If you’re an AirPod owner, you’re probably very satisfied with them. AirPods are some of the most popular wireless earbuds, with good reason too.
But you may be wondering what happens when it comes to alarms – will your alarm still go off when you have your AirPods in?
Many of us like to listen to soft music, podcasts, audiobooks, or even rain sounds to help us sleep. So if you’ve fallen asleep with your AirPods in, you’d probably like to know what’s going to happen when it’s time for work and your alarm starts playing.
Well, let’s take a look!
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Will Alarm Go Off With AirPods Connected?
The simple answer is yes – your alarm will still play when your AirPods are connected. This is a failsafe so that if your AirPods batteries die while you’re asleep, your phone will still ring out with your alarm to wake you up in the morning.
At the time of writing, this is the default setting with iOS 16; alarms will play through your iPhone’s built-in speakers and at a set volume through your AirPods.
However, if these settings aren’t what you want, you can alter them so that the alarm plays only through the phone speakers, or, with the help of third-party apps, only through your AirPods.
How to Make Alarm Play Only Through AirPods
Some people may want their alarm to play only through their AirPods. If you sleep with your AirPods in and don’t want the alarm sound to wake anyone else up, this would be ideal. This can also be great if you’re sleeping in a public place, like an airport or on the bus, and want a reminder to wake up before you miss your flight or stop!
Unfortunately, there are no settings built-in to the iPhone that allow you to change it so that alarm sounds play only through your headphones. The only option is…
Use a Third-Party App
This is the easiest way around the problem. There are plenty of third-party apps available on both the app store which allow you to set, manage, and edit alarms without using the iPhone clock app.
Most of these apps also have settings to allow you to control where the alarm sound plays; through the phone speakers, through your AirPods, or both.
Alarm Only Playing Through AirPods/Speakers
Unfortunately, that’s all that can currently be done to change the way your alarms go off when you have your AirPods connected. It’s not great, as it doesn’t allow for that extra level of personalization that users have come to expect from tech giants like Apple.
However, if you’re experiencing a variation of this problem, i.e. your alarm only plays through your headphones, and you want it to play on your phone or your phone and your AirPods, there are a few things you might want to check.
Update iOS
As this seems to be somewhat of an ongoing issue (at the time of writing), there is a chance that Apple may come out with a software update very soon to address this issue.
With that being said, if you’re experiencing anything different to the official current Apple stance: alarms will play from both AirPods and iPhone simultaneously, then you might be running an old version of iOS.
Every time Apple releases a new verison of iOS, you should aim to update your phone as soon as possible. Software updates contain fixes to multitudes of bugs and glitches that are causing issues for large numbers of users.
Check Alarm Settings
It’s also possible that your alarm settings are not configured exactly as you might need them. If you’re running the latest iOS, and you still can’t hear the alarm coming from your iPhone speakers, simply open the Clock app, click Edit in the top left corner, and select the alarm you want to change.
From there, click Sound and scroll down to ensure you have an actual alarm tone selected. If you have ‘None’ selected, right at the bottom, your phone will only vibrate.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, this is an annoyingly complex issue, and one that’s not all that easy to find out about online – even on Apple’s official website. This is probably due largely to the large span of time over which these queries have been made, and with the many updates released, the situation has changed a few times.
For now, there are no other options available as far as customizable alarm playback goes, so we’ll just have to wait and see what Apple comes out with in terms of iOS updates.
If you’re desperate to change your alarm output, I would suggest looking into third-party alarm apps for now. The best ones will bypass Apple’s settings that force system alarm audio to play from both AirPods and phone speakers by coding the alarms as a standard audio stream.
Best of luck, and keep updating your phone!
