The Breakdown for Bose SoundSport Earbuds
If you need mobility, which you probably do, then there is no solution for this – you are basically doomed to live with one-earbud calls. However for those of you taking your gym classes on Zoom, Skype, Jitsi or any video-conference application where you only need your screen and audio playback; there is a hack that will enable you to have stereo calls.
As several BOSE moderators have explained in their Bose Support Forum, the problem lies in the way these headphones are built: “they utilize the master/puppet design so the signal flow is as follows: your phone will transmit a BT signal to the right earbud (master) which will then transmit that data to the left earbud (puppet). The audio while on a phone call is intended to only play through the right side.”
How do we make stereo audio work during calls?
The way to hack this if you only need to hear audio and watch video is to select another microphone input, thus disabling the microphone input and leaving the Bose Soundsport Free as audio only. And there you go: you’re back to stereo listening on your calls.This hack works like a charm when you’re taking calls from your computer and you can use your laptop’s integrated microphone. Then you have stereo audio out through your earbuds, and audio in through your built-in laptop mic. Here’s an example for when you are using Google Hangouts:
And another example when you’re using Zoom:
We are currently using this set up because to be honest, the SoundSport Earbuds picks an equal amount of background noise that our laptops mics do. Also, on more than 4-participant calls, everyone is muted unless they’re saying something. What now?
There are no plans for Bose to solve this or update via firmware since they are built in this way, so here at TOOIT, we believe that the best way is to work around it. If you love the flawless sound quality that these earbuds have (like we do), maybe this hack could solve your problems when you’re at your forecasts meetings or all-hands calls and you only need to listen in.Get in touch with us for any questions or concerns! We’re developers but we love our music to play loud and clear!