Wi-Fi headphones are coming: Here's why they'll change how you listen to music, and how they're going to work

Tom's Guide

2 days ago

The Sonos Ace are notable for a few reasons, but there's one feature that stands out amongst the rest. Sonos' ability to switch audio seamlessly from a compatible soundbar to the headphones is interesting not in its function, but in how it works. Rather than a simple Bluetooth connection between the headphones and, for example, an Arc Ultra soundbar, it uses a form of Wi-Fi to get a better sound and greater bandwidth for spatial audio.
Wi-Fi has greater potential in the headphones space than audio swap, of course. Imagine better battery life, improved sound quality, and better gaming performance, to name but a few examples. But why haven't we seen it take off in the headphones space after Sonos proved you could fit a Wi-Fi antenna in your cans?
As you might expect, the answer is fairly complicated — although there is plenty of evidence to show us that Wi-Fi headphones are coming. Bluetooth is getting older and older by the year, and its weaknesses become ever-more evident. The future, then, looks Wi-Fi-flavored. But what does that mean?
Bluetooth, while very useful and infinitely improved thanks to years (decades) worth of updates, still has many limitations when it comes to a wireless connection. It has to carry loads of information over a very dated system, with more strain than ever, thanks to ever-increasing bit rates and features like aptX. You can see it in action — go and listen to some music on your laptop, and then boot up a Google Meet call. You'll notice the quality of the music plummets, because the connection now has to handle both the music and the signal the microphone built into your headphones is sending to your computer.
Wi-Fi looks to negate these issues with a more robust connection method. Even older versions of Wi-Fi are capable of sending much larger data packages, without any kind of hiccups or issues. For internet connections, that means 4K YouTube videos piped to your phone or laptop, and for headphones, it could mean lower latency for gaming, better sound for audiophiles, and potentially even better battery life as well.
At the moment, we've little reference to go from when it comes to how a Wi-Fi connection could work with headphones and earbuds. It would likely use the Wi-Fi chips inside your device to connect, although it's more likely to be through dongles and other devices at first.
While Sonos has found a way to use Wi-Fi for a connection between its headphones and soundbars, that's only available for compatible devices, built with this specific feature in mind. Perhaps in the future, we'll see headphones that connect via Wi-Fi just as your current best headphones connect over Bluetooth.
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OK, so it's very unlikely that we're going to see a new pair of Sony, Bose or Apple headphones land with a Wi-Fi connection right away. The technology just doesn't seem to be all that well-formed yet, and those are firms that only release features that are fully fledged. If they're going to make any products with Wi-Fi, it's going to have to work out of the box.
Instead, our attention should shift to smaller brands, particularly those from China. That's where some of the biggest innovation tends to happen, as these firms stay as up-to-date as possible with different features so they can stand out in an increasingly busy space. It's likely here, alongside Bluetooth 6 and other new tech, that we'll see Wi-Fi connected headphones.
There have been some models that look to Wi-Fi that aren't out yet. Most notably, we saw the 1More Sonoflow Max at CES 2025, which look to make your music sound better with the new connection. We've also got the AKG N9, which use a 2.4GHz dongle for a Wi-Fi-like connection.
As yet, however, there's nothing on the way that says "look at me! I'm a pair of Wi-Fi headphones you can buy and use!" Wi-Fi headphones, we are told, are coming. But the question is not if, it's when!
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