GoKawiilBluetooth headphones have exploded in popularity, with the market continuing to grow each year. The category, which includes over-ear headphones like the Sony WH-1000XM6 and in-ear devices like Apple's AirPods line, offers a mix of comfort and convenience, and we've reached a point where it's hard to find name-brand headphones that don't sound at least somewhat decent. But while most marketing for consumer-grade wireless headphones focuses on headline features like active noise canceling, there's another feature most people should add to their list of non-negotiables.
Once upon a time, during the halcyon days of the ubiquitous headphone jack, swapping between devices was a matter of popping the plug out of one and into the other. Maybe you'd get an audio splitter if you really needed to use two audio sources at once, but that was as complicated as things usually got. With Bluetooth, simply switching even the best wireless headphones over to another device involves fiddling with settings menus and dealing with frustrating connection issues.
Finicky connections are a defining trait of the decades-old Bluetooth protocol, and although improvements continue to be made with each generational update, that essential character remains. That's where Bluetooth multipoint comes in. It's a feature that allows a Bluetooth device to remain connected to multiple devices at once, swapping between audio streams from each as you use them. While multipoint can introduce some annoyances of its own, it's still far preferable to manually switching between devices over Bluetooth. Here's why it's a must-have for most headphone shoppers.