Although the most common use of headphones is to place one in each ear to appreciate the stereo sound of the music or to achieve greater acoustic isolation from the environment, there may be times when you prefer to use only one of them. The reasons may be multiple, from not being completely isolated acoustically from the environment to prolonging the battery life of the wireless headphones by using one at a time.
Alternating individual use of AirPods allows you to recharge one while using the other
This is something that can be done with the AirPods, Apple’s successful wireless headphones that already have several generations and variants (Pro and non-Pro, with case with or without wireless charging …) and that, precisely because of the ability of the case to serve as a charging base, it allows to increase the autonomy of use of this device
Taking for granted that by employing only one of the headphones you will lose the ability to enjoy music in stereo, it seems more appropriate to opt for this method if you are listening to a podcast or having phone conversations, where the experience will not be so affected by listening to the sound coming from a single headphone. In return you’ll nearly double the battery lifeThe battery will be recharged while one earphone is in use, while the other remains in the case.
For the more purist of the music experience, however, it’s worth remembering that the AirPods are capable of automatically vary the playback mode from stereo to mono when only one earbud is in useThis means that although you will not hear both channels of music in each ear, at least you will not miss the other half of the music coming through the other ear.
The process is of maximum simplicity because the AirPods automatically detect when they are removed from the charging case. In this way, if both of them come out, the stereo playback mode will be activated and, on the contrary, if only one of them is in use, the playback will be in mono. In the same way, when the other earphone comes out of the case, the stereo playback will be reactivated.
Having a greater autonomy of the AirPods also facilitates the ability to continue using them between different devices, since another of the virtues of Apple’s wireless headphones is their ability to switch the source from which the sound comes: computer, mobile, tablet, smart watch and depending on the models even the AppleTV multimedia home console.
