In my daily work, I am using a Macbook Pro with Windows 10 installed. I rarely boot in macOS on this machine but I am aware of a nice AirPods utility for macOS that it is very easy to use. I was living under the impression that it is not possible to use my Airpods with Windows until today. I will provide a quick and easy way to show how to pair and then connect Airpods to a Windows 10 PC or laptop.
Can AirPods Connect to a PC?
I own my Airpods 2 for a few months now and I really like it. I thought that it can be used only on iPhone or iPad and Apple Watch, but I thought that it is not possible to use it with other than hardware manufactured by Apple. I was so sure in this that I did not even spent the 5 seconds searching Google to see if it is possible to connect my AirPods to my Windows 10 computer.
I was so wrong about this. Although it is not going to give you the nice integration you can see it on the iPhone but you can connect the AirPods to anything as simple Bluetooth audio device.
So the answer is you can definitely connect your Airpods to your Windows 10 PC and no you will not need any drivers for that.
How to Connect AirPods to Windows 10
These are the steps below that are needed to register and then use AirPods on Windows 10
On your Windows 10 computer click the Start Menu and then Settings.
- Go to Settings, Devices and then Bluetooth & other devices on your Windows 10 computer.
- Choose Add Bluetooth or other device.
- Select Bluetooth from the Add Device dialog
- Open the cap of your Airpod’s case and tap and hold the circular button at the back of the case.
- Wait until the light inside starts blinking white. It is important that both of the Airpods are in the case and are charging.
- At some point, Headphone or Airpods will show up on the list. Select it.
How to use AirPods on Windows 10
To be able to listen to audio from your computer make sure that Airpods are selected as output devices by clicking on the Volume icon and then selecting AirPods from the available devices.
Quick tip: A quick way to connect reconnect is to press Windows + K keys to bring up the connect menu and then select the Airpods to connect/disconnect.
Other tricks and thing to try
Ever since I realized that it is possible to use my AirPods as a Bluetooth headset – sometimes for me the most obvious and simples things are taking the longest to realize – I successfully paired and used AirPods with the following.
Apple TV
This is very convenient when I want to watch TV late at night alone and I do not want to disturb the kids and my wife. The only thing to watch out that you will need an Apple TV 4th generation and it seems that AirPods are not working with older models before the 4th gen Apple TV. Also tvOS 13.2 and later needs to be installed according to Apple Support.
Apple Watch
I can also connect my AirPods to my Apple Watch, of course, but I needed to go to Settings > Bluetooth and check the connection there as it sometimes seems to be disconnected or it takes longer to connect. Again, Apple Watch does not seem to offer the same experience with AirPods as my iPhone. This is my personal experience and it is possible that I am doing something wrong.