AirBuddy Is the Best AirPods Assistant for Your Mac
AirPods have simplified the way you connect to headphones, but there’s room for improvement on how they work on a Mac. Whenever I connect my AirPods to my MacBook, I still have to click the Bluetooth button in the menu bar and select AirPods, despite how easy it is to connect them to an Apple TV or iPhone. It’s also difficult to quickly check the battery level of my AirPods or their case. Installing AirBuddy ($13) made all those complaints a thing of the past. The app lets you quickly connect to AirPods, reliably shows your battery level, and even lets you set up keyboard shortcuts to switch listening modes, mute or unmute, etc. Plus, there’s no limit to what you can do with AirPods.
Setting up AirBuddy
After installing AirBuddy, it will take you a few minutes to go through the setup. The app will ask for Bluetooth permissions needed to view your AirPods and other Bluetooth accessories. Once permission is granted, the app will sit discreetly in your Mac’s menu bar. Click the icon in the menu bar and select the gear icon to open AirBuddy Settings.
The General tab allows you to choose what happens when you click an icon in the AirBuddy menu bar. You can either have it display a list of available Bluetooth devices, or just connect straight away to your favorite headset. You can also enable the “Increase font size” option here – I think the default size for the battery percentage statistic is too small.
Next, go to the proximity settings page and select Enable Status Window . This is one of the best features of AirBuddy – every time you open the AirPods case next to your Mac, it shows a small floating window that displays the battery percentage of the case and each individual AirPod, as well as the option to connect them to your device. You can choose the size and position of this window, and also set up a keyboard shortcut for it.
To set up additional shortcuts, go to the Shortcuts tab and click the + button. I added one to switch between noise canceling and transparency modes, and another to mute or unmute the AirPods microphone, which is useful for video calls.
Finally, you can go to the Devices tab and enable AirPods firmware update notifications . Typically, your AirPods are automatically updated, but you can use AirBuddy to get notified when Apple releases an update, which can sometimes include cool new features. This completes your basic AirBuddy setup, but you can browse through the settings and tweak a few more things as you see fit.
Get notified when your AirPods are low on battery
Quite often, I realized that my AirPods were dead right after I left the house. Luckily, AirBuddy also lets you set notifications when connected accessories are low on battery. Go to the Devices tab in AirBuddy settings, right-click any device from the list and select Create Battery Alert . You can set separate alerts for the case and the AirPods themselves. This is also where AirBuddy’s support for other Bluetooth accessories comes into play, as you can use the feature to set battery alerts for each one. This includes other headsets, mouse, keyboard, etc. (AirBuddy can also work with Shortcut automation or transfer Apple Magic accessories to other devices with one click.)
Since I set up AirBuddy, I’ve been using AirPods with my Mac more often. This has made me much less worried about leaving the house with a dead pair of AirPods (or worse, one AirPod that failed to charge for some unknown reason). As someone who likes to use apps in full screen mode, AirBuddy’s keyboard shortcuts have also saved me a lot of time. Now I no longer have to long press on the AirPods themselves or fiddle with the menu bar to control my AirPods’ listening modes.