Wyze Headphones - tiny play/pause button - Why?

[noel.s.holmes]

The most used button on the headphones, play/pause, is a tiny button wedged between vaolume up and volume down.

The right earpiece already has tap capability – double-tap to activate Alexas (or other). Why not single tap to play/pause? So much easier than ‘feeling in the dark’ for the tiny, sandwiched button and more practical than taking off your headphones or even temporarily muting.

Was this purely a design oversight?

[Crease]

Welcome to the Forum, @noel.s.holmes!

While “play/pause” is not my most-used Headphones button, and I can usually easily feel that button when I want to use it (maybe not so much if I’m wearing gloves), I really like the idea of using a single-tap on the earcup because that would more closely mimic the single-tap control of the Wyze Buds that I also use. I couldn’t find one single Wishlist topic that addresses this idea alone, but I did find these potentially relevant topics in a quick search:

WYZE Headphones Product Suggestions

This is a related product suggestion… I know WYZE is keen on adding interesting products, and this is a product that is hard to find and for which I would be a ready adopter. I’m looking for wireless headphones that can take any audio input (e.g. a TV, radio, mixer, computer, preamp, hi-fi system, etc.) to send to the headphones. The tricky part is low latency. Very likely it could be an accessory to thr recently announced WYZE headphones, but as I say, latency is imporant for anyone who wants t…

Wyze Headphones V2

I’ve had my first pair of Wyze Headphone die from water/sweat—I wore them outside working in the rain and also wore them a few times on the indoor bike trainer and they definitely got sweat on Would be great to have an version of the headphones which were IPX4 (or above) rated. Mod edit Changed title to V2 so all headphones related upgrades can be mentioned in this thread.

Headphone Skip Double-Tap Remap

The middle button is too small to find quickly, for instance when running or exercising. I know that it might be difficult to remap the touch controls to swipe for skipping on the right earcup, but it might make sense to remap the skip buttons to the volume controls. A double tap on the volume up would skip forward and volume down would skip backwards. This would work great with music and podcasts, podcasts skipping forward in time and skipping songs in playlists. Again it would be amazing to …

As with any Wishlist topic, you can visit those to click or tap the Vote button above the initial post and share your ideas and use cases in the comments to show your support for the product and feature request/suggestions that are important to you.

In that second topic, there’s a post from five years ago that suggests the same thing you did:

Wyze Headphones V2

The dedicated Pause/Play button is fine when you only use it occasionally. But finding requires feel for the button, making frequent use awkward. Tapping the right earcup, in contrast, is much more convenient. Please consider adding a user-selectable option in the app Settings menu for how the right earcup touch control functions. The first option for the right earcup touch control would function just as it does today. That is, 2-taps will launch the voice assistant. A new second option would…

[noel.s.holmes]

@Crease - sounds like you’re in the minority! I’m interested – what’s your most used button?

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ChatGPT query: For a set of headphones with the standard buttons – on/off, play/pause, skip fwd, skip back, volume up, volume down – what is, on average the most commonly used button?

Response:
Short answer: Play/Pause is the most commonly used button on standard headphone controls.

Play/Pause — #1 by a wide margin

• Used constantly for:

  • starting/stopping music

  • pausing for conversations

  • quick interruptions (calls, meetings, etc.)

• Happens many times per session, not just once

This is the “reflex” button people hit without thinking (my comment – IF they can find it without thinking

Why Play/Pause dominates

• It’s tied to interruptions, not preference

• Works across all contexts (music, calls, podcasts)

• Often doubles as:

  • call answer/end

  • voice assistant trigger (long press)

It’s the only button that’s both high-frequency + universal

If you’re thinking product/UX (which I suspect you are) {me: I’m a UX exec}

Design implication:

• Play/Pause should be the easiest, fastest, most tactile control

• Volume = second priority

• Skip = optional or gesture-based

This is why:

• Many premium headphones make Play/Pause:

  • the largest button

  • center-positioned

  • or a single-tap gesture

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The earpiece single-tap would definitely qualify as the easiest, fastest, most tactile control.

Please share with your design team!

- Noel

[Seapup]

@noel.s.holmes

what’s your most used button?

On the Wyze Headphones, my most used button is Quick Conversation Mode. Since that isn’t really a button, the most used is power on/off. I manage all other features from the device to which the Headphones are connected. Same for standard headphones.