Redirect media back to your AirPods or hearing aids when you wear Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses

Introduction

Whilst Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses have excellent loudspeakers their sound quality may not be as good as that from your AirPods or sound streamed directly to your bluetooth hearing aids. Your AirPods or hearing aids will usually be the best choice in noisy environments since the smart glasses leave your ears fully open to environmental noises which isn't great for music listening when you are on a bus or train. Some AirPods and other earbuds models have noise cancellation and most hearing aids allow independent adjustment of environmental and streamed sound and they are a much better choice for music or audiobook listening than your smart glasses in a noisy environment. When your Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses start up they will become the destination of all media output from your iPhone. Although this can also be changed in Control Centre I find it easier to use a Siri shortcut which sets the playback destination to my hearing aids. I named the shortcut "hearing aids" so that after my glasses have started up, all I need do is say "Hey Siri hearing aids" and that's it - jobn done. You could create a shortcut for your own listening device. I have another two; one called "iPhone speaker" and another called "Beats Pill" which redirect the playbak to my iPhones loudspeaker and to my Beats Pill portable bluetooth speaker respectively. I don't have AirPods since they can't be used by hearing aids users but, although I haven't tested it yet, this approach should work fine for AirPods. 

If you've  written a Siri Shortcut before your instructions are simple; just create a one action shortcut using the "Change Playback Destination" action.

If you need step by step instructions then read on. The instructions for VoiceOver users are followed by instructions for non-VoiceOver users.

Instructions for VoiceOver users

Ensure that the device to which you want your shortcut to redirect playback is turned on and connected to your iPhone.

Open the Shortcuts app.

Explore near top right of the screen to locate the "create shortcut" button and double tap to begin.

Swipe right a few times to locate the "search actions" text field and double tap.

You should now be editing the search actions text field.

Type or dictate the words playback destination. If you slide a finger slowly down from top centre of the screen you will first pass the text field you are editing then a row of buttons and finally you should hear "change playback destination". If "change playback destination" isn't there it's likely you mistyped or that dictation split playback in to two words. Clear the text and try again.

Once you have located "change playback destination" double tap to enter it in to your shortcut.

Slowly slide a finger down from top centre of the screen until you hear "set playback destination to iPhone, actions available".

Swipe up to hear the action "edit device, iPhone" and then double tap.

Swipe right through the list of devices that appears and double tap the one you want.  If the desired device isn't in the list you probably didn't ensure that device was turned on and connected to your iPhone. It will appear when connected.

Now let's rename the shortcut, which is currently called "Change Playback Destination".

Explore near top centre of screen to locate the name and hear "change playback destination, actions menu".

Double tap, swipe right to reach "Rename" and then double tap.

Type or dictate your new name for the shortcut. Keep it simple. I called mine "hearing aids".

Explore for the done button at bottom right of the keyboard and double tap. That has completed the renaming.

Finally, explore near top right of the screen for a Done button and double tap to finish editing the shortcut.

You can now use your shortcut by saying"Hey Siri" or "Siri" followed by the name you chose.

Instructions for non-VoiceOver users.

Ensure that the device to which you want your shortcut to redirect playback is turned on and connected to your iPhone.

Open the Shortcuts app.

Tap the + button near top right of the screen.

Tap "Search Actions".

Type or dictate the words playback destination.

The action "Change Playback Destination" will have appeared. Tap it to enter it into your shortcut.

The action will initially read "set playback destination to iPhone".

Tap "iPhone".

Tap the desired playback device in the list that appears. If your device doesn't appear you may have neglected to turn it on and ensure it is connected to your iPhone.

You will now have an action that reads something like "Set playback destination to hearing aids".

Now let's rename the shortcut. 

The current name of the shortcut is "Change Playback Destination" and this appears at the top of the screen with a down pointing arrow to its right.  Tap the shortcut's name and then tap Rename from the menu that appears.

Type or dictate your chosen name. I suggest you keep it simple. I called mine hearing aids.

Tap the done button at bottom right of the keyboard to complete renaming the shortcut.

Finally, tap the Done button at top right of the screen.

You can now use your shortcut by saying"Hey Siri" or "Siri" followed by the name you chose.

If you want an off-the-shelf shortcut

If you don't feel confident writing a shortcut, you'll find a "Change Playback Destination" shortcut on my page of Siri shortcuts. This will present you with a list of devices from which to select when you tap or double tap the default selection of iPhone. VoiceOver users may need to explore the screen to locate the iPhone buttonwhich may not be reachable by swiping through the on-screen buttons and VoiceOver may lose its focus on the pop-up at the top of the screen before you can tap on a Done button. Sadly, it's not ideal for VoiceOver users and I encourage you to try your hand at writing individual shortcuts for all the devices you might want to use for playback while you are wearing your smart glasses.

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