There may be times when you would like to connect two or more Bluetooth devices to your Windows PC, Android device or iOS device. There are a number of ways to do this and there are a number of requirements that must be met. For example, you can listen to music for two via one device without sharing the headphones. In this article we will explain how this works and what the differences are between the operating systems.
Connect multiple Bluetooth devices to the Windows PC
Connecting multiple Bluetooth devices to your Windows PC is no problem at all. This simply depends on the corresponding Bluetooth receiver that is installed and on the devices used. There are Bluetooth receivers that only allow one device at a time. However, there are also Bluetooth receivers that allow multiple Bluetooth devices. If you are currently only able to connect to one device, you can simply buy a Bluetooth stick and thus make it possible to connect more than one device to the Windows PC via Bluetooth.
Connect multiple Bluetooth devices via Android
With Android, there are several ways to connect multiple Bluetooth devices to just one Android device. For example, some Android smartphones have the “dual audio” function, which can be found in the smartphone settings. For example, you can listen to the same thing on two Bluetooth headphones.
With Samsung devices, you must first pair the two Bluetooth devices with the Samsung device and then select both devices under “Media” for audio output.
Use multiple Bluetooth headphones without “dual audio”.
A so-called Bluetooth splitter is also suitable for listening to music with two headphones at the same time. Such a Bluetooth splitter can be used not only on the smartphone, but also on other devices such as the television or tablet. After the Bluetooth splitter is connected to the playback device, all you need to do is connect both headphones to the Bluetooth splitter. And you hear the same thing through both headphones.
Connect multiple Bluetooth devices via iOS
Since the update to iOS 13, Apple has offered some new features, including audio sharing via two headphones at the same time. iOS is offered for all versions from the iPhone 8 and iOS 13 is also required for the iPad in order to be able to connect several Bluetooth headphones at the same time. In addition, the simultaneous connection of headphones is only possible with the in-house AirPods and AirPods Pro and most Beats devices. Third-party Bluetooth headphones are excluded from simultaneous audio sharing by Apple.
Connecting two different pairs of AirPods at the same time works like this:
- Establishes a connection between your own AirPods and the corresponding iPhone and connects the other pair to the second iPhone while it is in the charging case.
- Now simply put on your own AirPods and hold your own iPhone near the open charging case of the other pair of AirPods.
- A button should now appear on your own iPhone, on which you have to tap “Temporarily share audio”. All further steps are displayed on the screen.
Variant 2 (both pairs of AirPods must be connected to the respective associated iPhone):
- Put on AirPods.
- On iPhone, open the Now Playing panel and tap the triangle icon.
- Select “Share Audio” under the name of your AirPods.
- Bring your iPhone to the other person’s iPhone.
- Select “Share Audio”.
- The second person now only has to tap on “Participate”.
