Six Ways to Automate Your AirPods With Shortcuts

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The introduction of Shortcuts in iOS 13 opened the door for a lot of new little iPhone tricks—but less attention has been given to the Shortcuts and Automations that can be applied to AirPods. I use my AirPods Pro almost every single day, and they're already quite convenient to connect and tweak via the iPhone's settings, but I have set up a couple Shortcuts and Automations to make using them even easier.

Setup an Automation for whenever you connect your AirPods

Perhaps one of the handiest and most convenient things you can do with Shortcuts is to set up an Automation whenever you connect your AirPods. This can be great for those who like to have their media volume set to the same level all the time, or if you have a certain playlist that you always listen to first.

To set up an Automation that is triggered anytime you connect your AirPods, navigate to Shortcuts > Automation > New Automation and then scroll down until you see the Bluetooth option. Tap it, select Is Connected, then you can choose between Run After Confirmation and Run Immediately. Run After Confirmation will require you to physically press the Run button, but if you do Run Immediately, it will run the Automation without any user input. Finally, make sure to choose your AirPods from the Choose Devices category.

Once you’ve got the basics filled in, select Next, and then you’re free to choose from any of the Shortcuts that it offers here. You can also build a custom Automation using the New Blank Automation option. This particular functionality can be great if, say, you want your iPhone’s media volume to lower to a certain amount when connecting your AirPods or if you want to start a specific playlist from Apple Music.

I’d recommend playing around with some different options here to find what works best for you, as Automations can make things a lot more convenient in the long run, but here are a few really good examples of ways to use Automations that trigger whenever you connect your AirPods to your iPhone.

Set the volume on your AirPods automatically

This Automation can be really handy if you prefer to have a set media volume whenever you're using your AirPods. Some folks may prefer to run theirs at max volume, but others may find that 51 percent or some other setting works best for them. This can be done really easily by setting an Automation that triggers the media volume to a certain level anytime your AirPods connect. To set this up, navigate to the Shortcuts app then select Automation > New Automation (select the + sign in the top right-hand corner if you already have an Automation saved), and then select Bluetooth. Change the trigger time to Is Connected, then set your AirPods in the Device section. If you want to confirm before each run, then select Run After Confirmation, or choose Run Immediately for the most convenience.

Tap Next, then select New Blank Automation. From here, look for Set Volume in the search bar and select it. Tap the percentage showed in blue text to change it to a specific level, and then tap Done to save the Automation. Now, whenever you connect your AirPods to your iPhone, the media volume will automatically be set to whatever percentage you choose.

Set ANC mode on AirPods automatically

By default, your AirPods tend to remember which ANC mode you had set when you last used them. That's why having an Automation that sets them to your preferred ANC mode can be really handy. Setting this one up is exceptionally easy, too, as you'll just need to follow these quick steps to do it.

Open Shortcuts and navigate to Automation > New Automation (or use the + icon at the top right if you already have other Automations saved). Tap Bluetooth, then select your AirPods from the Device dropdown and select Is Connected and then choose when you want to run it (after confirmation or immediately). Select New Blank Automation, then search for Set Noise Control Mode. Now make sure you have your AirPods connected to your iPhone and then tap Route and select your AirPods again. Now tap Noise Control mode. Depending on which AirPods you have, you'll have a few different options to choose from here. If you want ANC to be on, select Noise Cancellation. If you want Transparency, then select that. If you have AirPods with the new Adaptive mode, the you can select that, too. Alternatively, if you would like to change the mode you're using a lot, you can have Automation ask you each time.

Start a playlist or podcast automatically

Another really handy option you can take advantage of with Shortcuts and Automations is to start a playlist or podcast automatically when you connect your AirPods to your iPhone. Unfortunately, Apple Shortcuts and Automations only currently support some apps. As such, I couldn't find a way to get Spotify to work with the playlist command, as it doesn't appear in the Shortcuts app without utilizing an exploit. If you use Apple Music or Apple Podcasts, though, you'll be able to take advantage of both of these Automations without any issue. The following examples assume that you're using Apple Music and Apple Podcasts, as they are the only apps available in Shortcuts for these purposes by default.

Start the Automation just like before, by selecting opening the Shortcuts app, then select Automation > New Automation > Bluetooth. Now, choose your device, select Is Connected, and then choose between Run After Confirmation or Run Immediately. The next few steps can differ depending on whether you want to play a playlist or a podcast.

Setting up a playlist: select Music > Play > Library > Playlists and then tap on the playlist that you want to use. While viewing the playlist, find the + icon at the top and tap it to add it to the Automation.

To start a podcast on connection: select Podcasts > Play and then search for the podcast that you want to start. If you want to just play the next podcast in your queue whenever you connect, you can select Up Next instead of Play after choosing Podcasts.

Set an exercise Automation while using Apple Watch

If you exercise regularly, you can also set up specific Automations that will automatically change the noise transparency settings, which is helpful if you want to be more aware of your surroundings. This is especially helpful if you typically listen to your AirPods in Noise Canceling but want to turn on Transparency or Adaptive modes while running outside.

There are technically two ways you can go about this, with the easiest method requiring the use of Apple Watch workouts to trigger the Automation. I’ll also show you how to do this without an Apple Watch.

To set up this Automation, start by going to Shortcuts > Automation > New Automation and select Apple Watch Workout as the Trigger. From here, you can select the Set Noise Control Mode action to have it turn off noise cancellation (or turn it on) whenever you start a workout on Apple Watch. You can also toy around with the other actions available to change the media volume or even start a specific workout playlist. To do that, select Play Music from the actions, select the blue text, find the playlist you want to use, and tap the + icon to add it to the Action.

Set up an exercise Automation for a specific time without using Apple Watch

To set up an Automation for exercising at a specific time without using an Apple Watch, go to Shortcuts > Automation > New Automation > Bluetooth, then select your AirPods, Is Connected and select Run After Confirmation or Run Immediately. Tap Next, then select New Blank Automation. This one is a bit more complicated to set up, but bear with me. Next, set a few actions into the Automation in this order:

Date

Format Date: select Custom and then change the Format String to HH:mm:ss.

Get time between: select the two times that you want this Automation to check for.

If: this scripting basically lets you set up a branching scenario for your Automation, allowing it to check if you’re doing something and if you are to set the AirPods to the specific mode that you want.

Set Noise Control Mode: You’ll actually need to do two of this Action. One is to turn off Noise Cancellation, and one is to turn it back on.

As I said, it's a bit more complicated than just using the previous Workout Automation that I mentioned, but it’s still a great option if you prefer to use something other than the Apple Watch to trigger your workouts.

Ultimately, there are a lot of things you can do with Shortcuts and your Apple AirPods (or even any other Bluetooth headphones). Toy around with Shortcuts and Automations to find options that work for you, and be sure to give the ones outlined above a try if you want to make things a little bit more convenient for yourself.

You can also download third-party apps to increase the amount of Actions available in the Shortcuts app, so be sure to check those out if you need more options to choose from.

Start music automatically when you arrive at your preferred gym

If you go to the gym for your workouts, you can also set your AirPods to automatically start playing music whenever your iPhone detects you are at the gym. You'll need to have the address of the gym for this Automation, but a quick Google search should bring that up. To set this up, follow these steps:

Open Shortcuts and select Automation > New Automation > Arrive. Input the address of your gym into the Location dropdown, then select Any Time or input a specific Time Range if you have a certain time you usually go to the gym. I recommend setting this one to Run After Confirmation, just because you might not want to start your music right away.

After tapping Next, you'll want to set the playlist that you want to start listening to. This can be done using the same steps that I outlined above: Music > Play > Library > Playlists and then tap on the playlist that you want to use.

If you want to do more, like set the volume and the noise mode, then you can set up multiple actions in the Automation by selecting New Blank Automation instead and then adding Play Music, selecting the playlist, then adding in additional actions for Set Volume and Set Noise Control Mode. Here's how that whole setup would look:

Automation > New Automation > Arrive > input gym location and select Any Time or Time Range. Now select New Blank Automation > Play Music (choose the playlist you want), then add Set Volume and select the volume percentage that you prefer. Finally, add Set Noise Control Mode and change it to Noise Cancellation, Transparency, or Adaptive, depending on your preference. Once saved, any time your phone detects you are at your gym, it will offer to start playing your preferred playlist. Unfortunately, there's no way to make this Automation check if your AirPods are connected, which is why I recommend requiring confirmation for this one.