Physical buttons on the left and
right earbuds let you control the volume, music and several other functions, but I tried to use them as little as possible.
The cable between the left and
right earbuds also let you answer phone calls, increase the volume or play / pause your music.
All interaction between Pixel Buds and your smartphone is initiated with the touch -
enabled right earbud.
You tap and hold the left and
right earbuds respectively to turn their volume up and down, and double tap to skip tracks forward and back.
Volume can be adjusted and tracks can be changed by simply tapping the buttons on the left earbud, and
the right earbud has the main Sports button, which can give you activity updates or begin a personalized coaching session.
Tap and hold on
the right earbud and you can command Google Assistant.
Instead of housing a battery and controller in a bulky appendage that hangs off the headphone cable, Anker built those things into
the right earbud.
You control the earbuds with a few different gestures on
the right earbud: tapping it maps to play / pause.
To activate Assistant, you just hold your finger down on
the right earbud and start talking.
The right earbud features a touch - sensitive surface that lets you play or pause the music, adjust the volume, beckon the Google Assistant (if your phone is new enough), learn the time, and listen to your latest notifications.
You'd think that you could just tap
the right earbud and ask Google to translate what you're hearing, but it's more complicated than that.
On
the right earbud, the top button is an action button that works primarily with Jabra's Sport Life app.
Each pair of ER4s comes with a hand - signed note confirming that the left and
right earbuds have been perfectly matched, along with a record of the total harmonic distortion, which is an infinitesimally small percentage with lots of 0s after the decimal point.
The right earbud was dead.
The right earbud seems to have no problem keeping the connection with my iPhone, but the left earbud constantly and inevitably loses its connection with the right one.
I ordered one set and
the right earbud would not turn on.
I didn't notice it at first because I often would wear only
the right earbud, but I soon realized that I had to turn the volume up on my phone almost all the way to get any decent listening volume out of it.
However, one day,
my right earbud lost about 75 % of its sound.
Pixel Buds get around these problems because the wearer taps and holds a finger on
the right earbud while talking.
But when I stood against a railing to stretch,
the right earbud did a not - so - cute thing of falling out.
The majority of the time this isn't a problem, but every now and then
the right earbud would drop its signal and then reconnect.
The right earbud lets you skip to the next track with a single tap, return to a previous song with a double tap, and raises the volume if you hold your finger to it.
It popped open and sent
the right earbud flying under my seat.
Users can hold down on
the right earbud and say «Help me speak French.»
The right earbud controls playback so you can pause or play with a single tap, skip to the next song with a double tap, and return to a previous track with a triple tap.
On top of
the right earbud is a single button responsible for pairing and powering them on, but you'll still have to use the in - line mic and remote for playback controls.
Touch controls on
the right earbud are used to enable the Google Assistant.
To re-pair with another device all you have to do is hold down the button on
the right earbud for 6 seconds, but if you're only going to be using these with one device then just opening up the case and automatically being connected is pretty damn awesome.
Any touch or brush of
the right earbud resulted in prompts from the Google Assistant, which included information about the time and other things.
It has three tiny LED lights on the front to let you know how the battery is on the case and both the left and
right earbuds, but it also has some clever tricks about it that make connecting to them seamless.
Users can touch and hold
the right earbud to ask Assistant to play music, make a phone call, get directions, and more without having to pull our their smartphone.
The right earbud has the play / pause / power button which also answers phone calls if tapped and activates the heart - rate sensor if you hold it down.
But if you need to have a conversation or want to stay safe when walking outside, just double - tap the button on
the right earbud — this move activates «transparency mode,» which uses the mics to allow you to hear the world around you.
All of the audio controls have been placed into a touchpad on
the right earbud so no buttons hang on the cord.
General battery disinformation aside, a bigger issue mars the Earin experience, and that's the Bluetooth connection between the left and
right earbud.
To wake them, place
the right earbud back in your ear.
That's good news for those that use true wireless earbuds — instead of having one main true wireless bud, a phone can connect with both the left and
right earbuds, saving battery life and improving the connection.
These headphones operate via touch and voice control with only
the right earbud housing the guts to perform these tasks.
For several versions now, the Google app has been working on a «Smart detection» feature for Pixel Buds that would pause music when you have removed
the right earbud from your ear.
With the Google Pixel Buds, you can hold down
the right earbud and start speaking — and the Pixel 2 will interpret your instructions, such as seeking out directions to a cafe.
Currently, double tapping on
the right earbud begins listing Google Assistant notifications, as well as pausing the Assistant when it's speaking.
Summoning Google Assistant is simple, and fun, too: just hold a finger to
the right earbud and talk, then let go once you're finished.
Then, the same must be done for
the right earbud.
Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo Plus allows for a simultaneous connection between the source device and left and
right earbuds.
Music didn't stop completely, but
the right earbud would go dark for half a second before the audio would return.