How to control Bose wireless earbuds: tap, swipe, and press.

A single tap has perhaps never been so powerful.

When you’re using Bose earbuds, you can start and pause music and answer phone calls with a quick touch.

With Bose QuietComfort Earbuds II, the touch surface is located on the outer portion of each earbud, and the touch controls can be used on the right or left earbud. To start or pause your media, use one finger to tap either earbud — a light touch is fine; there’s no need to press down. Double tap to skip forward to the next track. This will save you from having to take out your phone, making it a particularly convenient option when you’re commuting, working in the office, or even exercising at the gym.

There are earbud controls that allow you to accept and decline phone calls as well. A single tap on either earbud answers an incoming call, and the double tapping will end the call when you’re done. If you’re not in the mood to talk, you can tap and hold the right earbud to decline a call.

When you want to drown out the noise around you, Bose earbud controls let you adjust the volume via touch controls. However, you’ll need to enable this feature through the Bose Music app before you can use it. Also, note that before you turn on this setting, you’ll want to make sure you’re running software version 4.2.4 or later.

In the Bose Music app, go to the settings menu and scroll down to “product control.” There’s a sliding button labelled “voice touch control.” Toggle the button to engage or disengage this feature.

Once the setting is on, you’re ready to adjust your volume on the fly. All you have to do is use your finger to swipe up on the right earbud to increase the volume or swipe down to decrease the volume. This gesture also works on the Bose Noise Cancelling Headphones 700, which have a touch surface on the front portion of the right ear cup. With these larger headphones, you can also swipe forward to skip to the next track or swipe backward to return to the previous one.

If your earbuds have Bose’s world-class noise cancellation technology, you can toggle through different settings by touching and holding either earbud. By default, there are two noise cancellation levels set as favorites, including:

• Quiet Mode: Eliminates virtually all the exterior noise around you.

• Aware Mode: Blocks low-frequency noises, such as the rumble of a train, but still provides some awareness of your surroundings.

In the Bose Music app, select your QC Earbuds II (if you have more than 1 product), then tap “Modes” on the main QC Earbuds II screen. Here you can tap "+" to add a mode. You can also go to Settings and select “Modes” to customize the preset noise cancellation levels.

Have a quick question for Siri? You can access your phone’s voice assistant using your Bose earbuds, but you’ll need to turn this feature on first. You can do so in the Bose Music app by going to the settings and scrolling down to “Product control.” Tap “Shortcut” and then there is an option to select a shortcut for the left ear, including “Access Your Voice Assistant.”

To access your voice assistant on the go, touch your left earbud and hold your finger there until you hear a tone. Then release your finger and say your request. The microphone on the left earbud acts as an extension of the microphone in your smartphone, allowing you to look up information, play a podcast, make a phone call, and more with ease.

Once you’ve learned how to control your wireless earbuds using gestures, you can adjust your media, phone calls, and voice assistant more readily, making your everyday routines faster and more convenient, whether you’re conducting them at the office, on the plane, or during your daily run.

Product availability may vary by country.

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