Six Ways to Automate Your AirPods With Shortcuts

The introduction of Shortcuts in iOS 13 has opened the door to a lot of new little iPhone tricks , but less attention has been paid to Shortcuts and automation that can be applied to AirPods. I use my AirPods Pro almost every day, and they’re already pretty easy to connect and configure through the iPhone’s settings, but I’ve installed a couple of shortcuts and automations to make using them even easier.

Set up automation every time you connect your AirPods

Perhaps one of the most convenient things you can do with Shortcuts is set up an automation every time you connect your AirPods. This can be useful for those who like to keep their media volume always set at the same level, or if you have a specific playlist that you always listen to first.

To set up an automation that triggers whenever your AirPods are connected, go to Shortcuts > Automations > New Automations , then scroll down until you see the Bluetooth option. Tap it, select Connected , then you can choose Run after confirmation or Run immediately . To run once confirmed, you will need to physically click the Run button, but if you select Run Immediately, the automation will run without any user intervention. Finally, be sure to select your AirPods from the Select Devices category.

Once you have filled out the basic information, click Next and then you can select any of the shortcuts offered here. You can also create your own automation using the New Blank Automation option. This particular feature can be useful if, say, you want your iPhone’s media volume to drop to a certain amount when AirPods are connected, or if you want to play a specific playlist from Apple Music.

I’d recommend playing with a few different options here to find the one that works best for you, as automation can make things a lot more convenient in the long run, but here are some really good examples of using automations that work whenever you connect AirPods to iPhone.

Automatic volume adjustment on AirPods

This automation can be very convenient if you prefer to have a set media volume every time you use your AirPods. Some people may prefer to use the maximum volume, but others may find that 51 percent or some other setting works best for them. This can be done very easily by setting up an automation that switches the media volume to a certain level every time your AirPods are connected. To set this up, go to the Shortcuts app, then select Automations > New Automation (select the “+” sign in the top right corner if the automation is already saved), and then select Bluetooth . Change the trigger time to Connected , then set up your AirPods under Device . If you want to confirm execution before each run, select “Run after confirmation” or select “Run immediately” for more convenience.

Click Next, then select New Blank Automation . From here, search for “Set volume” in the search bar and select it. Tap the percentage shown in blue text to change it to a specific level, and then tap Done to save the automation. Now, when you connect your AirPods to your iPhone, the media volume will automatically be set to whatever percentage you choose.

Automatically set ANC mode on AirPods

By default, your AirPods usually remember which ANC mode you set the last time you used them. This is why having an automation that sets them to your preferred ANC mode can be very helpful. Setting it up is also exceptionally easy as you just need to follow these quick steps.

Open Shortcuts and select Automations > New Automations (or use the + icon in the top right corner if you already have other automations saved). Tap Bluetooth , then select AirPods from the Device drop-down, select Connected , and then choose when you want it to launch (after confirmation or immediately). Select New Blank Automation , then find Set Noise Control Mode . Now make sure your AirPods are connected to your iPhone, then tap Route and select your AirPods again. Now click on Noise Control Mode. Depending on which AirPods you have, you’ll have a few different options to choose from. If you want ANC to be turned on, select Noise Cancellation . If you want transparency , select it. If you have AirPods with the new Adaptive Mode, you can choose that as well. Alternatively, if you want to change a mode that you use frequently, the automation can prompt you every time.

Automatically start a playlist or podcast

Another really neat option you can take advantage of using shortcuts and automation is to have a playlist or podcast automatically start when you connect your AirPods to your iPhone. Unfortunately, Apple’s Shortcuts and Automations only support certain apps at this time. So I couldn’t find a way to get Spotify to work with the playlist command since it doesn’t show up in the Shortcuts app without using an exploit. However, if you use Apple Music or Apple Podcasts, you can take advantage of both of these automations without any problems. The following examples assume you’re using Apple Music and Apple Podcasts, as those are the only apps available in Shortcuts for those purposes by default.

Launch the automation as before by choosing to open the Shortcuts app, then select Automations > New Automations > Bluetooth . Now select your device, select Connected , and then select Start after confirmation or Start immediately . The next few steps may vary depending on whether you want to play a playlist or a podcast.

Set up a playlist: Choose Music > Playback > Library > Playlists , then tap the playlist you want to use. While viewing your playlist, look for the + icon at the top and tap it to add it to your automation.

To start a podcast while connected: Choose Podcasts > Play , then find the podcast you want to start. If you just want to play the next podcast in the queue every time you connect, you can select “Next” instead of “Play” after selecting “Podcasts.”

Set up exercise automation when using Apple Watch

If you exercise regularly, you can also set up a dedicated automation that will automatically change your noise transparency settings, which is useful if you want to be more aware of your surroundings. This is especially useful if you usually listen to your AirPods with noise canceling, but want to enable Transparency or Adaptive modes while running outside.

There are technically two ways to do this: The simplest method requires using Apple Watch workouts to trigger the automation. I’ll also show you how to do this without an Apple Watch.

To set up this automation, start by going to Shortcuts > Automations > New Automations and select Apple Watch Workout as your trigger. From here, you can choose the Set Noise Control Mode action to turn noise cancellation off (or on) every time you start a workout on Apple Watch. You can also experiment with the other available actions to change media volume or even play a specific workout playlist. To do this, select “Play Music” from the list of actions, select the blue text, find the playlist you want to use, and tap the “+” icon to add it to the action.

Set up exercise automation for a specific time without using your Apple Watch.

To set up an automation to workout at a specific time without using your Apple Watch, go to Shortcuts > Automations > New Automations > Bluetooth , then select AirPods, Connected, and choose Start after confirmation or Start immediately . Click Next, then select New Blank Automation. This option is a little more difficult to set up, but bear with me. Next, set several actions in Automation in this order:

1. date

2. Date Format : Select Custom and then change the format string to HH:mm:ss.

3. Get Time Between : Select two times you want to check with automation.

4. If : This script essentially allows you to set up a branching script for your automation, allowing it to check if you’re doing something and if you want to set the AirPods to the specific mode you want.

5. Set Noise Canceling Mode : You’ll actually need to do two of these things. One is to turn off noise reduction, the other is to turn it back on.

Like I said, it’s a little more complicated than just using the previous workout automation I mentioned, but it’s still a great option if you’d rather use something other than your Apple Watch to run your workouts.

Ultimately, you can do a lot of things with Shortcuts and Apple AirPods (or even any other Bluetooth headphones). Play around with shortcuts and automation to find options that work for you, and be sure to try the ones above if you want to make things a little more convenient for you.

You can also download third-party apps to increase the number of actions available in the Shortcuts app , so be sure to check them out if you want more options to choose from.

Automatically play music when you arrive at your preferred gym

If you go to the gym for a workout, you can also set your AirPods to automatically play music whenever your iPhone detects that you’re at the gym. You’ll need the gym’s address for this automation, but a quick Google search should find it. To set this up, follow these steps:

Open Shortcuts and select Automation > New Automation > Arrival. Enter your gym’s address in the “Location” drop-down box, then select “Anytime” or enter a specific time range if you have a specific time that you usually go to the gym. I recommend setting this to “Launch after confirmation” simply because you may not want to start the music right away.

Once you click Next, you will need to set the playlist you want to start listening to. This can be done using the same steps I described above: Music > Playback > Library > Playlists , and then click on the playlist you want to use.

If you want to do more, like set the volume and noise mode, you can set up multiple actions in the automation by choosing New Blank Automation instead, and then adding Play Music, selecting a playlist, and then adding more actions for Set volume”. and set the noise reduction mode. Here’s what the whole setup will look like:

Automation > New Automation > Arrival > enter the gym location and select Any Time or Time Range . Now select New Blank Automation > Play Music (select the playlist you want), then add Set Volume and select the volume percentage you prefer. Finally, add “Set Noise Control Mode ” and change it to “Noise Reduction,” “Transparency,” or “Adaptive,” depending on your preference. Once saved, whenever your phone detects that you’re at the gym, it will prompt you to start playing your preferred playlist. Unfortunately, there is no way to do this automatic check to see if your AirPods are connected, so I recommend requiring confirmation for this.

More…