Samsung released its second version of truly wireless earbuds, the Galaxy Buds Plus, earlier this year, and now it’s bringing some of their functionality to its original earbuds, the Galaxy Buds. The company says today it’s rolling out an update that’ll allow Galaxy Buds to connect to multiple devices at once and give them support for Microsoft Swift Pair, which pairs the Galaxy Buds with Windows 10 devices more quickly. The Galaxy Buds will also support ambient sound automatically, meaning sound will pass through the earbuds even if someone is listening to content. (The Galaxy Buds aren’t noise-canceling, but the ambient mode prioritizes “important” sounds so listeners don’t get lost in their audio content.)
Finally, Samsung is bringing its Spotify partnership to the Galaxy Buds. Listeners can tap to launch Spotify and listen to whatever audio content they were previously consuming. Tapping and holding the Buds will start recommended playlists from Spotify. Again, this is a feature that debuted with the Galaxy Buds Plus.
The Galaxy Buds came out in 2019 and weren’t especially well-received. The Verge’s reviewer Vlad Savov called them “the most forgettable true wireless earbuds” he had tried. The Galaxy Buds Plus improved some of the original pair’s issues by adding additional hardware and features, but they still lack noise cancellation and aren’t as sweat and water resistant as some of Samsung’s competitors’ products.
