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Listening To The Same Audio On Several Bluetooth Devices At Once

Kent in Nashville, Tennessee listens on SuperTalk 99.7 WTN and asked us about feeding audio to multiple bluetooth headsets at once

bluetooth headphones

*Audio archived for 6 months

Kent asked: “My wife and I got stereo Bluetooth headsets to use when we travel. Specifically on flights. We’re wondering how we could both listen to and watch movies, pairing both Bluetooth sets to the device we’re using. She is an Apple person and I am an Android.”

 

Kent, Bluetooth headphones usually connect to one source at a time, so you won’t be able to ask either phone to connect to multiple headsets at a time. Some brand name headphones have software that allows two devices to listen to the same feed. For example, newer Bose products allow it.

That’s not the case for most brands, and definitely not for most generics, for those, unfortunately, you will need to spend some money.

Unfortunately, you will need to spend some money

There are devices that connect to a single audio input and allow two Bluetooth devices to connect to it. As far as the phone is concerned it’s playing audio through the headphones, it’s the 3rd party Bluetooth splitter adapter that acts as the Bluetooth source, and you’ll have to connect both headphones to that device, not the phone.

These dual connection splitter devices go for about $30, and they’re available from brands like MPOW, Aukey, and TaoTronics at your typical online retailers.

You can use wired headphones and buy a less expensive splitter, but even if you do that you’ll still need a splitter.

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Written by Dave Graveline

Dave Graveline is the founder, Host & Executive Producer of "Into Tomorrow" in addition to being President of the Advanced Media Network".

Dave is also a trusted and familiar voice on many national commercials & narrations in addition to being an authority in consumer tech since 1994. He is also a former Police Officer and an FBI Certified Instructor.

Dave thrives on audience participation!

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  1. well . heres what want …is it possible . I ride a motorcycle with a Bluetooth mp3 .that’s plays to Bluetooth earbuds headset .. I want my passage to wear Bluetooth earbuds headset and be able to listen to what I”m listening to . .I was Wondering if I bought two exact ear buds would it be possible to play to both sets of er buds????

    • No,
      Imagine the thing paying the audio as a faucet with water coming out; we call this the host device.
      Imagine the thing you are listening on like headsets, speakers as the nozzle the water comes out of; we call this the slave device.
      Imagine the Bluetooth as a hose to get the water from the faucet to the nozzle.
      Imagine you want to have more than one nozzle connected to a single faucet. You’d have to go buy another hose and a splitter. Having to nozzles does you no good unless you have two hoses to connect them to.

      Most host devices like your bike, only have one “faucet”, meaning it only has the ability to connect to a single slave device. Because of that, you’ll need something that can act as a not just the splitter, but the hose too. These are the devices from MPOW they are describing.

      Its a bit confusing because most host devices can connect to multiple slave devices. For example most people have their phone connected to both a car they own and a bluetooth headset. The problem is, this doesn’t account for the ‘second hose and splitter’. Having multiple slaves connected is like having multiple hoses with no splitter. They can all work, you just have to disconnect one to use the other.

      That said some newer phones, like the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (which I’m lucky enough to carry) support transmitting multiple slave devices, so it is like they have multiple faucets built in.

      Sorry for the long winded explanation, but I feel like specificity is important