Goal: Go for a run WITHOUT phone and use a newer pair of bluetooth earbuds to control basic music functions. I ABSOLUTELY DO NOT want to control music functions from my FR245. I have been doing this easily for years now with $20 bluetooth earbuds of about any make/model. i simply pair them to my FR245 and I am done.
But, my headphones recently broke so I ordered some Skullcandy Push Active true wireless earbuds for $80. Splurged a bit because I like the no neck band, ear hooks, charging case, etc. Should be easy to achieve my goal, right? Nope. Not even possible. Read on.
Unbelievably, the Push Active does not even come with natively assigned control buttons for just all the basic music controls: Play/pause, volume up/down, skip forward/back. It has all of them except skip back. So start a chat with Skullcandy and they say to download an app and you can assign the buttons for the controls I need. What! Have to use a stupid app just to get basic music controls? Ok, whatever, I guess I will do that. BUT, then I find out that if you do this laborious approach to get basic functionality, you loose the button assignments as soon as you disconnect from your phone and connect to the FR245!!!!!!!! THIS. IS. INSANE. I sent them back.
So now I am looking for a similar pair of true wireless earbuds to use, WITHOUT my phone and just basic music controls. Checked out the Soundcore X20. Same thing. No natively assigned button controls for VOLUME!!!!! Have to download another stupid app to program the buttons to get basic music controls. In addition, if you do this, there are only so many programming slots and you may loose a control for something else you want like awareness, EQ, ANC, etc.
Checked a third pair of earbuds and some combination of the same thing. One or more of the simple music controls are not natively assigned and require an app to get them and then loose the assignment when connecting to the FR245.
I am starting to think the earbud companies are doing this on purpose to force you to download yet another stupid app just to use headphones. I absolutely do no care if that app gives you extra functionality if you cant get basic functionality by simply pairing the FR245 to them. I just want to run and listen to music without my phone with me and have basic music controls from my headphone device. Something I have been doing for 10 years without even thinking about it. I guess in 2025 its unreasonable to want/expect this.
Its like buying a car but you can only turn right by default, if you want to turn left, you have to download an app, program the function, and have your phone with you at all times.
I know this is a bit of a rant, but I have spent hours of my life on this now and still don't have usable earbuds for my runs.