When Jabra launched its newest flagship wireless earbuds — the Elite 7 Pro and Elite 7 Active — fans and reviewers were both quick to note that the company appeared to have abandoned Bluetooth Multipoint, which lets you connect the earbuds to two devices simultaneously. But as of January 27, that missing feature is back, via new firmware that can be updated through the Jabra Sound+ app for both iOS and Android.
Bluetooth Multipoint, while quite common on wireless headphones, is still a rarity in the wireless earbuds world. That’s why it was a bit painful to see the Elite 7 Pro and Elite 7 Active launch without it. Their predecessors, the Elite 75t and Elite Active 75t, both had the feature, as do the current Elite 85t. Seeing it absent from the Elite 7 Pro/Active’s feature list was a genuine surprise.
Especially in today’s Zoom, Teams, and Skype-heavy world of video calls, being able to quickly and easily switch between a phone and a computer is a very desirable ability, and Bluetooth Multipoint is the key to doing it. Jabra isn’t the only wireless earbud company to offer Bluetooth Multipoint — Technics supports it on the EAH-AZ60 and AZ40 wireless earbuds, as does Shure on its Aonic Free earbuds — but the fact that these are just about the only models that do serves to underscore how unusual it is.
The firmware update also brings a few other features:
- Certification for Google Assistant: You’ve always been able to use the Elite 7 Pro/Active to trigger your native voice assistant or Amazon Alexa, but if you were on an Android device that didn’t have Google Assistant as that native assistant, there was no way to switch to Google’s voice A.I. Now you can, but only if you’ve got an Android phone. Google recently deactivated the ability to use its Assistant with headphones and earbuds on Apple devices.
Jabra has also added a “fetch” option, which triggers Google Assistant to read out things like the time, and any unread notifications you may have.
- Updated MyFit feature
- Updated connectivity performance
- General performance and stability improvements
