The Airbuds Widget: Free Flow Music Sharing at Its Finest
Now, in the accelerated digital sphere that we interact with daily, music sharing and streaming have become the most reflexive tasks out there. Major streaming platforms, such as Spotify and Apple Music, dominate the way that everyone consumes their music, making it exceptionally simple to listen to new songs, share links and lyrics, and make playlists all from the same source. Spotify also offers a feature exclusive to their desktop application where users can see their friends’ listening history in real-time; however, this feature is not accessible through mobile use, making it less prevalent.
This is where Airbuds comes in.
What is Airbuds & Why Should I Get It?
Airbuds is an application by Capp Inc., designed for iPhones, that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and is compatible with the more recent iOS updates. Once the app is downloaded, the user is prompted to connect to their primary music streaming account, likely Spotify or Apple Music, and then their listening history is linked and tracked by the app from that point forward. This app was primarily made to serve as a home screen widget, so all the activity can be viewed from your main phone screen. From there, the user sets up their profile, adds their friends, and then starts listening, which is where the fun begins. By giving Airbuds access to your streaming data, the app tracks every song that you play, how many times you play it, and then divulges that information onto a live feed shared between you and your mutual friends.
Okay...what else?
While some may find that a little invasive, it is truly the perfect way to connect with your friends or even acquaintances over their current, active taste in music. It is a flawless layout, with a feed reminiscent of typical social media scrolling, showcasing the song, album artwork, which friend is listening & when, and even includes the option to listen to a sample of the track, all within the app. Not only that, but users can also react to the songs with any emoji from the entire catalog, giving endless ways to share their feelings on the tracks with their friends. On your profile, all the reactions are saved in a list, showing the song, friend, and emoji. Through the feed and profile, the app logs your repeated tracks as well as how many times you’ve listened. Other features include the status feature for your current bout of listening, interchangeable top 3 favorites, and the weekly recap, which compiles all your data from the number of minutes, artists, and tracks played throughout the week.
A Music Lover's Magnum Opus
Details aside, I have personally been using this app for well over a few months now, and it is exceptional. With all the ways we have access to for sharing our music online, Airbuds has mastered the ability to do so in a passive way, where the app does all the labor of tracking your listening activity, and you can just watch them tally up your weekly stats along with keeping up with your friends. I am also obsessed with reflecting on my listening habits, which is typically only tracked monthly, so this regular, weekly recap is a total dream.
Airbuds has solidified itself as one of the most effective, yet subtle ways to gain a rather intimate insight into our friends throughout the day because the music we listen to tends to be very telling of our moods and feelings. Especially for friends who are not quite as active in manually sharing music on social media, it is a sweet way to be able to see their favorite daily tracks and give the songs a listen myself.
What makes this silly widget so unique:
In a world so curated and particular in maintaining a certain image, it is refreshing to use an app with others that are completely based on the raw, unedited listening data as we go about our days. More often than not, I forget I even have the app tracking my activity and will see little nudges of emojis throughout the day that demand nothing of each other besides a quick, “hey, I see you listening!” which keeps us connected in a way that we have never been able to before, which is really special.