- The first iOS 26 developer is out now ahead of its public beta -launch in July
- One of its upgrades is a new option called ‘Keep Audio In Headphones’
- This should reduce auto-switching problems for wireless headphones
If you are tired of your iPhone automatically switching to all Bluetooth devices other than your headphones, iOS 26 has a treat for you – a new option to get the sound to keep your wireless headphones.
As stained by macumors, the new iOS 26 developer Beta has a long-awaited new option called “Hold Audio in Headphones” in iPhone’s settings. The new option will apparently live in the settings> General> AirPlay & Continuity section and is specifically designed to prevent headphones from creating unwanted connections to nearby devices.
Apple’s description of the feature says “When using AirPods or other connected headphones, keep your headphones audio when other playback devices such as cars and speakers connect to iPhone.”
This happens to me all the time, whether it’s my sound that automatically switches to speakers in the car or to my iPad when used by another. Obviously, I’m not alone in finding this annoyance frustrating, so Fortunately, Apple is including this new opportunity in iOS 26, and hopefully it will come to the software’s final release in September.
A little old in bluetooth
Bluetooth is now over 25 years old, so in some ways it is miraculous that the wireless tech on short range works as well as it is also often frustrating.
Without the possibility of prioritizing the order of your favorite Bluetooth devices, it can often feel like Auto-Switching has its own mind. So this setting, although not exactly one of the biggest iOS 26 features, is definitely a welcome quality of life.
Not that it is the only frustrating bluetooth-related problem we have to struggle with. As our colleagues on what hi fi? Recently noted, it is also high time that sound producers began to standardize their Bluetooth pairing processes.
Of course, these are very first world problems, but at least Bluetooth 6.0 is now rolling out to bring more improvements to the now-contradictory technique. These include improved filtration and efficiency that should bring the benefits of battery life together with a feature called Channel Sounding to help improve the accuracy of ‘Find My Device’ services from Apple, Google and Samsung.
