A Mac companion for your Apple AirPods
$6 (about £4.60) From Guilherme Rambo
Needs macOS 10.14 or later, AirPods or other headphones with W1 chip
Earlier this week, 9to5Mac contributor Guilherme Rambo released AirBuddy, a utility that adds iOS-like battery information for Apple W1-equipped headphones to macOS.
Open your AirPods’ case near your Mac and an overlay with battery info pops up — you can choose whether it appears at the top left, centre or right of the desktop. Bear in mind this info is already in macOS, at least while your headphones are connected, through the Bluetooth menu bar icon.
We’ve found the window can be slow to appear at times on our 2016 MacBook Pro (much like on iOS itself), though other times takes less than 2 seconds. It has a practical benefit, though: you can click in the window to connect the AirPods to your Mac (rather than your iPhone, say), rather than having to go to the Bluetooth menu — but you have to specifically click the small words ‘Click to connect’ in the window. If the clickable area were much larger, we would’ve scored AirBuddy higher.
While AirBuddy might catch your eye with iOS-inspired presentation, you may find the app’s other feature more useful. If you own an iPhone or an iPad. Its Today view widget can display those devices’ battery levels, which macOS normally doesn’t show you. This saves you having to wake their screens to check whether they need charging.
Bear in mind that Apple could introduce some or all of this functionality into macOS in an official capacity at a later date.
Author Alan Stonebridge
MacFormat verdict
For just $6 (about £4.60), AirBuddy is a convenient and mostly well implemented add-on to macOS, just not an essential one.
Score
3 out of 5
Pros and cons
+ Looks like it’s made by Apple
+ Welcome selection of preferences
+ Today view widget’s extra info
– Can take a moment to appear (may be hardware-related, not the app)
