As Apple's AirPods have long been known, they offer a wide range of intelligent features, such as seamless device switching, adaptive noise control, and detailed battery indicators, but only if they are paired with an iPhone. This has left Android users with little more than basic audio functions, despite the fact that they are available to Android users.
It is now being challenged by an 18-year-old developer from Gurugram, who is regarded as an intentional reinforcement of Apple's closed ecosystem.
The latest creation from Kavish Devar, LibrePods, is a significant breakthrough in the field of mobile devices: an open-source, completely free tool designed to replicate the experience of AirPods on Android or even Linux systems with striking accuracy.
LibrePods removes the limitations previously accepted by Apple that restricted the full potential of AirPods outside Apple's ecosystem, enabling the earbuds to perform almost identically to the way they perform when paired with Apple's iOS devices.
With this upgrade, Android users who rely on AirPods will experience a markedly enhanced and seamless user experience, which will include core functionalities, polished integration, and an unexpectedly familiar fluidity that will surprise them.
The earlier efforts of the community, including OpenPods and MaterialPods, provided limited capabilities, including battery readings, but LibrePods goes a much further than these.
With its near-complete control suite, Android users can quickly and easily access the functions normally reserved for Apple devices, effectively narrowing a gap that has existed for many years among Android devices.
During his high school years, Devar is still a self-taught programmer who developed LibrePods after studying earlier attempts at improving Android users such as OpenPods and MaterialPods, both of whom provided very limited improvements.
A much more ambitious approach is taken by his project, according to the detailed notes on its GitHub page. As it enables Apple to unlock AirPods' otherwise exclusive features on non-Apple platforms, LibrePods was designed to achieve this purpose. Among the features offered by Apple are noise-control features, adaptive transparency, hearing-assistance functions, ear-detection, personalized transparency settings, and precise battery information, all of which are traditionally exclusive to Apple's ecosystem.
By making use of an app that emulates the behavior of an authorized Apple endpoint, the app is able to accomplish what it aims to accomplish: Android devices can communicate with AirPods almost exactly as iPhones would if they were connected to an authorized Apple device.
A full range of features is most effective on the second- and third-generation AirPod Pros that are rooted via the Xposed framework and can be accessed through rooted Android devices. OnePlus and Oppo models running OxygenOS 16 or ColorOS 16 are also able to use LibrePods without rooting, which means Devar has ensured that LibrePods are accessible to a broader range of devices.
Even though the older models of AirPods are not as customizable as those in the newer generations, they still have the advantage of accurate battery reporting, which makes them a good option for anyone who wants accurate battery data.
Having these features unlocked will allow users to switch effortlessly between the Noise Cancellation, the Adaptive Audio, and the Transparency modes, rename their earbuds so they can be managed more easily, enable automatic play-and-pause functions, assign long-press actions to toggle ANC or trigger a voice assistant, as well as use head gesture controls to answer calls. This is an entirely new way to experience the AirPods on Android, bringing it to the next level of functionality and convenience.
A meticulous reverse-engineering effort by Devar enabled AirPods to recognize Android handsets as if they were iPhones or iPads, and enabled them to recognize them as if they were an iPhone or iPad, enabling this level of cross-platform functionality. By using this technical trick, Apple is able to share the status data and advanced controls within the earphones that it typically confines to its own ecosystem.
LibrePods, however, is not without some conditions, owing to what Devar describes as a persistent limitation in the Android Bluetooth stack, which leads to it currently needing to be connected to a rooted device which runs the Xposed framework, in order to achieve full functionality.
OnePlus and Oppo smartphones running OxygenOS 16 or ColorOS 16 can run the app without rooting, but certain advanced features—such as fine-tuning the Transparency mode adjustments—which require elevated system access are still available to those using these devices. This is a partial exception, but users on OnePlus and Oppo smartphones can still make use of the app without rooting.
A central priority remains that of ensuring wide compatibility, with support extended across all the AirPods devices, including AirPods Max, the second- and third-generation AirPods Pro, though older models are naturally equipped with a dwindling range of features. The extensive documentation found on the project's GitHub repository may be helpful to those interested in exploring it further, as well as downloading the APK and installing it on their own computers.
The LibrePods continues to receive widespread attention, and Devar's work reveals a broader shift in how users expect technology to work, namely the ability to choose, be open, and use it in a way that is more useful to them. In addition to restoring functionality lost to Android users who had to settle for a diluted AirPods experience, this project demonstrates the power of community-driven innovation in challenging established norms and challenging established expectations.
The tool still comes with technical caveats, but its rapid evolution makes it more likely that further refinements will be added in the future. LibrePods, therefore, shows great promise of an improved, more flexible multi-platform audio future, one which is user-centric rather than platform-centric.