Sony's best headphones and earbuds just got a free update with new features – including one we've been really hoping for

1 week ago 5

Sony WF-1000XM5 held in hand on silver background

(Image credit: Future)

From The Jimi Hendrix Experience to Haim, Boygenius and Bananarama, when it comes to music, trios can be tremendous – and that applies to the hardware we hear them on too. And Sony's trio of top-end headphones, the WF-1000XM5, WH-1000XM5 and LinkBuds S, have just got a bunch of new features that make some of the best Sony headphones even better.

The new features are available via a firmware update that should arrive automatically via your app. And among the new features there's the much-wanted support for Google's Find My service, which enables you to locate errant earbuds and hiding headphones – it can be a huge timesaver. There is a slight catch, however: the feature only works if your headphones are set to Classic Audio connections.

Sony's headphone update: key new features

In addition to Find My, Sony has also introduced support for Google Fast Pair, and the update also delivers Auto Switch, which enables you to easily transfer audio from the WF-1000XM5 and WH-1000XM5 to the new the new LinkBuds speaker that launched recently.

In order to get the firmware update, you'll need to be running iOS 16 or later, Android 9.0 or later, and the Sony Sound Connect app. The update version depends on your hardware: as Notebookcheck.net reports, it's firmware version 2.3.1 for the WF-1000XM5, firmware version 4.0.2 for the WH-1000XM5 and firmware version 4.2.1 for the LinkBuds S.

These are very welcome updates, especially the Find My one: if like us your earbuds are always doing a disappearing act, it'll save a great deal of searching and probably reduce your swearing too. It's a feature we love to see on the best wireless earbuds especially (given that they're more prone to being lost). Quietly, one of the big selling points of the AirPods Pro 2 is their near-unloseable case, and it's great to see some version of Find My becoming common on more and more buds.

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Contributor

Writer, broadcaster, musician and kitchen gadget obsessive Carrie Marshall has been writing about tech since 1998, contributing sage advice and odd opinions to all kinds of magazines and websites as well as writing more than a dozen books. Her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, is on sale now and her next book, about pop music, is out in 2025. She is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind.

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