AirBuddy is a handy Mac app that lets you monitor all your nearby Bluetooth devices and AirPods. You can check battery life, switch them back and forth between multiple Macs on your desk, and best of all — get the same beautiful AirPods animations that you see on your iPhone.
It offers granular Bluetooth controls that Apple should build right into macOS.
AirBuddy: Faster Bluetooth and AirPods switching
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
AirBuddy was originally created with a simple mission: Give your Mac the same beautiful animations and interface when you connect your AirPods (or Beats) that you’re used to seeing on your iPhone. And they do look fantastic!
But it has since grown to be an all-encompassing app that lets you keep a close eye on all your Bluetooth devices.
Manage and share devices across all your Macs
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
If you juggle between a Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Apple Watch, your devices will try to coordinate which device has dibs on your AirPods at any moment. It’s easy to get frustrated when they get it wrong. AirBuddy gives you more control.
If you sit down at your Mac and your headphones are still playing from your phone, just hit the AirBuddy icon in the menu bar and click on the device to pair it with your Mac.
If you have Magic Handoff enabled, you can see all the Bluetooth devices paired to all your Macs. If you have two Macs on your desk, you can switch headphones, keyboards, mice, trackpads or other devices between them.
Switching my trackpad between my Mac mini and MacBook Pro wasn’t perfectly reliable — but I had better success with my Beats Solo3 headphones.
Even more advanced features to dig into
AirBuddy can notify you when your devices are running low on battery — you can customize the threshold for each one.
AirBuddy also supports Shortcuts, with actions like “Connect Headset,” “Disconnect Headset,” “Get Device Battery Information,” and more.
Another feature may be appreciated by AirPods owners who want the latest firmware. Apple’s insistence on making sure “it just works” means that it’s hard to tell if your AirPods have updated or not. If you’re waiting on a new feature, you can use AirBuddy to see which firmware they’re running.
If you are one of the many people covered in our setups posts with two (or more!) Macs at your desk, AirBuddy will be an indispensable tool. Or, even if you only have an iPhone and a MacBook, you’re frustrated by Apple’s own “automatic” switching.
AirBuddy costs $12.99 — but you get 5 licenses for 5 separate machines — or download it free through a Setapp subscription.
Download from: AirBuddy website
Download from: Setapp
