With the headphone jack now being part of the feature list that’s specific to select devices, Bluetooth headphones have become even more prevalent in recent years. However, the key feature of great Bluetooth headphones is the ability to connect to two devices at the same time.
The capacity for connections to multiple devices simultaneously allows people to do things like play video games, watch movies or perform other tasks, while also monitoring their phone in case an urgent call comes in — or maybe they just want to listen to music while engaged in another activity. That’s where multipoint Bluetooth earbuds come in.
Multipoint Bluetooth pairing shouldn’t be confused with multiconnection Bluetooth, which allows you to pair several devices (often up to seven or eight) to your headphones and have the headphones remember the device for easy repairing. However, without true multipoint Bluetooth pairing, a given pair of headphones can only be actively paired to one device at a time — you have to manually switch over to another device if you want to access that as the audio source.
Apple and Samsung offer a variation of multipoint Bluetooth pairing called «automatic switching,» which only works for their respective devices. For instance, you can have your AirPods Pro connected to your iPhone and Mac simultaneously (and an iPad) but a non-Apple device can’t be in the mix for simultaneous pairing. Samsung’s various Galaxy Buds have a similar arrangement with Galaxy smartphones and tablets.
In the past, business-focused headphones — some of which featured integrated boom microphones — offered advanced multipoint Bluetooth pairing. But the feature has gradually come to more consumer headphones, which are what we’re focusing on here. (We also have a list of best headphones for WFH that includes some of the more business-class headsets with boom mics and USB dongles for reliable wireless PC connectivity.) Unfortunately, multipoint Bluetooth pairing isn’t easy to implement at all, let alone implement reliably, particularly with true-wireless earbuds.
«Up until recently, Bluetooth chips supported a maximum of two simultaneous connections,» explains Jonathan Levine, CEO and founder of Master & Dynamic. «This makes multipoint easy for headphones, where a wire connects both ear cups. However, for a true wireless product, one of the two connections gets consumed by the other earphone — leaving only one available connection to an audio source. Cutting-edge connectivity protocols have allowed true wireless products to connect much more seamlessly and bypass the maximum limit of two connections.»
Still, some companies like Master & Dynamic and Jabra, which have been early adopters of the latest Qualcomm SoCs (systems on a chip), added multipoint — and sometimes other features — via a firmware upgrade long after their new earbuds have launched. The Jabra Elite 7 Pro has finally been upgraded with multipoint Bluetooth and Master & Dynamic’s MW08 and MW08 Sport should get the feature soon. Both companies use Qualcomm chips.
That said, enough headphones now support multipoint that we’ve pulled our favorites together here. Note that this list does not include the aforementioned Apple and Samsung headphones, as their respective automatic switching only works within their own branded ecosystem.