How to switch between AirPlay devices in iOS 11

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wren airplay speaker
Easily switch AirPlay speakers in iOS 11.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

iOS 11 brings a great new AirPlay switcher for routing your music or movie audio to AirPlay and Bluetooth speakers. It can be accessed from several places, and overall the new switcher is a big improvement on the old one. It is also quicker to respond, and more reliable. Let’s take a look.

iOS’s great new AirPlay switcher

Your most common way to access the AirPlay switcher will probably be from Control Center, because it is always there, and always in the same place. To do so, just swipe up in any view, and keep swiping after the Dock appears. You will see the Music widget, which is a square bezel with play/pause controls, and forward/back arrows. If you’re listening to something already, then the name of the track or app will also appear here. To expand the bezel into a full-size widget, long-press or force-touch on it. You will see this:

AirPlay switcher gif
Switch it up.
Photo: Cult of Mac

The expanded widget shows album artwork, a volume slider, and a progress indicator that can be scrubbed to move along the track. You will also see a little AirPlay icon at the top right corner of this panel. Tap that to enter the new AirPlay selector. You can alias jump right top this selector from the square mini-widget by tapping one the little blue Wi-Fi-style icon that pulses whenever audio is playing.

To pick the destination for your audio, just tap its name in the list. Along with your iPhone or iPad, you will see connected Bluetooth speaker and headphones, available AirPlay speakers, and AirPods. You will also see any connected audio interfaces in the list. When you tap one, a progress spinner will run until the connection is made, and then a checkmark will appear. You can dismiss Control Center before the connection is fully made with no ill results.

Music app AirPlay switcher

AirPlay switcher
AirPlay switcher

In the music app, you can get to the same switcher just by tapping the little AirPlay icon on the Now Playing screen. You can even get to it from the music player controls that show up on the iPhone’s lock screen when you’re playing music.

The new switcher is great. It looks better, it is easier to use, it almost never hangs, or stops sending audio, and it is consistent wherever you use it. Not just in Control Center, or the Music app, but also in any other app which supports AirPlay streaming.

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