The best AirPods aren't just designed to work with Apple devices. Using Bluetooth, you can connect your AirPods to a wide-range of non-Apple products, including the best Chromebooks. In this article, we'll breakdown how to connect your AirPods to a Chromebook in a few quick and easy steps.
If you've read our guides on how to connect your AirPods to a laptop or how to connect AirPods to Android phones and tablets, then you'll already know that there are some features that you'll miss out on by stepping outside of Apple's ecosystem such as Siri, wear detection and automatic device switching (which many of the other best wireless earbuds will offer cross-platform via 'multipoint pairing').
However, if AirPods and a Chromebook are what you have, you can still take advantage of their sound quality and (if your AirPods support it) noise cancellation. The following instructions work with all Chromebooks and AirPods models.
Steps for how to connect AirPods to a Chromebook
- Open your AirPods case's lid and hold down the pairing button on the rear
- Click Bluetooth in the Quick Settings panel on your Chromebook
- Select your AirPods from the Bluetooth devices to pair them
Step by step guide for how to connect AirPods to a Chromebook
Open your AirPods case's lid and hold down the pairing button
You'll have to put your AirPods into pairing mode for them to appear as a Bluetooth device to connect to your Chromebook. To do this, open your AirPods’ case lid with both earbuds inside the case, then press and hold down the setup button located on the back of the case for about five seconds. If you own the AirPods Max, then you'll need to press and hold the noise control button instead. With all AirPods models, wait until you see the color on the LED light start flashing white, which indicates that it’s in pairing mode and ready to be connected to a Bluetooth-enabled device.
Click Bluetooth in the Quicks Settings panel on your Chromebook
Leaving your AirPods open and inside their case, place them down close to your Chromebook. On your Chromebook, click on the time at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen. This will launch the Quick Settings panel, which will expand in the corner of the screen where you'll see your connection settings, including for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Click on the Bluetooth symbol, which will open a new screen that shows which devices are currently connected. Then, click on the + symbol to start pairing them.
Select your AirPods from the Bluetooth devices to pair them
By clicking on the option to Pair new device, this will launch a new window in the center of your screen with further instructions for how to pair devices to your Chromebook. Here, you'll be able to see all available devices that are in range to connect. Click on the name of your AirPods to start pairing them. If you don't see your AirPods in the list of available devices to connect to, then make sure that they're still in pairing mode and flashing white. Once they're connected, the window will automatically close and you'll see a notification saying that your AirPods have successfully connected.
How to connect AirPods to a Chromebook: FAQs
How to disconnect your AirPods from a Chromebook
It's not as easy to disconnect your AirPods from a laptop as it is with disconnecting and connecting Apple AirPods to a MacBook. If you want to disconnect your AirPods from your Chromebook, then it’s essentially the above steps in reverse without the need to hold the setup button on your AirPods. Once you’ve finished using your AirPods, go to the Bluetooth settings on your Chromebook and click on the name of your connected earbuds. This will bring up the option to disconnect: press this to no longer send the audio from your laptop to your headphones. You can also forget this device, which will mean you have to go through the steps above to reconnect them again.
How to connect AirPods to a Chromebook: Final thoughts
AirPods may be designed to work best with Apple products, but as long as there's Bluetooth, they can connect to any other device too. Lots of young people in particular have both AirPods and a Chromebook, so it's important to be able to use them together – happily, it's perfectly easy.
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