A lot of Apple owners are huge fans of their AirPods, and fair enough: they’re small and convenient. But using AirPods with your PS4 can be a bit problematic since the console doesn’t support Bluetooth audio. Thankfully, there’s a way around that.
As outlined by the AppleInsider YouTube account, the PS4 refuses to let you connect Airpods at the first try. So what do you do if you don’t want to use the TV speakers, soundbar, and don’t want to pay for another pair of headphones just for the console?
The answer, naturally is through a dongle. By connecting a set of AirFly Bluetooth transmitters, which you can get from Amazon for about $60, you can transmit Bluetooth audio to the Airpods – or any other Bluetooth headset that’s not supported by the PS4 – by connecting the AirFly to the 3.5mm jack in the PS4 controller. So rather than connecting Bluetooth audio, the PS4 picks up the AirFly as a “wired headset,” and the audio is transmitted wirelessly from there.
Two small tricks with this: you won’t be able to use the inbuilt microphone with the Airpods, but that isn’t a minus for a lot of people. But you can use the AirFly with the Nintendo Switch in exactly the same way, by connecting it to the 3.5mm jack. For those who don’t want to invest in a set of over-ears that have a detachable cable – like the Sony XM3’s – it’s good to have the option, and the $60 on a dongle to keep using your preferred noise cancelling buds will undoubtedly get you a better experience than $60 on a cheaper, shoddier pair of headphones. And as a bonus the same dongle can be used for other in-ears noise cancelling Bluetooth buds, like Bose or Sony’s, not just AirPods.
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