Learn how to use the Action Button to connect your iPhone to your AirPods or HomePod with a simple press.
Why you should do this
If you own multiple Apple devices, you might have noticed that your AirPods connect automatically to your iPhone, iPad, or Mac, depending on factors like where you’re playing media or taking a phone call. Of course, if you don’t like this automatic behavior, you can easily prevent it from iOS and macOS Settings. After that, your AirPods will reconnect to the last device they were connected to, provided Bluetooth is enabled on that phone or computer.
Now, let’s be honest: it isn’t a pain to manually switch your AirPods to your iPhone if it’s connected to another device. You just go to Control Center (step 1), tap the tiny AirPlay icon (step 2), select your AirPods (step 3), and then exit Control Center (step 4). However, wouldn’t it be even easier to eliminate all four steps and just press one button to connect to AirPods?
Before you begin: Make sure your AirPods are connected to your iPhone, or they are out of the case. This will ensure they are available as one of the Bluetooth devices and show up as a potential output device when you’re building the shortcut. If you want to use your HomePod instead, make sure it’s powered on.
Use the iPhone Action button to connect your AirPods or HomePod
1) Open the Apple Shortcuts app on your iPhone and tap the plus button from the Shortcuts section to build a new one.
2) Use the search bar to find the “Change Playback Destination” action and add it to your build.
3) Tap the blue ‘iPhone’ placeholder text and select your AirPods or HomePod.
4) Tap the current shortcut name and rename it to something like Connect AirPods, and save your iOS shortcut.
5) Now, go to the Settings app on your iPhone 15 Pro or later and tap Action Button.
6) Swipe until you reach the Shortcut screen, tap Choose a Shortuct or the current shortcut name, and select the Connect AirPods shortcut you built earlier. It will show up under the My Shortcuts section.
Everything is now set!
To test, connect your AirPods to your other device, such as your Mac, iPad, or Apple TV. Now, press and hold the Action button on your iPhone to run the shortcut. Your phone will automatically connect to your AirPods. Similarly, if you had built the shortcut to connect to HomePod, pressing and holding the Action button will do just that.
Once you start using this tip, changing the playback destination manually feels unnecessarily lengthy.
If your iPhone does not have an Action button
In this case, you can learn about five ways to replicate the feature of the Action button on your iPhone 15, 15 Plus, or older. Simply set the Connect AirPods shortcut to run using one of those alternate methods, such as Back Tap.
Tip: You can also set your Action button to connect to AirPods and an alternate method like Back Tap to connect to HomePod. Of course, for this to work, you’ll have to build two shortcuts and assign one to connect to AirPods and the other to HomePod.
On a related note: