Apple AirPods can’t be used to record audio with the iPhone camera app

Here’s a public service announcement for Apple customers who use their to record audio while shooting a video with your iPhone camera app: stop!

While the AirPods microphone works just fine when talking on the phone or recording audio with the Voice Memos app, the mic on Apple’s wireless earbuds cannot be used to pick up audio when recording video with Apple’s own native iPhone camera app.

For users looking to record video, AirPods appear to be a perfect consumer-level product to function as a wireless microphone as well as an out-of-sight pair of earbuds. Upon discovering the incompatibility problem, those same Apple customers have been voicing their disappointment with the AirPods camera app issue on social media for years now.

There doesn’t appear to be an official documentation from Apple concerning the incompatibility issue with its AirPods and its own native iPhone camera app. Many consumers, such as the one in the video above, only discovered AirPods couldn’t be used as an audio source with the camera app only after shooting a video and hearing the recorded sound difference.

Mashable tested out a pair of AirPods while recording a video with the iPhone’s native camera app. We can confirm that the mic on the earpiece does not pick up the audio for the recorded video. Instead, the camera app reverts to the mic on the iPhone for the audio source. 

The issue isn’t just with AirPods, either. Bluetooth devices are completely incompatible with the iPhone’s camera app while recording videos.

However, for AirPod owners who would really like to use the wireless device to record video, there are options. The AirPods mic, as well as other similar bluetooth devices, can be used as an audio source with third-party iPhone video camera applications like or .

Apple declined to comment on the issue.