AirPods are great, but they don’t work quite as smoothly with Macs as they do
iPhones. You can’t tell at a glance whether audio will play from the AirPods or
your Mac’s built-in speaker, you have to dig into a Bluetooth submenu to
connect, and then you have to go back to the menu to see when the AirPods are
ready for use. ToothFairy streamlines this: just click an icon in the menu bar
(or press a hotkey) to switch to the AirPods, and the icon always shows whether
they’re connected.
- Works with AirPods, as well as any Bluetooth device that you can connect
to your Mac: headphones, speakers, headsets, game pad controllers,
keyboards, mice, etc. (HomePod is not supported, as it is not a Bluetooth
audio device.)
- Click the hollow AirPods icon in the menu bar to switch to AirPods. It
fills in to show they are connected and also displays a battery
indicator. Now you know that it’s safe to start playing music; it won’t
blast from your Mac’s internal speaker.
- Supports multiple Bluetooth audio devices; you can choose a different
icon and hotkey for each.
- Get the best audio quality. macOS will normally use the SCO codec if it
thinks you’re going to use the microphone. ToothFairy can ensure that it
uses the higher quality AAC codec when you only care about audio output:
listening to music or video or playing a game.
- Disconnect a Bluetooth device by clicking the icon (or pressing the
hotkey) again, so that you can switch back to your phone. AirPods and
Beats devices with an Apple H1 or W1 chip do not need to be manually
disconnected, and you can set them to avoid accidental disconnections
when pressing the hotkey multiple times.
- ToothFairy automatically launches at login, so it’s always there when you
need it.
- Optionally hide the Dock icon so it only appears in the menu bar. With
the Dock icon hidden, you can right-click (or Control-click) the menu bar
icon to access the settings.
- Run a shell script when the AirPods are connected or disconnected, for
example to notify you or to launch or quit another app. ToothFairy
itself is also AppleScriptable, so you can control your devices from
other apps (like Lacona) and automations.
- Use with your Magic Mouse or Magic Keyboard to make sure the battery
level doesn’t get too low, or to quickly reconnect them after charging or
if they get disconnected.