Calls answered on the apple watch do not get picked up by paired headphones!!

[mikezmac]

I'm loving my watch. One of the main reasons is that I am emancipating myself from my iPhone, as much as I'm able. The watch has been great!

I just bought a $200.00 pair of beats headphones to accompany my watch. I paired it and I can listen to music off of my watch now. Love it.

I cannot however answer OR place a call from the Watch and have the headphones pick it up. The calls go to the watch's speaker. This should be picked up by the headphones. It's not. I can't select the source to change it from the apple watch speaker.

A selling point for me was to take calls via the watch. At home the speaker is great, anywhere else it is not enough, I got the headphones for this purpose.

How do I fix it so that when I answer a call on my watch and the paired headphones are on the call goes to the headphones?

 

[Rhcpcjg]

The apple watch already acts as a bluetooth speaker when calls come in, so i don't think what you are trying to do is possible. You might need to pair the headphones directly to the iPhone and when calls come in answer them on the iPhone or on the bluetooth headphones, not on the watch.

 

[mikezmac]

The apple watch already acts as a bluetooth speaker when calls come in, so i don't think what you are trying to do is possible. You might need to pair the headphones directly to the iPhone and when calls come in answer them on the iPhone or on the bluetooth headphones, not on the watch.

I cannot pair the headphones to the iPhone and the watch at the same time. Tried. It has to be one or the other. I listen to the music on my watch, so If I pair the headphones to the iPhone I lose the music.

Shuttling the sound between sources shouldn't be an issue. Is this a feature Apple missed? Or am I doing something wrong?

 

[jdogg836]

I'm not sure I understand the problem. If you answer the phone call with your watch, why wouldn't it pick it up on the watch?

Pair headphones to phone. Answer phone call with headphones. Problem solved.

EDIT: You can't pair the headphones to the watch which pair to the phone to answer calls, it doesn't work that way.

 

[Rhcpcjg]

I cannot pair the headphones to the iPhone and the watch at the same time. Tried. It has to be one or the other. I listen to the music on my watch, so If I pair the headphones to the iPhone I lose the music.

Shuttling the sound between sources shouldn't be an issue. Is this a feature Apple missed? Or am I doing something wrong?

If im not mistaken, most bluetooth devices are able to remember multiple devices but can only connect to one device at the same time. So lets say you answer a call on the watch ( audio is being transferred from the phone to the watch) then the watch is not able to transfer audio to the headphones, im pretty sure thats a bluetooth limitation, not apples fault. When you say that you listen to music on your watch, are you playing the music thats saved on the phone or saved on the watch?

 

[friedmud]

I'm loving my watch. One of the main reasons is that I am emancipating myself from my iPhone, as much as I'm able. The watch has been great!

I just bought a $200.00 pair of beats headphones to accompany my watch. I paired it and I can listen to music off of my watch now. Love it.

I cannot however answer OR place a call from the Watch and have the headphones pick it up. The calls go to the watch's speaker. This should be picked up by the headphones. It's not. I can't select the source to change it from the apple watch speaker.

A selling point for me was to take calls via the watch. At home the speaker is great, anywhere else it is not enough, I got the headphones for this purpose.

How do I fix it so that when I answer a call on my watch and the paired headphones are on the call goes to the headphones?

Man, you got really unlucky your responders being clueless.

I have bluetooth headphones and understand where you're coming from. I agree that it's an oversight on Apple's part. If you have bluetooth headphones paired to the watch then answering a call should come through the headphones... full stop.

Any comment about the phone is not relevant. If you are here to make a comment about using your phone to take a phone call... then you are in the wrong thread. This thread is about answering phone calls using bouetooth headphones paired directly to the watch.

 

[Rhcpcjg]

Man, you got really unlucky your responders being clueless.

I have bluetooth headphones and understand where you're coming from. I agree that it's an oversight on Apple's part. If you have bluetooth headphones paired to the watch then answering a call should come through the headphones... full stop.

Any comment about the phone is not relevant. If you are here to make a comment about using your phone to take a phone call... then you are in the wrong thread. This thread is about answering phone calls using bouetooth headphones paired directly to the watch.

You seem to be the clueless one since you have no answer for him.

 

[friedmud]

You seem to be the clueless one since you have no answer for him.

No: there is no answer. It's an oversight by Apple. You simply can't do it (use your bluetooth headphones paired directly to the watch to take a call) right now.

 

[BillyTrimble]

No: there is no answer. It's an oversight by Apple. You simply can't do it (use your bluetooth headphones paired directly to the watch to take a call) right now.

So your sure it's an Apple oversight? Is it possible it's intentional but that you just don't know why? Of course that's a possibility.

 

[mikezmac]

No: there is no answer. It's an oversight by Apple. You simply can't do it (use your bluetooth headphones paired directly to the watch to take a call) right now.

Ty, well let's hope that they add it soon.
It's a killer feature. While running I can leave my phone strapped to my arm and take a call etc... You get the idea.

Thanx all for the feed back.

I made a suggestion at https://www.apple.com/feedback/watch.html
I encourage others who'd like this feature to do the same.

 

[Rhcpcjg]

No: there is no answer. It's an oversight by Apple. You simply can't do it (use your bluetooth headphones paired directly to the watch to take a call) right now.

Exactly, I don't need to try it because I know it won't work, Its a bluetooth limitation.

1. The watch is not a phone, and it won't replace the phone. You are able to make calls and answer calls because it is connected via bluetooth to the phone. The phone is the one connected to the network and it transfers the audio via bluetooth to the watch.

2. What you two want is the watch to work as a "bridge" between the phone and the headphones. bluetooth does not work that way. So if he wants to make calls with his $200 beats headset, then he needs to connect them directly to the phone. this is not an oversight and won't be fixed with an update. thats just how bluetooth works.

 

[friedmud]

So your sure it's an Apple oversight? Is it possible it's intentional but that you just don't know why? Of course that's a possibility.

?

Are you actually trying to argue with me about the semantics of "oversight"?

If I would have said "Apple is obviously ******** on us on purpose - but it's probably for our own good" there would have been a dozen other people saying I don't know THAT for sure ;-)

To me it feels like an oversight. There is nothing in any of the Apple documentation that I've been able to find that specifically says that this shouldn't work. Every other Apple device (I can confirm iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, Mac Pro) allows you to answer calls using bluetooth headphones. The Watch let's you pair headphones directly to it (just like those other devices) and it is capable of sending audio to them directly (music!)... but when a phone call comes in it just happily does the wrong thing.

Is there possibly a technical reason it doesn't work? Sure. But I would still claim that's an oversight as it means that someone wasn't thinking about this when they designed the hardware.

More likely: the software just doesn't handle is case yet... and it will work in the future on Watch OS 2.0

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Exactly, I don't need to try it because I know it won't work, Its a bluetooth limitation.

1. The watch is not a phone, and it won't replace the phone. You are able to make calls and answer calls because it is connected via bluetooth to the phone. The phone is the one connected to the network and it transfers the audio via bluetooth to the watch.

2. What you two want is the watch to work as a "bridge" between the phone and the headphones. bluetooth does not work that way. So if he wants to make calls with his $200 beats headset, then he needs to connect them directly to the phone. this is not an oversight and won't be fixed with an update. thats just how bluetooth works.

You obviously don't have bluetooth headphones. You CAN pair them directly to the Watch... and the Watch can DIRECTLY send them music (without a phone! Like, you can go jogging with JUST the Watch and it can play music to your headphones). It should be able to send phone call sounds through the headphones as well.

For instance, this works perfectly fine on my iPad. I can pair my headphones with my iPad and when a phone call comes in, I can answer it on my
iPad and hear the phone call on my headphones and have the speaker on the headphones pick up my voice for the phone call.

Like I mentioned before: that same thing works on every other mac device out there.

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Exactly, I don't need to try it because I know it won't work, Its a bluetooth limitation.

1. The watch is not a phone, and it won't replace the phone. You are able to make calls and answer calls because it is connected via bluetooth to the phone. The phone is the one connected to the network and it transfers the audio via bluetooth to the watch.

2. What you two want is the watch to work as a "bridge" between the phone and the headphones. bluetooth does not work that way. So if he wants to make calls with his $200 beats headset, then he needs to connect them directly to the phone. this is not an oversight and won't be fixed with an update. thats just how bluetooth works.

By the way, this has nothing to do with the bluetooth connection between the Watch and the phone. You do know that you can also receive phone calls over wifi to your watch from your phone, right? You can actually have bluetooth OFF on your phone and still answer a phone call on your Watch (as long as they are on the same wifi network).

The Watch is not simply a "bluetooth speaker" when you're using it to answer a phone call. The watch is accepting the call in just the same way an iPad, Macbook and Mac Pro all can.

 

[Rhcpcjg]

?

Are you actually trying to argue with me about the semantics of "oversight"?

If I would have said "Apple is obviously ******** on us on purpose - but it's probably for our own good" there would have been a dozen other people saying I don't know THAT for sure ;-)

To me it feels like an oversight. There is nothing in any of the Apple documentstion that I've been able to find that specifically says that this shouldn't work. Every other Apple device (I can confirm iPhone, iPad, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, Mac Pro) allows you to answer calls using bluetooth headphones. The Watch let's you pair headphones directly to it (just like those other devices) and it is capable of sending audio them directly (music!)... but when a phone call comes in it just happily does the wrong thing.

Is there possibly a technical reason it doesn't work? Sure. But I would still claim that's an oversight as it means that someone wasn't thinking about this when they designed the hardware.

More likely: the software just doesn't handle is case yet... and it will work in the future on Watch OS 2.0

----------




You obviously don't have bluetooth headphones. You CAN pair them directly to the Watch... and the Watch can DIRECTLY send them music (without a phone! Like, you can go jogging with JUST the Watch and it can play music to your headphones). It should be able to send phone call sounds through the headphones as well.

For instance, this works perfectly fine on my iPad. I can pair my headphones with my iPad and whem a phone call comes in, I can answer it on my
iPad and hear the phone call on my headphones and have the speaker on the headphones pick up my voice for the phone call.

Like I mentioned before: that same thing works on every other mac device out there.

I do own a pair of powerbeats 2, I have them connected to my phone. I don't mind taking my phone with me to my workouts, so I control the music from my watch, it plays on my bluetooth headphones, and Im able to receive calls. I am aware that I can connect the headphones directly to the watch but i haven't needed to because I always have the phone with me, because I wanna be able to answer calls through my headphones, and also it saves battery life on the watch.

The reason why you are able to answer calls on the ipad is because the iphone and the ipad are connected to the same wifi network, therefore the call is transferred via wifi from the phone to the ipad. That feature is called continuity, but thats a whole different monster...

 

[friedmud]

I do own a pair of powerbeats 2, I have them connected to my phone. I don't mind taking my phone with me to my workouts, so I control the music from my watch, it plays on my bluetooth headphones, and Im able to receive calls. I am aware that I can connect the headphones directly to the watch but i haven't needed to because I always have the phone with me, because I wanna be able to answer calls through my headphones, and also it saves battery life on the watch.

The reason why you are able to answer calls on the ipad is because the iphone and the ipad are connected to the same wifi network, therefore the call is transferred via wifi from the phone to the ipad. That feature is called continuity, but thats a whole different monster...

Right: this guy was asking if it is currently possible to answer a call with headphones paired directly to the watch: where the answer is currently: no.

As for continuity... It is actually not a whole different monster. Continuity is exactly how the Watch/iPhone relationship works as well. As I pointed out... the Watch can answer calls over wifi... just like an iPad.

 

[jdogg836]

Man, you got really unlucky your responders being clueless.

Clueless would be those who try to do things that Apple has not enabled yet. I provided an answer that was accurate and correct, it might not have been the one OP was looking for but it was accurate nonetheless. The apple watch was never meant to be completely untethered from the phone. If you want to answer calls then the phone is nearby. If that is the case, then pair the dang BT headset to the phone and solve all the problems. Maybe in the future the Apple Watch will have cellular capability then you can forget even owning and iPhone.

 

[mcdj]

TL;DR

Apples are bad at pearing.

 

[digduggler]

Pair them with both. I don't understand why you'd want them connected to the watch when you are in range of the phone. I use my jaybirds with the watch only when I don't have my phone. The watch music app can still control what is playing on the phone. And whatever you synced to your watch is most likely a fraction of what's on your phone. Whenever in range of the phone, use the phone as your source. Then you get calls there.

Connecting them to the watch is only useful when the phone isn't around (aka working out).

 

[mikezmac]

Pair them with both. I don't understand why you'd want them connected to the watch when you are in range of the phone. I use my jaybirds with the watch only when I don't have my phone. The watch music app can still control what is playing on the phone. And whatever you synced to your watch is most likely a fraction of what's on your phone. Whenever in range of the phone, use the phone as your source. Then you get calls there.

Connecting them to the watch is only useful when the phone isn't around (aka working out).

Because the headphones are paired to my watch so I do t always need the iPhone. You cannot pair the headphones to 2 things at the same time.
Sometimes when I run and I do take the phone for the gps my phone is strapped to my arm so I cannot take calls.

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Clueless would be those who try to do things that Apple has not enabled yet. I provided an answer that was accurate and correct, it might not have been the one OP was looking for but it was accurate nonetheless. The apple watch was never meant to be completely untethered from the phone. If you want to answer calls then the phone is nearby. If that is the case, then pair the dang BT headset to the phone and solve all the problems. Maybe in the future the Apple Watch will have cellular capability then you can forget even owning and iPhone.

Clueless for asking a question? I did not know if it was enabled or not. Hence asking a question.

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The reason why you are able to answer calls on the ipad is because the iphone and the ipad are connected to the same wifi network, therefore the call is transferred via wifi from the phone to the ipad. That feature is called continuity, but thats a whole different monster...

I tested with my iPad which also takes voice calls from the iPhone. The headphones worked when paired.

This seems an over sight or intentional from apple in regards to the Apple watch.

Bummer

 

[digduggler]

You can pair them with multiple devices. You can only have them connected to one at a time but it is easy to change the connection. That is the normal workflow. My jaybirds are paired with both. What they are connected to depends on what I'm doing. This is how they are normally used. If its connected to the phone and you want to switch it over, just hit source on the watch and select the headphones. Voila.
If you have your phone you are going to want to be connected to it. There's no real reason why you wouldn't. Any playlist on your watch is going to be on your phone 99.9% of the time.

 

[mikezmac]

You can pair them with multiple devices. You can only have them connected to one at a time but it is easy to change the connection. That is the normal workflow. My jaybirds are paired with both. What they are connected to depends on what I'm doing. This is how they are normally used

I'll try that, Ty. When I'm running with the phone I'm alway listening to music. I've kept it paired to the watch for the times I don't have the phone with me. So the plan was to be able to take a patient's call without stopping, just raise my wrist and hit the button. (Or click the head set). So I'll try pausing the music, then clicking the headphone so the phone's pairing can take over?
(I appreciate the help, just seems odd that the iPad when paired can take calls over the same headphones, it just smacks of oversight. I do like simplicity.)

I submitted feedback to Apple. Who knows? One can hope.

Ty again

 

[Rhcpcjg]

I'll try that, Ty. When I'm running with the phone I'm alway listening to music. I've kept it paired to the watch for the times I don't have the phone with me. So the plan was to be able to take a patient's call without stopping, just raise my wrist and hit the button. (Or click the head set). So I'll try pausing the music, then clicking the headphone so the phone's pairing can take over?
(I appreciate the help, just seems odd that the iPad when paired can take calls over the same headphones, it just smacks of oversight. I do like simplicity.)

I submitted feedback to Apple. Who knows? One can hope.

Ty again

I do similar runs everyday, phone strapped to my arm, and my headset connected to my phone. I control the music from my watch, and if a calls comes in i can see who's calling on my watch and just answer it by pressing a button (if im not mistaken i push the "play" button) on the beats. Hope this helps.

 

[digduggler]

I'll try that, Ty. When I'm running with the phone I'm alway listening to music. I've kept it paired to the watch for the times I don't have the phone with me. So the plan was to be able to take a patient's call without stopping, just raise my wrist and hit the button. (Or click the head set). So I'll try pausing the music, then clicking the headphone so the phone's pairing can take over?
(I appreciate the help, just seems odd that the iPad when paired can take calls over the same headphones, it just smacks of oversight. I do like simplicity.)

I submitted feedback to Apple. Who knows? One can hope.

Ty again

I guess what I still don't understand is if you have the phone with you, why would you not just be playing music off the phone(and thus connected to the phone already)? That way it's already paired with the device that you are expecting to do multiple things on.

What you are suggesting I don't believe would work - it's connected to the watch so if something came in on the phone you wanted to answer, you'd need to connect it quickly before answering. You can do that from the control center but it would probably be very awkward if it's on your arm.

So I guess my main question is why not listen to music off the phone? The music app on the watch is still controlling it (skipping, choosing a list, volume etc would all still work on the watch). By default it shows you what your phone is doing, you have to forcibly change the source to make it use your watch.

As mentioned with the iPad that's continuity, which isn't exactly what the watch is doing.

 

[mikezmac]

I guess what I still don't understand is if you have the phone with you, why would you not just be playing music off the phone(and thus connected to the phone already)? That way it's already paired with the device that you are expecting to do multiple things on.

What you are suggesting I don't believe would work - it's connected to the watch so if something came in on the phone you wanted to answer, you'd need to connect it quickly before answering. You can do that from the control center but it would probably be very awkward if it's on your arm.

I'm a physician and the only time I bring my phone is if I'm on call, or if I'm running a new route and want to use the GPS. (About 2/3s of the time) The watch has my cardio playlist on it so I don't need my phone with me the rest of the time. I can run with just the headset and the watch.

The watch has worked wonderfully so far with the paired headphones. Right now to answer a call I have to stop running unstrap the phone and answer it. (As you can imagine, raising my wrist and clicking 'answer' would be preferable.)

I'm going to try pairing it to both, stopping the music and then answering the call as suggested above. (If this doesn't work I'll just have to pair to the phone only)

For me this would have been the killer feature they all mention. Ah well.

 

[digduggler]

I'm a physician and the only time I bring my phone is if I'm on call, or if I'm running a new route and want to use the GPS. (About 2/3s of the time) The watch has my cardio playlist on it so I don't need my phone with me the rest of the time. I can run with just the headset and the watch.

The watch has worked wonderfully so far with the paired headphones. Right now to answer a call I have to stop running unstrap the phone and answer it. (As you can imagine, raising my wrist and clicking 'answer' would be preferable.)

I'm going to try pairing it to both, stopping the music and then answering the call as suggested above. (If this doesn't work I'll just have to pair to the phone only)

For me this would have been the killer feature they all mention. Ah well.

How about this then:

No phone - connect to the watch. Don't have to worry about the calls then.

Bring phone - connect the headset to the phone. Control the music with the watch (I assume the cardio playlist is on the phone). It will work just the same AND you can answer calls on the headset by pressing the accept button on your beats. It works the same as what you are doing now with the added convenience of answering the calls on your headset.

Problem solved.

 

[mikezmac]

How about this then:

No phone - connect to the watch. Don't have to worry about the calls then.

Bring phone - connect the headset to the phone. Control the music with the watch (I assume the cardio playlist is on the phone). It will work just the same AND you can answer calls on the headset by pressing the accept button on your beats. It works the same as what you are doing now with the added convenience of answering the calls on your headset.

Problem solved.

That will work!

Perfect. Ty!!!!