Apple Is Stealthily Giving Your iPhone a Neat New Feature

When Apple rolls out iOS 26 to your iPhone this coming fall, it’s going to ring in the changes. Some standouts include a new “Liquid Glass” design, a more simplified Camera app, and both the Message and Phone apps will get several new abilities that you’ll actually use.

However, as is the case whenever Apple announces a next-generation operating system, some of the most useful new features often go unannounced at WWDC and are only revealed by developers and early adopters when the betas are released. And that’s true here.

With iOS 26, Apple is introducing a new setting on your iPhone that addresses a common annoyance when streaming music to your AirPods or other wireless headphones or earbuds.

Keep Audio in Headphones

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

You’ve no doubt experienced this.

When listening to music on your AirPods (or any wireless headphones), the audio automatically switches away and starts playing on another one of your Bluetooth devices — be it a Bluetooth speaker or your car’s speaker system — when it gets turned on.

It’s annoying because you then have to go through your iPhone’s Bluetooth settings and manually switch it back.

However, as first reported by MacRumors, iOS 26 will introduce a new setting called “Keep Audio in Headphones” that aims to address this exact issue. The setting was found in the first developer beta of iOS 26.

Here’s how Apple describes it: “When using AirPods or other connected headphones, keep audio in your headphones when other playback devices like cars and speakers connect to iPhone.”

Apple

When “Keep Audio in Headphones” is toggled on, if you’re listening to music on your AirPods and then toggle on a secondary Bluetooth device, the audio won’t automatically switch and will continue playing on your AirPods.

This “Keep Audio in Headphones” setting will likely be toggled off by default. To change that:

1. Open your iPhone’s Settings app.
2. Select General.
3. Select AirPlay & Continuity.
4. Toggle on Keep Audio in Headphones.

When’s it coming?

Apple will officially release iOS 26 this fall, most likely in early September, when it announces the next-gen iPhones.

The developer beta of iOS 26 is out now, while the public beta is expected to roll out sometime in early to mid-July.

To learn more about all of iOS 26’s upcoming features, check out Apple’s blog post.

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