Windows 10 Gaining Improved Audio Support for AirPods in Future Update

The next major update for Windows 10 later this year will include improved support for Apple's line of AirPods and other Bluetooth headphones and earbud speakers.

windows 10
In a blog post, Microsoft says it is planning to add support for AAC, or Advanced Audio Coding for Bluetooth devices, which will offer improved audio quality for AirPods, iTunes, and Apple Music users. Windows currently only supports SBC codec and aptX for Bluetooth devices.

Enjoy premium audio streaming quality wirelessly on your Bluetooth headphones and speakers with AAC codec. Short for Advanced Audio Codec, AAC is a lossy codec that delivers high quality audio streaming in smaller files – great for listening to music online.

Alongside AAC support, the Windows 10 update will make it easier to select Bluetooth headphones, speakers, and earbuds from the Windows bar. As Microsoft describes:

No more clicking through multiple audio endpoints to make your Bluetooth headset's voice and mic work properly. We now only expose one audio endpoint in the UI and will switch to the correct one automatically for you for a seamless experience. Listening to Spotify and then have to hop onto a Teams call? You can also now directly control the volume of your headset

The new features, accompanied with bug fixes and improvements, will be available to all Windows 10 users later this year. However, members of the Windows Insider program can receive a beta with the new additions with the latest build.

Top Rated Comments

TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
39 months ago
looks like a solid update to me
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Enrico Avatar
39 months ago
Hopefully one day they will add Teams compatibility as well.
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)
acorntoy Avatar
39 months ago
And people say Apple is late to add functionality.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
btrach144 Avatar
39 months ago

Hopefully they fix their security holes in that OS too... Oh wait, there's an entire industry built by the fact that Microsoft software is insecure...
How is this on topic?

you realize that same industry has products for macOS too, right?

security issues are being found with Apple devices at an alarming rate.
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Imory Avatar
39 months ago
That's great! Unfortunately, both MacOS and Windows 10 suffers from the limitations of SBC where if you're on a Teams call or Zoom, having the audio output and mic output to your headphones/AirPods will result in 1950s phone call quality since it can't do both. Something the BT consortium really needs to fix. Fortunately, Zoom has gotten pretty clever with this and will connect the audio output to your AirPods and use the mic of your Macbook in order to maintain the highest quality possible.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
AndyMacAndMic Avatar
39 months ago

Hopefully they fix their security holes in that OS too... Oh wait, there's an entire industry built by the fact that Microsoft software is insecure...
First of all, that is wildly off topic.
Secondly, if you want to go down the path of security holes, one can 'shoot holes' in every OS in existence.

Here is a recent example on macOS:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/macos-11-3-patches-security-vulnerability-that-bypassed-built-in-malware-protections.2293352/?post=29838898#post-29838898

Pot and kettle?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

maxresdefault

Apple Announces 'Let Loose' Event on May 7 Amid Rumors of New iPads

Tuesday April 23, 2024 7:11 am PDT by
Apple has announced it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, May 7 at 7 a.m. Pacific Time (10 a.m. Eastern Time), with a live stream to be available on Apple.com and on YouTube as usual. The event invitation has a tagline of "Let Loose" and shows an artistic render of an Apple Pencil, suggesting that iPads will be a focus of the event. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more ...
Apple Vision Pro Dual Loop Band Orange Feature 2

Apple Cuts Vision Pro Shipments as Demand Falls 'Sharply Beyond Expectations'

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:44 am PDT by
Apple has dropped the number of Vision Pro units that it plans to ship in 2024, going from an expected 700 to 800k units to just 400k to 450k units, according to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo. Orders have been scaled back before the Vision Pro has launched in markets outside of the United States, which Kuo says is a sign that demand in the U.S. has "fallen sharply beyond expectations." As a...
Apple Silicon AI Optimized Feature Siri

Apple Releases Open Source AI Models That Run On-Device

Wednesday April 24, 2024 3:39 pm PDT by
Apple today released several open source large language models (LLMs) that are designed to run on-device rather than through cloud servers. Called OpenELM (Open-source Efficient Language Models), the LLMs are available on the Hugging Face Hub, a community for sharing AI code. As outlined in a white paper [PDF], there are eight total OpenELM models, four of which were pre-trained using the...
iPad And Calculator App Feature

Apple Finally Plans to Release a Calculator App for iPad Later This Year

Tuesday April 23, 2024 9:08 am PDT by
Apple is finally planning a Calculator app for the iPad, over 14 years after launching the device, according to a source familiar with the matter. iPadOS 18 will include a built-in Calculator app for all iPad models that are compatible with the software update, which is expected to be unveiled during the opening keynote of Apple's annual developers conference WWDC on June 10. AppleInsider...
iOS 17 All New Features Thumb

iOS 17.5 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Sunday April 21, 2024 3:00 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 17.5 update for the iPhone includes only a few new user-facing features, but hidden code changes reveal some additional possibilities. Below, we have recapped everything new in the iOS 17.5 and iPadOS 17.5 beta so far. Web Distribution Starting with the second beta of iOS 17.5, eligible developers are able to distribute their iOS apps to iPhone users located in the EU...