Librepods: AirPods liberated

https://github.com/librepods-org/librepods

by rbanffy • 24 days ago

505 184 24 days ago

amazing project, is the experience as seamless as native Apple devices?

Looking at the comments from the previous thread at least on Android looks like you need to root the device. I'm not sure that is still required.

SoundlyQuiet• 24 days ago

It looks like the issue has been fixed in Android 17 and root is no longer required if you have it.

g0xA52A2A• 24 days ago

Previous discussion https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45941596

dang• 24 days ago

Thanks! Macroexpanded:

AirPods libreated from Apple's ecosystem - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45941596 - Nov 2025 (462 comments)

Mistletoe• 24 days ago

I’m going to be honest I fell for the AirPods Pro 3 hype about it being the best noise cancelling of all time and I bought a pair. I found the noise cancelling worse than my $30 Anker Soundcore P30i, I could never get the hearing test on the AirPods to pass no matter what depths of a quiet room I went to, and the sound quality on music was worse than my Ankers. Don’t fall for the hype or at least order from Amazon like I did so you can return them. I could hear my AC running with the AirPods, with the Anker I had to ask my girlfriend if it was on.

micromacrofoot• 24 days ago

did you try different tips? I have heard this makes a big difference for some

_kulang• 24 days ago

Sounds like you either had a fake or more likely, couldn’t fit them properly

smokey5000• 24 days ago

"you're holding it wrong"

jonhohle• 24 days ago

I’m glad the Anker’s worked out for you, but the Soundcore brand almost completely turned me off from Anker. After two weeks the Soundcore buds I had stopped charging.

I have limited experience with noise canceling headphones (some circa 2008 active Sony earbuds, and some not-that-great Beats Studio Buds+. On a whim I bought AirPods 4 ANC and I’ve found them way better than I expected. Good enough for airplane noise canceling without the seal of most ear buds. They feel smaller than the beats buds, even with the stem. They seamlessly switch from my phone to iPad to Mac. I haven’t sat down to compare their quality to any of my other headphones, but I don’t really care. Nothing comes close to matching the convenience and the sound isn’t so bad that I each for something else. I did not expect to like them as much as I do.

Maybe it’s hype, maybe I don’t know what better noise canceling sounds like. These aren’t the Pros, so maybe there’s a difference.

floydnoel2• 24 days ago

I had the original AirPods Pro and they were really great until Apple nerfed them. Apparently the noise cancelling was too strong in some cases so they worsened everybody's. After that they started making ear-piercing squelching noises, rendering them useless. I guess they make a good paperweight and reminder to never buy noise-cancelling products from Apple.

zf00002• 24 days ago

There was some problem with the first gen that you would hear static, Apple replaced those if you contacted support. Happened to me just before end of 1 yr warranty and kinda funny but they had me mail in my airpods to be replaced and lost them. So they ended up sending me a new pair and iirc $100 gift card for the trouble.

emdash2• 24 days ago

I have yet to try a pair of earbuds with better active noise canceling than the airpod pro 2.

cosmic_cheese• 24 days ago

My Pro 2’s get so much use it’s ridiculous. Great cancellation and they’re always on my person thanks to the case perfectly fitting that tiny right pocket most mens’ jeans have (vestigial watch pocket?) and not taking up any primary pocket space.

cednore• 24 days ago

I recommend Bose QuiteComfort Ultra 2. That's way better in terms of ANC and sound quality than AirPods or Powerbeats or any other products from same line.

drnick12• 24 days ago

It would be useful to explain to people who don't currently own AirPods and don't really follow Apple stuff much what features are lost when AirPods are paired with a non-Apple device.

JrProgrammer• 24 days ago

There is a feature compatibility list…

VladVladikoff• 24 days ago

AirPods themselves aren’t really that great from an audiophile perspective. The only part I like about them is the integration with the Apple ecosystem. This is a fun project and cudos to whoever pulled it off, but I fail to see the motivation.

dhosek• 24 days ago

My thoughts exactly, what I’d rather have is the ability to integrate other stuff into Apple’s ecosystem (most notably my hearing aids, which despite being MFi can only really stream audio from my phone—I had a pair of Beats headphones a few years ago and the ease with which I could switch them between phone, iPad and Mac was so wonderful and I’d like to be able to do that with my HAs as well.

emdash2• 24 days ago

I actually really like the airpod pros from an audio standpoint. I find that a lot of wireless earbuds are way too heavy on the bass compared to the airpod pro.

basilikum• 24 days ago

Airpods may not be "great from an audiophile perspective", but their sound is decent and they are actually well designed headphones. They are remarkably unremarkable. They have good (the new Pros even great) ANC. Their controls are intuitive and well thought out. It's hard for me to believe that I'm promoting an Apple product here, but they are what people often claim other Apple products to be – which I found to be BS for these other products. Someone sensible actually put thought into the product.

xrd• 24 days ago

I'm not an apple person so this surprised me. I guess I have fallen for the "apple gear is expensive and must be the best" fallacy.

What are good options for similar wireless bud headphones?

phil21• 24 days ago

The sony earbuds are about the best I’ve had for sound quality and noise cancellation. Much better than AirPods, but not nearly as nice integration with the Apple ecosystem.

I find AirPods Pro 2 to be “good enough” where I gave away my set of XMs to someone who will actually use them.

Call (mic) quality in AirPods is better as well, if that matters at all to you. At least that’s what folks on the remote end of calls told me.

Aurornis5• 24 days ago

AirPods are widely appreciated in audiophile communities. Especially with some EQ applied, which is easy and common these days and easy to find for AirPods.

They're never going to appeal to the audiophile communities that pride themselves on being different and/or expensive above all else, but they're actually good hardware with decent out of the box tuning. Apply some EQ on top if you so desire and they're very good.

andrewmg• 24 days ago

I am an audiophile, and for me the AirPods Pro replaced literally thousands of dollars of portable headphones, amplifiers, etc., which I don't miss a bit. Apple's audio engineering is truly top-notch, and all the convenience features are icing on the cake.

coin• 24 days ago

"Audiophiles don't use their equipment to listen to music. Audiophiles use your music to listen to their equipment."

AirPods makes it easier to listen to music across multiple devices. They sound reasonable enough for people to enjoy their music. They enable people to enjoy their music. This is why they are so popular.

f33d5173• 24 days ago

They are ludicrously expensive for what they do. They have an apple logo on the box.

jamwise3• 24 days ago

If I wasn't certain Apple will do their best to patch every avenue to this working in the future it might be motivation to buy AirPods.

giancarlostoro• 24 days ago

I would be surprised if they could. Linux on Macs is still a thing. In fact, Linux on Mac is why I keep all the Macs we have in the house from the mid to late 2000s because they still turn on and work, if I choose to install Linux on any of them they are still usable.

matheusmoreira2• 24 days ago

I would be surprised if they could.

They can. Require a valid signature from the mac's secure cryptoprocessor in order to interoperate. There's nothing we can do.

Remember when we used to use cryptography to protect ourselves from government and corporation espionage? Good times. Now cryptography is used by governments and corporations to protect themselves from us.

One day we'll need such hardware attestations to even get an internet connection.

code_duck• 24 days ago

Linux on older Macs, currently. I'd love to install Linux on my M5 (or even ARM Windows 11) but it's not possible due to Apple's lack of documentation and some other issues.

Aurornis5• 24 days ago

The AirPods already work outside of the Apple ecosystem. This is just someone building out interfaces for their extra features that are already integrated into Apple operating systems.

jamwise3• 24 days ago

Yeah I understand. But there are plenty of good headphones that work with Android and include most of the features. That's kind of the point of Librepods right? To bring AirPods up to par for non-Apple devices and make them a viable option for Android and/or non-Mac users. So "this working" means those features.

socks• 24 days ago

Be wary - I do not have an iPhone, and I once connected my AirPods to my wifes MacBook. They now chirp at me loudly every time I pick them up, automatically try to connect to her phone etc, and I cannot unregister them from her account. I want to add them to Find My - I cannot add them to Find My from my MacBook, I 'need' an iPhone or iPad to do that...

ghostly_s2• 24 days ago

I wouldn't. Most uncomfortable earbuds in the market at any price.

Grombobulous• 24 days ago

I realize your statement is subjective, but AirPods are made up of variants with plastic buds and variants that come with literally 5 sizes of squishy tips in the box.

So you have a total of 6 different fits to choose from. Plus the fact that there are surely dozens of third party tip options available for the Pro models.

The idea that anything with that many fit options can be considered the most uncomfortable earbuds on the market is not really possible in concept. That idea is as meaningless as saying that a size 9 Converse All Star is the most uncomfortable shoe on the market.

We are many generations removed from the original one size fits all product which was much different.

drnick12• 24 days ago

Since the AirPods are an offline device, if you buy a pair now they should work indefinitely. But perhaps it would be better to reward manufacturers that don't make you jump through such hoops to use the hardware that you bought.

throwaway152321• 24 days ago

Sure. But on the other hand it makes sense to reward manufactures that make good hardware. And AirPods are very good hardware for me so I'm perfectly ok rewarding them for it.

jorisw4• 24 days ago

an offline device

Until you or someone else pairs them with an iPhone and leave them sitting overnight. The iPhone will send them the latest firmware.

nunez• 24 days ago

AirPods update while charging in their case and paired with an xOS device. You'll need to make sure that they never connect with an Apple product to "version pin" them.

jitl6• 24 days ago

Why would they try to make the AirPods a worse purchase? Apple is happy to let you run whatever operating system on your Mac -- they aren't actively hostile there, but they don't help the community either.

Still, I would recommend the Sony WF-1000XM6 if you're not an Apple computer or phone user already. The UX is reportedly worse and a bit buggy, but the sound should be better.

jabwd• 24 days ago

You can configure them to pause them when you take them out of your ear, except when it is not an Apple device. They will refuse to do so, even though they clearly detect the event since you can no longer use the stem as a pause button when you do so.

Clearly they make it worse just because you didn't get an Apple device, so yeah idk what you're smoking but give me some.

Rohansi2• 24 days ago

Apple is happy to let you run whatever operating system on your Mac -- they aren't actively hostile there

Weird to praise Apple for the one line of devices they let you install your own operating system on and ignore that every other device doesn't.

jorisw4• 24 days ago

Why would they try to make the AirPods a worse purchase?

Why assume this is what they're doing?

Apple can only QA so much. To open up proprietary tacked-on features to a hardware ecosystem they can't control, opens up AirPods to be perceived as buggy on those devices, which isn't going to help the perception of quality of Apple products for non-iPhone/iPad users.

slashdave• 24 days ago

I am pretty sure Apple doesn't care

duped3• 24 days ago

Basically all the annoying shit I have to handle with my AirPods is made up by how good of a product they are. I have nice headphones, speakers, studio and other microphones, etc for a bunch of use cases. AirPods are my workhorse. I haven't found anything as comfortable with as good a battery life and as good fidelity and as good price. The active noise cancelling is also very good.

And I'm an apple hater, in general.

bel8• 24 days ago

Would you recommend those for someone with no Apple devices?

I'm thinking of gifting them to someone. But they are Android/Linux user.

smcg3• 23 days ago

I'm not sure how Apple could disable this for existing Airpods. Maybe future Airpod models won't be compatible with this version of the mod, but they could update the mod.

jackhalford• 24 days ago

The aacp.rs and the att.rs files were translated from Kotlin to Rust with AI. Some parts of the media_controller.rs file, mainly the pulse integration, was also AI-generated.

The future is now.

userbinator• 24 days ago

Not surprised at all; AI has dramatically lowered the bar to people wanting to create software they wouldn't otherwise have the time nor motivation to. Quality remains to be seen but IMHO it can only get better.

teravor2• 24 days ago

that's nothing.

you can grab a proprietary binary, open it up in IDA Pro (with MCP), spend some 10 minutes crafting a good prompt and after a few million (mainly input/cached) GLM 5.2 tokens you have a python script fluently speaking the proprietary protocol.

FrinkleFrankle• 24 days ago

Sounds cool. Do you have a link or more info to share?

jitl6• 24 days ago

I uploaded two binary save files from a game on my Steam Deck to ChatGPT, it diffed them and spat out a script to edit various values. The bots are really good at this sort of thing.

retired2• 24 days ago

This is why the Steam Machine costs $1049

qsxfthnkp2322• 24 days ago

I miss good wired earbuds.

frail_figure• 24 days ago

Wired earbuds were great until they got caught on some piece of clothing and got ripped out.

kristofferR2• 24 days ago

Not to mention the microphonics

freedomben• 24 days ago

For real, after being on wireless earbuds for quite some time and going back to wired, it is absolutely incredible how many things the cords get caught on. Even just your own hands!

eikenberry• 24 days ago

They still exist. Truthear is a decent brand.

nikitau• 24 days ago

While consumer electronics companies have gone for wireless earbuds, the hi-fi, in ear monitor market is very much alive. Not to mention also relatively affordable these days.

asimovDev2• 24 days ago

google IEM. Decent sound quality is very accessible, I have 20 dollar aliexpress Tangzu Wan'er and I prefer them to my airpods pro 3 for pure music listening

daft_pink• 24 days ago

I feel the main useful feature that I’m looking for is the ability to use the unlimited multipoint on other devices. The 2 points that most other devices gives you is terrible. It would be nice to be able to quickly connect to my voip deskphone at work from time to time.

Aurornis5• 24 days ago

To clarify because this is confusing: The AirPods work as regular old BlueTooth earbuds on other devices already. This is an implementation of some of the extra features and interfaces that are integrated into Apple products.

KomoD• 24 days ago

How is it confusing? The top of the README explains it.

LibrePods allows you to use AirPods features that are exclusive to Apple devices. It implements the proprietary protocol used to exchange data between AirPods and Apple devices

And then has a table listing the features.

Springtime2• 24 days ago

I wasn't aware they operated as baseline Bluetooth headphones by default on other devices, so even having read the readme it wasn't obvious.

Aurornis5• 24 days ago

How is it confusing?

Judging by all of the other comments that assumed otherwise, a lot of people either weren’t reading the README or weren’t parsing what it was saying.

ghostly_s2• 24 days ago

The very first paragraph of TFA adequately explains this.

Aurornis5• 24 days ago

I know. That’s why I wrote the comment. I wasn’t responding to the repo, I was leaving some info for all of the other commenters who were confused about this.

walrus01• 24 days ago

If I remember right, there have been several Android applications that show the battery level of AirPods since at least 2021. For essential features in addition to being connected as an ordinary Bluetooth audio output and audio input device.

bookofjoe3• 24 days ago

I've wondered since inception why AirPods case doesn't at least show a color indicator — red/yellow/green — for AirPods battery level.

stasomatic• 24 days ago

That's not why one buys the AirPods. These things go with me from the iPhone to Apple TV, to my MBP, to the Mini. There is better sound available for less, but the sound is the least of the story.

leokennis• 24 days ago

Unfortunately, somehow AirPods also at random go from my wife's iPhone to my iPad. And then when she "steals" them back switch to my Mac a minute later.

Doesn't matter that they are linked to her iCloud account/Apple ID and my devices are linked to mine.

Apple "it just works" smarts are very nice, until it doesn't just work anymore and you have no way to disable them.

It's the reason I switched to JBL earbuds with a touch screen case, where I can explicitly tell them what device to connect to.

smcg3• 23 days ago

I bought Airpods second hand because I got a good deal on them. I don't use Apple devices. This mod is useful to me.

zombot• 24 days ago

I cannot see my AirPods in my Linux Bluetooth device list, ever.

jalk• 23 days ago

You have to put them in pairing mode first: For airpod pros: Open the lid, keep the earbuds in the case, double tap your finger on the case just below the green led, The led should start to flash white and the airpods now appear in the device list in linux so that you can pair with them. Non-pro have an physical button on the rear IIRC.

vlod4• 24 days ago

I respect the work/hack involved.

However why support a company (by buying airpods) that is this hostile. i.e. I wouldn't be surprised to see a patch to stop this.

Gigachad• 24 days ago

It's less hostile and more lazy. The Airpods use standard bluetooth for everything that bluetooth has. The stuff that doesn't work on non apple platforms is the configuration, changing what the squeeze actions do and loading firmware updates.

There is no way to do this with standard bluetooth, you have to have a custom app for it. Apple just didn't build a custom app for other platforms but there is no reason they would care about someone else investing the resources in to building it. They still win because you bought the airpods and someone else spent the resources on making the app.

ruszki5• 24 days ago

The fact that simple VendorID spoofing makes features available tells otherwise.

DANmode4• 24 days ago

0. For the love of the game

1. Additional freedom for used purchasers, gifted purchasers, purchasers from a past era, whatever

HerbManic• 24 days ago

This is my big conundrum with Apple. Their hardware is absolutely brilliant, but their combative nature against the users freedom on their hardware means I will never use it.

Even if you can hack around it, it is the culture that treats the users as someone to be controlled and coddled that bothers me.

dainank• 24 days ago

Out of curiosity, what makes their hardware 'brilliant'? I often hear this but never actually looked into why. What is your take on that?

jorisw4• 24 days ago

What's so hostile about it?

They can't _add_ features on top of regular Bluetooth connectivity, that they choose to only offer on platforms they're able to fully control and QA ?

Is even just making a feature exclusive really that 'hostile'? A company can't offer benefits for going with several of their products?

Or you mean they _are_ hostile because you're _assuming_ they will try to patch this?

vlod4• 24 days ago

In regards to Apple hostility. There's obviously the whole app store shenanigans where devs often feel that they have arbitrary rules. DHH has talked about it as has Tim Sweeney.

I listened to Mark Zuck on Rogan about his experience with Apple connecting his Ray Bands to the AirPods. [0]

In that interview, he suggests they won't help with the integration (for stupid reasons) and that he expects that'll come out with a competing product.

I think being a dev and working with the Apple eco (outside of 'normal') is a pita. Yes it's subjective. I'm hesitant to even purchase Apple's excellent hardware for this reason.

[0] https://youtu.be/7k1ehaE0bdU?si=HB-ZcXNRtB1ox6dx&t=8463

mrheosuper• 23 days ago

They did not release any documents about their data model that is used to control their headphones. TBF almost every company does that, but unlike Apple, almost all of them have app on both platform(IOS/Android) to manage their devices so there is little reason to reverse engineer at first place.

puszczyk• 24 days ago

i don’t know the devs motivation, but i own airpods and iphone

every few years or so i consider jumping ship to android, but i don’t want to buy another set of headphones for that — projects like this make the migration path easier before fully committing

WhyNotHugo3• 23 days ago

Realistically, there's not any other company selling wireless noise-cancelling earbuds with these features _and_ including documentation for folks to use those feature outside of some locked ecosystem.

E.g.: Bose, Sony, etc don't include any documentation for any non-basic features, and the only way to even enable them is via the proprietary app which run on limited environments (notably: not Linux).

I don't defend the practice at all, but no matter which hardware they picked, the practices are still the same.

OsrsNeedsf2P• 24 days ago

Dang, was hoping this would let me use Airpods as both speaker and headset at the same time on Linux

DANmode4• 24 days ago

You can use your AirPods as both a speaker (playback) and a headset (microphone) at the same time on Linux,

but you must switch the Bluetooth profile to HFP (Hands-Free Profile) or HSP (Headset Profile).

Note that this is the default for better quality (Bluetooth spec, not Linux).

cl3misch4• 24 days ago

Note that this is the default for better quality (Bluetooth spec, not Linux).

Yeah, I have the impression most people assume Apple magically solved sound/mic quality in bidirectional mode. Or they just don't care. In any case, I'm unhappy about how much Airpods are used for meetings. They sounds so much worse than any wired mic! Or your laptop's mic, as long as you're not using the speakers.

notsylver• 24 days ago

There is a PR for that https://github.com/librepods-org/librepods/pull/655

I tried it out, it seems to work well. Hopefully it's not blocked by patents

ctippett• 24 days ago

I've owned several pairs of AirPods over the years and this is the first I'm learning about some of their features. I almost found myself wanting there to be a third column for indicating Apple support (of course I'm being facetious).

tclancy• 24 days ago

Yes, I recently upgraded to the Pro 3 and it’s a sign of how old I am getting: I disabled a lot of the defaults (the head gestures to control music playback were awful when doing any serious yard work) promising myself I would investigate all the features in time. A few months later, I have a rough idea of how to play, pause and adjust volume with the weird (to me) stalk massaging.

himata4113• 24 days ago

12345hn6789• 24 days ago

FYI android 17 fixes the bugs in the Bluetooth stack that previously required root to fix. But, this app still charges $5 for using features your air pods have. I'll be spending my afternoon forking and enabling them.

Spill4288• 24 days ago

I get the idea behind wanting to fork and improve it, I truely do. I also get the idea behind wanting to see how the innards work.

However I'm a developer and I gladly paid the $5 so I can support the original dev for all the work that they have already done, and also for open sourcing it. I really don't want to maintain my own fork, sync it, build apks etc

itsnoone5• 24 days ago

Hi! The developer here. The app requires a purchase only when you install it from Play Store. The FOSS version available on GitHub takes you to my GH Sponsors page where you can wait for a few seconds and return back to the app. Or you can also just click the Restore Purchases button. There's no need for a fork :)

dewey• 23 days ago

That’s why selling anything to developers is no fun, they don’t know how to value their time.

taimurshasan• 24 days ago

This project is great. Hopefully one day AirDrop is liberated too. https://github.com/seemoo-lab/opendrop looked promising, but it seems stale. maybe one day.

mapontosevenths2• 24 days ago

This was solved a little while ago.

https://www.android.com/quick-share/

forsalebypwner2• 24 days ago

For a very limited subset of Android devices

https://support.google.com/android/answer/9286773#zippy=%2Cf....

tentacleuno• 24 days ago

Is that implementation open-source? I'm sure it's bundled as part of Google Play, not AOSP.

rkn7• 24 days ago

If you don't mind installing an app for it, LocalSend or LANDrop are great for this.

WhyNotHugo3• 23 days ago

People mention these tools each time AirDrop comes out, and they're not at all compatible.

AirDrop allows two devices to find each other and establish a temporary network to exchange data.

LocalSend and all similar tools require that you first set up a network, have both devices join it, _and then_ handles the final portion of the exchange. The key aspect of AirDrop is that it automates all the overhead.

The open/standard equivalent for AirDrop is Wi-Fi Aware (aka: Neighbor Awareness Networking), which still lacks software support.

WhyNotHugo3• 23 days ago

I'm really curious why some features are tagged "Will not be implemented" for Linux, but "Planned" for Android.

functionmouse• 23 days ago

because android has users

nailer• 23 days ago

Non-Android Linux does have users, but people don't use Airpods on their gaming PCs.

itsnoone5• 23 days ago

The dev here- there are exactly 2 features- Head Gestures and heart rate monitoring. Both have no use on Linux. On Android head gestures is to answer calls and heart rate will be provided to Health Platform.

edit: there's just one that's not planned for Linux and planned for Andorid- HRM. Head gestures is already implemented on Android.

Kirby64• 23 days ago

Is there a reason head gestures couldn't be mapped to functions in Linux? I see little reason why you couldn't have it used to play/pause or something. Heart rate monitoring less-so... but even that exposure could be useful for something if given the right API.

Nemi• 23 days ago

So beware, i setup my APP3 on my daughters ipad and had hearing aids set with a hearing test. This way when connecting to my Pixel it would still apply the hearing aid adjustments, but I would not have other things like auto-pause when removing the airpod.

Well, I installed this and now my hearing settings have been removed from the airpods. And I guess you could say that this would be obvious because librepods doesn't support the hearing aids, what is not obvious is that installing it takes a set of APP3 that has been already setup and basically wipes them. Good to know for the future

Librepods: AirPods liberated

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