Technologies

Stop Switching Devices Manually: Your Guide to Multipoint Bluetooth Audio

When you’re bouncing between your phone and computer, advanced multipoint Bluetooth connections allow you to connect to two or more devices simultaneously.

Jumping between digital devices has become a necessary part of many people’s daily lives, whether you’re keeping up with text alerts or ensuring you don’t miss an important call while in a Zoom meeting on your laptop.

Multipoint Bluetooth was designed to solve the problem of having to disconnect or enter the Bluetooth menu each time you want your headset to connect to a different device. It helps you stay notified of incoming calls, email or messaging notifications, letting you conveniently bounce between personal and professional without interrupting your task.

Introduced in 2010 as part of Bluetooth 4.0, advanced multipoint allows two devices to be connected simultaneously to your audio headset, enabling you to switch between them. For several years, the feature was glitchy, unreliable and not widely supported, particularly for true-wireless earbuds. But that’s changing.

Recent hardware and software advances have vastly improved multipoint’s stability and power consumption, and the feature is now available on many wireless headphones and true-wireless earbuds, including those from Bose, which was slow to adopt the feature due to reliability concerns.

Apple and Google support systems that behave similarly to multipoint — automatic device switching — which swaps source devices when it detects playback on your target device. The caveat is that they are technically fast auto-pairing systems rather than simultaneously connecting two devices, and you must be signed in to the same Apple ID or Google account on both devices for this function to work.

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The advantages and limitations of multipoint Bluetooth

When multiple devices are within the same digital ecosystem — Apple, Samsung or Google — and you’re signed into the same account on them, you get smoother (and often automatic) switching, whether it’s via Apple’s Handoff, Google’s Fast Pair or actual multipoint Bluetooth.

If, for example, you’re swapping between your Apple iPad and your Android smartphone, you’ll usually have to pause one device manually (semi-automatic switching) before audio will switch over, though you still get the benefit of not having to do the Bluetooth disconnect/connect mambo.

Multipoint is not a universal feature, and its performance can vary depending on the specific model. Multipoint Bluetooth was (and still is) easier to implement on standard wireless headphones because the earcups are connected via a single main Bluetooth connection. True-wireless earbuds are more complex since the left and right earbuds have to be wirelessly synced while avoiding interference issues, and a third wireless channel (and more processing power) is required for multipoint pairing.

Note that multipoint Bluetooth doesn’t mean you can stream media from two devices simultaneously to the headphones. There are gaming headsets that support multiple simultaneous streams, but they use two distinct wireless connections — one by Bluetooth and one via 2.4GHz wireless — such as the HyperX Cloud Alpha 2 and Audeze Penrose. There are also models that can handle simultaneous sources by using wired and wireless connections.

Setting up multipoint Bluetooth

Update device firmware: Your phone, tablet and laptop should always be up to date, but it’s best to double-check to ensure your operating system supports the latest features.

Install the app: Download and install the companion app for your headphones or earbuds on your primary device, typically your phone, unless you use your tablet primarily for calls.

Pair with your primary device: Put the headphones or earbuds in pairing mode (usually by long-pressing a button on the headphones or case), and pair them with your phone or tablet using the device’s Bluetooth settings.

Update headphone firmware: Companies continually improve switching and connection reliability through firmware updates. To keep your headphones or earbuds current, update them via the app’s settings menu. Re-pair if necessary, and test the connection by streaming some audio.

Enable multipoint connection: Open the companion app settings again and enable your connection with a toggle switch labeled something like:

Allow multipoint connection
Connect to two devices simultaneously
Pair with a second device
Auto Switch

Pair with the second device: Put the headphones back in pairing mode and use the second device’s Bluetooth settings to pair them. Test the connection by streaming some audio.

What to expect from multipoint Bluetooth

At this point, you should be able to switch easily from one device to the other (and back) by starting a stream on the second device — or pausing the first one if your devices are from different operating systems (iOS and Android, for example). Note that due to Bluetooth bandwidth constraints, you may not be able to use certain «high-resolution» audio codecs like Sony’s LDAC while in multipoint mode.

It’s a good idea to test a few different scenarios with a mix of calls and media to see how things work with your particular mix of devices and apps. Even if all your gear is from the same ecosystem, you’re somewhat at the mercy of the apps you’re using and how they’re prioritized by the devices’ operating systems, as well as how they handle switching.

But if all goes well, you’ll be able to move more seamlessly between your digital devices than ever before, and you’ll wonder how you ever got along without multipoint Bluetooth.

Technologies

AI Brings Val Kilmer Back to the Big Screen a Year After His Death

Kilmer’s estate approves plans to use generative AI to resurrect the late actor for a role in the historical drama As Deep As the Grave.

Actor Val Kilmer died in 2025, but he’ll be seen in an upcoming movie he didn’t live to film. The historical archaeologist drama As Deep As the Grave will include an AI version of the actor who died at age 65 after a battle with throat cancer. It’s not the first time we’ve seen studios use AI this way, but it could be the most successful.

Director and writer Coerte Voorhees revealed to Variety on Wednesday that he would use AI to bring Kilmer’s likeness back to play Father Fintan, a Native American priest.

As Deep As the Grave tells the true story of an archaeologist couple who worked with the Navajo people in the 1920s to learn about America’s very first civilizations. Voorhees says that Kilmer agreed to play the role five years ago, but the actor’s struggles with throat cancer made him unable to complete work on it. There’s no date yet for the film’s release.

Hollywood actors have increasingly found themselves at odds with generative AI, a technology that has rapidly begun to infiltrate nearly every aspect of the entertainment industry. From writing scripts to generating digital likenesses of actors’ faces and voices, AI now has the ability to replicate performances with striking realism. In some instances, studios have gone even further, creating entirely new AI «actors» who can perform without ever stepping onto a set. This has raised complex questions about consent, compensation, and creative ownership, as performers grapple with the reality that their identities and craft can now be reproduced, modified, or even replaced by algorithms.

These attempts have been strongly opposed by the SAG-AFTRA labor union representing entertainers, which has been engaged in strikes against video game companies and is currently in precarious negotiations with film and TV studios. The labor guild has certain protections against generative AI following a strike that lasted more than 100 days, including requirements for clear consent and fair compensation. The current negotiations would expand these protections.

A SAG-AFTRA representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Voorhees says that Kilmer’s children approve of this AI resurrection.

«[Kilmer] always looked at emerging technologies with optimism as a tool to expand the possibilities of storytelling,» his daughter, Mercedes Kilmer, said in a statement, according to Variety. «This spirit is something that we are all honoring within this specific film, of which he was an integral part.»

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Thursday, March 19

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 19.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? It’s a pretty easy one today, but we’ve got all the answers in case you’re stumped. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Ghost’s word
Answer: BOO

4A clue: Magician’s «And just like that, it’s gone!»
Answer: POOF

5A clue: With 7-Across, it’s full of stars
Answer: NIGHT

6A clue: White bills in Monopoly
Answer: ONES

7A clue: See 5-Across
Answer: SKY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Score of 4 on a par 3
Answer: BOGEY

2D clue: ___ and aahs
Answer: OOHS

3D clue: Frequently, in poetry
Answer: OFT

4D clue: Like the sands of Harbour Island, Bahamas
Answer: PINK

5D clue: Dissenting votes
Answer: NOS

Technologies

Customers Prefer Apps Over Websites for Wireless and Home Internet Service

Easier logins are a key reason customers are happier with apps, according to the J.D. Power study.

When you last checked your mobile or home internet bill, did you reach for your phone or sit down with your laptop or desktop computer? According to a new J.D. Power study, people would rather access their accounts via apps than websites. And that preference is especially strong when it comes to telecom companies such as mobile carriers and home internet providers (which increasingly overlap).

According to the 2026 US Telecom Digital Experience Study, surveyed customers gave app login an average satisfaction score of 681 for wireless carriers and 689 for internet service providers (out of 1,000 points). Website login trailed those by 38 points and 42 points, respectively. J.D. Power gathered evaluations from 12,082 customers of eight internet providers and 14 wireless carriers.

Biometric logins were a major factor in the decision. When accessing an account, there are always one or more layers of authentication just to get in. An app tends to speed you through the door using face or finger recognition to sign in or load a passkey.

Built-in services like Apple’s Passwords app can also use biometrics to unlock and fill in saved credentials in websites, but the experience isn’t as smooth. J.D. Power noted that maintenance issues and slow responsiveness also derail the website login experience across both segments.

This helps explain why carriers have invested heavily in improving their apps. For one, T-Mobile’s T-Life app is increasingly the central point of customer interaction. And AT&T just this week rolled out a new app — named simply AT&T — that is a single resource for its mobile and broadband customers.

AT&T’s Jeff Dixon, assistant vice president of Digital Product Management and Development, emphasized the importance of speed in the company’s app overhaul.

«We did focus on performance to make it snappy throughout,» he said, noting extensive architectural work on back-end services to cache and pre-fetch data.

The J.D. Power study also found that the gap between satisfaction with telecom companies’ apps and websites was wider than in other industries, suggesting that wireless and internet providers need to shore up their web experiences. There was a 25-point gap between apps and websites for wireless carriers, and an 11-point gap for internet service providers.

Overall, customer satisfaction was 654 out of 1,000 for wireless carriers and 659 for internet providers. Scores were based on four factors in order of importance: design, system performance, tools and capabilities, and information.

Ranking among the wireless carriers, Mint Mobile got the highest score (704), with Spectrum Mobile coming next (678) and followed by a tie between Metro by T-Mobile and T-Mobile itself (672). It’s worth noting that, of those, Spectrum is the only one not owned by T-Mobile.

For internet service providers, T-Mobile ranked the highest in the survey with a score of 695, followed by AT&T at 675 and Verizon at 669.