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I would like to watch a movie with a friend, but silently. Can we each use a set of airpods at once? If not, what about other wireless headphones?

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I don't have a pair of Airpods to test this with but it worked perfectly with a Bluetooth speaker and my headphones.

Update: @David Bonnet was kind enough to test this with 2 pairs of Airpods and Apple, unfortunately, has prevented you from doing this by treating them as special devices rather than as generic Bluetooth devices. You can use the steps below to connect to a pair of Airpods and any other Bluetooth or hardwired audio device, but not 2 pairs of Airpods.

  1. Pair both Airpods to the computer. You need to be able to select them separately as Outputs in System Preferences -> Sound -> Output (Set the output volume for each Airpod now as you can't set it once you select the combined device. You can always switch back to the individual ones and change their volume before going back to the combined one)
  2. Open Audio MIDI Setup in Applications/Utilities Apple Midi
  3. Click the + at the bottom left and select Create Multi-Output Device Apple 2 devices
  4. Check the boxes next to both Airpods (or any other 2+ output devices)
  5. (Optional) Rename the output by clicking on the name Multi-Output Device in the list Rename Apple Midi profile
  6. Select the new device you created from the volume menu or from the Sound System Preferences.
  7. Enjoy sharing audio with your friend.
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  • Airpods can be paired to any device as standard Bluetooth headphones, including older Macs: 9to5mac.com/2016/12/19/…
    – Todd Dabney
    Commented Apr 16, 2017 at 22:00
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    I should have said: Thank you! I'm sure you are right and that it would work with two AirPods as well as two of any bluetooth devices. - I'm just also hoping for someone to confirm it works with two AirPods, just cuz.
    – Samuel Coskey
    Commented Jul 1, 2017 at 18:52
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    I just tried with two AirPods (firmware 3.7.2), and Todd's procedure didn't work for the simple reason that the Mac does not let two AirPods stay connected simultaneously.
    – David Bonnet
    Commented Sep 22, 2017 at 19:49
  • @DavidBonnet I did caveat this procedure with "I don't have a pair of Airpods to test this with". But I'm curious did you connect the Airpods using the standard connection method or using the steps from 9to5mac that I linked to?
    – Todd Dabney
    Commented Oct 13, 2017 at 18:27
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    @ToddDabney Here's the pairing method described by Apple: support.apple.com/kb/PH26241?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US. Either the pairing is synced through iCloud, or it is done through the button on the enclosure. In fine, the AirPods are identified as such and the system allows using only one at a time.
    – David Bonnet
    Commented Oct 31, 2017 at 12:26
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Currently, the only working solution is to use a software such as Airfoil that streams the audio from the computer (e.g., your Mac) to another device (e.g., an iPhone running Airfoil Satellite). One pair of Airpods is connected to the computer, the other pair is connected to the device receiving the streamed audio.

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Bose has a "Music Share" feature which allows one Bose device to share its audio with another. Open the "Bose Connect" app and click the icon that looks like 2 headphones.

Share your favorite music or audio with a friend by streaming it between two Bose headphones.

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