Reports have broken suggesting the Galaxy Buds Plus multi-connect feature isn’t working as advertised by Samsung.
The company went in hard on the connectivity features at the Galaxy Buds Plus launch, promising that the new buds would make switching between your phone and laptop quick and painless. Instead of manually pairing and unpairing the headphones via Bluetooth, Samsung said that anyone with the new buds would be able to swap gadgets within an app.
Related: Here’s the lowdown on the new Galaxy Buds Plus
But eagle-eyed redditors spotted an edit in the buds’ description which shows that this feature has now been downgraded. A line on the product page stating “multi-point connection is available for devices using Bluetooth 5.0,” has mysteriously vanished.
Trusted Reviews has contacted Samsung for comment on the issue but hadn’t heard back at the time of publishing. However, when DroidLife approached Samsung for clarification – after being stumped by the connectivity options – a spokesperson issued the following statement:
“Galaxy Buds+ offers users a convenient way to transition across devices that are logged into the same Samsung account with the SmartThings app installed. This feature can be accessed in the media panel (by selecting Galaxy Buds+) and is only available on Samsung mobile devices running Android 7.1.1 or later.”
Related: Hands-on with Samsung’s Galaxy S20 Ultra
So it looks like there is the possibility to flick between devices when you’re wearing your buds, but only if both devices are Samsung products with SmartThings installed. If your house isn’t decked out in purely Samsung gear, then you’ll have to resort to pairing and unpairing the headphones via Bluetooth as normal. This isn’t quite the seamless switching we were promised.
The Buds Plus are the latest true wireless buds from Samsung and come free with the S20 Ultra or the S20 Plus. If you’re not buying one of the new phones you’ll have to fork out $149 for a pair of buds – this isn’t super cheap, which is why it’s disappointing to see that the switching feature is very limited.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.