Ok, I’ve got a Pixel, I’m using GrapheneOS however this phone doesn’t have a jackport.
I want to hear my saved offline songs locally and sometimes take some calls.
Is there a multipoint earbuds that you are using? Which one? How do we deal with their embedded assistant support?
The “private” option is using either a usb-c to 3.5mm adapter and standard earbuds or usb-c earbuds, bluetooth is A Mess. Personally I still have the pair of usb-c pixel earbuds that came with the earlier pixels that I can use if I need earbuds
I’m in a similar boat to this. I still have an old pair of apple earuds I use with a usb-c to 3.5 adapter; but I also have a pair of cheap wireless earbuds I use for more hands free tasks.
Any good wired in ear headphone recommendation?
Cheap earbuds? Without voice assistant?
Yea, I believe they are these.
https://www.jlab.com/products/jbuds-air-true-wireless-earbuds-charging-case
I got them on sale so at the time so they were about 20 dollars USD. No voice assist integration, fairly durable.
Moondrop Aria if you have money, Moondrop Chu if you’re on a budget
For what it’s worth, I believe most of the time voice assistance support means that it has a specific button that can trigger the paired phone’s voice assistant. I’ve never seen a pair of Bluetooth earbuds or headphones that could actually connect to the Internet and use the voice assistant without being paired to a device, meaning you should be fine if you already don’t use the voice assistant on your phone anyways.
Earbuds feels like it has too much cons.
Pros:
Why would you even allow yourself to put up with so many disadvantages? Wired is so much saner and has less potential issues.
The vulnerability issue is not a huge concern for most people. Also wires can be incredibly infuriating in many cases.
I personally don’t currently use BT earbuds/headphones, but for many people it is very useful
Same here. I bought a pair of Sennheiser wired and they are noisy as hell. Every single movement resonates through the cables.
I like Sony sound so I used MDR-XB55AP EXTRA BASS for wired for quite some time since I didn’t want the invasiveness of bluetooth buds.
Eventually, I wanted bluetooth earbuds for some situations and bought Sony LinkBuds S (dropped one, broke it) and then WF-10000XM5 for bluetooth (haven’t broken when dropped).
My requirements for bluetooth earbuds were that I could 1) confirm they were rotating their MAC address, with each connection, 2) I didn’t have to log into an account to activate them, and 3) I could deactivate a voice assistant. Sony is compatible with these requirements. I put the earbuds in a faraday laptop bag with my 4a running a MAC address reader app (to block any other bluetooth signals) across several connections and confirmed that, yep, Sony earbuds do rotate bluetooth MAC addresses each time. No online account is needed to activate or use. I have the Sony app alone in a user account on GOS for firmware updates (needs Play Services) and I don’t connect to it from home. There is an easy setting for turning off voice assistants.
Downside is I cannot tune the sounds with the new Sony equalizer algorithm option (name?) but I like default Sony sound out of the box.
So I am gonna walk back on what I have said as I have bought a Samsung Buds Pro 3. 
The TLDR is that it sounds so much better than my current wired IEM (Etymotic) with some quality of life improvements. It sucks at privacy if you want to use the full features and especially if you want to update the firmware.
I still think I overpaid a bit because while the sound quality is good, dare I say excellent even, it the sound quality isn’t necessarily 3x my current IEM. What is interesting is that according to crinacle, Samsung bought out Harman International (the folks that does the frequency response curve squiggly lines) and AKG so it is legit good product.
The quality of life improvements is there though, particularly because I really dont have to fiddle with my wires + USB-C to 3.5 mm dongle. I mean sure its still going to be an eWaste when the time the battery dies…
I havent tested the microphone and reviewers say it is very good
The swipe up/down volume adjustment works even without the app off the box.
To take advantage of the whole thing, you need the Samsung ecosystem. To customize the earbuds, The Samsung Wearable App + Buds Pro 3 plugin has to be installed for the following to work:
-Pinch and double tap/triple tap shortcuts
-Active noise cancelling (reviewers say that it the audio sounds better with ANC off)
-Find my buds
-Equalizer presets and EQ customization
-Battery % indicator on the lockscreen
The apps required a lot of permissions before it will work:
)I havent looked if you can update the firmware in another manner but, AFAIK you can only update the firmware via the above mentioned app.
All in all its probably fine without the app especially if you disable the network access. What worries me is that when security updates come, I may not be able to update it.
If you have grapheneos, you could have a separate profile with the apps that you use exclusively for updating the firmware. I highly doubt the buds have any kind of internal storage to keep surveillance data on-device to send it to the internet connected Samsung app when it finds one. So as long as the Samsung app is not installed while you use the buds, I think it would be fine to have the Samsung app isolated and used exclusively for updating. That’s what I do with my Pixel Buds
Thoughts on Apple vs Google USB-C earpods?
Google USB C isn’t terrible, better than most other choices for usb C I experimented with (mostly chinese cheaps). I have shifted to Apple DAC + KZ since though, so much better.
The Apple USB-C to 3.5mm adapter is excellent and cheap (yes, really).
Pair with any wired buds you like.
If possible get the US version, EU version is less loud unfortunately.
Are there any differences between using the adapter and just using the USB-C earpods directly?
Much better sound imo, especially if paired with good earphones and using high quality music files (Apple music is nice)
In terms of privacy, if you are looking to buy either from their official websites, note that Google Store no longer allows guest checkouts, while Apple Store Online does. (You also have the option to use Apple Pay for the latter, which is a nice bonus.)
I picked the Apple USB-C earpods for my Pixel. No complaints here.