The left bud learns some tricks from the right bud
Anyone looking for top-tier personal audio gear has likely come across Bose. The company offers a wide range of products, from home theater systems to over-ear headphones, and now even has some of the best wireless earbuds you can find thanks to class-leading active noise cancellation. Yet, the Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II aren’t without their flaws — for the first few months after release, the earbuds haven’t been able to operate completely independently of one another. That’s finally changing today.
Two of the biggest complaints we’ve heard from Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II users are the lack of multipoint connectivity and the absence of a true mono mode. According to user reports on Reddit, one of those pain points has been solved with the latest firmware update that began rolling out February 16, per DigitalTrends. The feature summary given by the Bose Connect app when updating the Earbuds II specifically calls out the new Independent Single-Bud Use feature.
Previously, only the right earbud was connected to the source device over Bluetooth — the left bud simply piggybacked off this connection — so only the right earbud could be used solo. If the right earbud’s battery drained before the left earbud, you would have to stop listening and charge the right bud. Now, both earbuds can connect directly to your phone, so you can simply plop one earbud in the case and pick up the other one to continue where you left off if the battery runs out. This also means you can now take calls with either the left or right earbud.
The firmware update that enables this new functionality is version 1.3.26+g1226f68, and it appears to be on a staged rollout, meaning it could take days to reach all users. But this gives potential buyers one less reason to reject the QuietComfort Earbuds II in favor of competing products — let’s just hope multipoint connectivity support is next in line on Bose’s to-do list.
Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II
The Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II combine outstanding audio quality with class-leading ANC, and a recent firmware update has solved one of the biggest user complaints by adding support for independent single-bud use. If you’re in the market for top-tier earbuds, these should be on your shortlist.
