Force your iPhone audio to a bluetooth device with any app.

Outputting audio to AirPods or Bluetooth speakers is usually easy. Most iOS apps have a setting where you can choose your audio output – either play through your iPhone or connect to Apple AirPods, Bluetooth speakers, or even a nearby Apple TV. Works great with the apps that have this setting built-in. But how do you do it when an app doesn’t have an option to connect to AirPods?

I recently started listening to a lot of audiobooks and the app that works with my local library’s catalogue doesn’t have this option. I would put in my AirPods, open the app (Libby, if you’re interested) and the audio would play through my iPhone’s speakers. I went through every menu in the app and didn’t find a setting for audio output. As a temporary solution I would navigate to Apple’s native Music app, play a song, change the audio output to my AirPods and then switch back to Libby and play my audiobook. It worked, but was inconvenient to say the least.

Change audio output system-wide from your iOS Control Center

Luckily there’s an easier way to do this. Took me a while to figure it out but you can force your audio output to a specific device from Control Center, and this will change your audio output system-wide. So whenever an app doesn’t give you the option to choose your output device, just open up Control Center and change it from there.