From the notebook
How to see every AirPods battery on Linux, and why only one showed: LibrePods
LibrePods brings AirPods features to Linux and Android. With two AirPods connected, the Linux tray showed whichever updated last. A per-device registry fixes it, plus a smarter Android volume duck.
LibrePods is an open-source app that brings AirPods features (battery levels, ear detection, noise-control modes, Conversational Awareness) to Linux and Android. On Linux, if you connected more than one pair of AirPods, the tray tooltip showed only whichever device sent the latest update. My change (#676, in review) keeps a per-device registry so every connected pair’s battery shows on hover. A second change (#675, in review) adds an Android option so volume only ducks for Conversational Awareness when both AirPods are in.
How do you check AirPods battery on Linux?
Out of the box, Linux shows Bluetooth headphones as a generic audio device. Apple’s battery and ear-detection data comes over Apple’s own accessory protocol (AACP) on an L2CAP connection, which the desktop doesn’t speak. LibrePods does: install it, pair your AirPods through your normal Bluetooth settings, and its tray icon shows battery levels and lets you change modes.
Why did only one device show?
The tray manager had a single updateBatteryStatus(status) call. Every update from any device replaced the tooltip, so with two pairs connected you saw whichever spoke last.
How does the per-device tray work?
TrayIconManager now keeps a list of devices keyed by Bluetooth MAC address:
updateDeviceBattery(key, name, status)registers or updates a deviceupdateDeviceName(key, name)replaces the label when the AirPods report their namesetActiveDevice(key)chooses which device’s percentage the tray icon showsremoveDevice(key)drops a device on disconnect, instead of resetting the whole tray
The tooltip adapts:
| Connected | Tooltip |
|---|---|
| 0 | empty |
| 1 | the original Battery Status: … format, so single-pair users see no change |
| 2+ | one line per device (<name>: <status>), active device first |
Two smaller fixes came with it. The device is labelled with its BlueZ name straight away, so there’s a name before Apple’s metadata arrives. And a guard ignores BLE broadcast packets while a live connection is active. Those broadcasts are anonymised, and matching them against stored keys could let a paired-but-disconnected device overwrite the live device’s battery.
Known limit: LibrePods holds one live AACP connection at a time, so a second pair shows its last known values rather than live ones. Supporting several live sockets is a much bigger refactor, left out of scope.
What does the Android change do?
Conversational Awareness lowers your media volume when you start talking. With one AirPod in, you can usually already hear the person, so the duck is just annoying.
The new setting, “Only when both AirPods are worn” (off by default), ignores the “started speaking” event when fewer than two buds are in your ears. The volume-restore path is never gated, so volume can’t get stuck low:
| Setting | One AirPod | Both AirPods |
|---|---|---|
| Off (default) | ducks | ducks |
| On | doesn’t duck | ducks |
What I liked about this one
Both changes are small, keep existing behaviour as the default, and are explicit about what they don’t do. That’s what makes a first PR to a hardware-adjacent project easy to review. More upstream work is on my projects page.