a custom Bluetooth chipset designed and manufactured by Apple.

Any set of Bluetooth headphones will work with Apple products.

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Answer 3

Jul 7, 2020 4:31 PM in response to CameronNAspen

These devices are owned and manufactured by Apple. Apple can only support devices which they manufacturer, however you are welcome to use other devices by Bluetooth with your iPhone even though Beats/Airpods are designed to work much closer with your device.

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Answer 4

Jul 7, 2020 5:29 PM in response to CameronNAspen

Ok, the custom Bluetooth chip in the Beats and AirPods is the answer.

The Apple H1 chip.

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Answer 5

deggie

Level 10

167,519 points

Jul 7, 2020 5:23 PM in response to CameronNAspen

Because I believe they use the W1 chip in them to do this.

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Answer 6

Jul 7, 2020 5:31 PM in response to deggie

W1 is a watch chipset.

H1 is specifically for headphones, used since 2019.

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Answer 7

Jul 7, 2020 5:21 PM in response to CameronNAspen

Sorry, just realized that I did not fully communicate my question. I was referring to the ability to stream music to two pairs of separate Bluetooth headphones at the same time from an Apple devise. As of right now it looks like this feature only works with Beats and iPods. Was just wondering why Apple restricted the duel use feature only to those two.

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