How to Connect AirPods to Peloton

At-home fitness has seen a major upswing in sales over the last couple of years. Now, more than ever, people are re-purposing the vital parts of their gym regime to fit into the confines of a residential setting. The recent financial and leadership woes of Peloton notwithstanding, the popular exercise equipment and interactive media brand has seen plenty of love during this gym-to-home transition. Offering an array of stationary bikes, treadmills, and other workout gear, Peloton is an excellent way to stay fit without leaving your cozy abode.

While your Peloton comes equipped with internal speakers to listen to whatever instructors or music are accompanying your ride, you can also link a pair of AirPods and several other Bluetooth headsets if you’d rather listen to audio through headphones instead.

Getting your AirPods (or other Bluetooth headphones) paired with a Peloton is a relatively straightforward process, although it’s not as instantaneous as linking your AirPods to a Bluetooth-ready iOS device. That being said, here’s how to connect AirPods to a Peloton machine.

How to pair AirPods with a Peloton

Step 1: To get started, you’ll want to make sure that your AirPods are not directly connected to any other Bluetooth devices. Once confirmed, go ahead and drop both AirPods into the charging case, but keep the lid open.

Step 2: Next, you’ll want to reset your AirPods so they can be connected to a non-Apple device. To do so, press and hold the setup button on the back of the AirPods case for three to five seconds. An amber status light will begin blinking on the front of the case, indicating that your AirPods are being reset.

Step 3: After the amber light stops flashing, go ahead and hold down the setup button again. After a few seconds, the status light should start flashing white. This means that your AirPods are in Bluetooth-pairing mode and are ready to be connected to a new device.

Step 4: Go ahead and close the lid to your AirPods case. Then, head over to your Peloton machine. Using your Peloton’s touchscreen, you’ll want to tap on the three-dot icon to find the Device Settings then Bluetooth. On the Bluetooth page, you should see a sub-menu called Available Devices. This is a list of all the Bluetooth devices in proximity that your Peloton can connect to.

Step 5: Your AirPods should be listed in this queue under the name “AirPod” — or whatever custom name you assigned the buds during setup. Select the AirPods and wait for the status to change to “paired.” For the quickest results, you’ll want to have your opened AirPods case as close to your Peloton as possible.

Step 6: Once pairing is finished, return to the Featured page of your Peloton’s touchscreen by tapping the Peloton logo, located at the bottom of the screen.

Step 7: Now it’s time to test your AirPods out. Hop on your bike, pop them in, and begin a ride. If the connection is truly a success, the audio from your Peloton ride should now be filtered through your AirPods instead of your Peloton’s internal speakers.

Outside your AirPods, did you know that you can pair plenty of other Bluetooth headsets with a Peloton?

To do so, all you have to do is put your headphones-of-choice into Bluetooth-pairing mode, go into Settings > Bluetooth on your Peloton’s touchscreen, and select the headphones that you want to pair up from the Available Devices list.

Can I use Siri while riding my Peloton?

The short answer is no. Linking your AirPods with your Peloton is a great way to isolate audio for your workout session. That being said, there are a number of iOS-specific functions that you may be used to accessing when your AirPods are paired to an Apple device, such as Siri.

Unfortunately, when connected to a Peloton, Siri-powered voice controls are not accessible. When your AirPods are paired to any non-Apple hardware, the only thing you’ll have access to is audio-playback from said hardware.

Volume control

Another function you may notice is gone is your ability to control your AirPods’ volume while connected to your Peloton. For this, you’ll only be able to adjust the volume through your Peloton’s volume controls (location varies by model).

Why do my AirPods disconnect from my Peloton?

If your Peloton detects a set of AirPods it has connected to before, the machine will automatically try to pair to these AirPods — even if another user is riding the Peloton and using their own paired AirPods. The Peloton will simply kick them off of Bluetooth to link up with the previously-paired buds.

To prevent this from happening, keep your AirPods case closed when someone else is using the Peloton. This will prevent the earbuds from being able to pair to a Bluetooth-ready device.

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