Airpod "Paired" tone does not indicate which device it paired to

Originator:erwinmaza
Number:rdar://29990746 Date Originated:1/12/17
Status:Open Resolved:
Product:Airpods Product Version:1
Classification:UI/UX Reproducible:Always
 
Summary:
When inserting an Airpod into one's ear, a nice and helpful tone is heard to indicate it has connected (paired) to a device. 

However, if the airpod has not been worn in a while, the user may not remember which device it last paired to.

In this scenario, an attempt to use the airpod to listen to, for example, music from an iPhone, may result in the music being output from the phone's speakers because the airpod is connected to the user's mac instead.

Steps to Reproduce:
1) Pair Airpod to a device, say a mac. Listen to a video played on the mac.
2) Remove Airpods and insert into case.
3) Next day, insert Airpods into ears, hear "paired" confirmation tone.
4) Start music playback using Watch. Note, the "now playing" Watch app does not indicate where playback will occur.
5) Hear music being played, but faintly. 
6) Increase volume to compensate.
7) Realize your coworkers are hearing your music from your phone better than you are.

Expected Results:
In step 3) above, realize Airpods are not paired to the phone as expected, allowing the avoidance of Steps 5-7

Actual Results:
Music plays through phone, not airpods.

Version:
iPhone 6s
Watch Series 0
Airpods
Macbook Pro

Notes:
Potential Privacy issue:

Besides inconvenience and a bad user experience, this is also a potential privacy issue, if the Airpods are intended to be used to answer a phone call. In this scenario, people nearby could hear the caller reveal private information before the user realizes the Airpods are paired to some other device.

Comments

I had a similar problem today, I was on a train and put in one Airpod then pressed play on iPhone and the music came blasting out of the iPhone speaker instead of the iPhone. So I had to manually connect the iPhone to to the AirPods which took about a minute. Then putting second one in ear there was no sound and no way to manually connect it. It started working on its own after about 2 minutes.

By indiekiduk at Jan. 16, 2017, 9:17 p.m. (reply...)

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