Windows 11 | No Hands free mode for bluetooth earphones

Following up to my earlier post. This is an issue that Microsoft MUST address. This only happens with bluetooth headphones or earbuds when trying to use an alternate microphone. You CANNOT choose an external microphone such as a Blue Yeti or a microphone on a webcam when using bluetooth headphones or earbuds. You will not be able to hear the parties you are talking to in Teams. It worked perfectly in Windows 10 mixing and matching microphones and speakers/headphones. Unfortunately I can't go back to Windows 10 as a CIO of the company I work for. I have to continue testing Windows 11 and so far I am not allowing any of my users to upgrade. This is NOT a small issue Microsoft. Get off your duffs and fix it.

Hello everyone, I just upgraded and got very frustrated when I couldn't find a hands-free device. I am hard of hearing and this mode helped me a lot. The opened old sound manager helps, but it's not an option in my opinion

Hi,

I have the exact same problem here: I have the Bose NC 700 and in Windows 10 it allowed me to select the hands-free "device" for my voice over IP phone app while the high quality audio (streaming) would be played using the other (16bit) Bose NC 700 "device" for high quality audio.

Disabling the hands-free mode to get good audio (listening) quality is not an opiton: I use the hands-free for my work-calls VOIP and at the same time, I listen to music using the same headset (when a call comes in, the music is muted automatically in windows 10 during the call).

Now, after upgrading to windows 11, there seems to be no known way to get both modes working as it was in Windows 10.

If Microsoft wants to hide the complexity from the user, that is fine by me. I have to say that it confused me to see 2 devices and that the sound quality was bad on one and I had to google etc.

But if Microsoft chooses to hide the complexity, It must make sure that audio streaming goes to the high quality audio device and the low quality hands-free mode is only used for calls.

Interestingly, in System -> Sound -> Properties, the Recording device (that is the hands free one, I guess) in the settings of Windows 11, you can choose if it should be the standard for communication or the "standard for audio" (translated from German, as I use Windows 11 in German).

As the hands-free one after installing the headset is only set to "standard for communication", I would assume that in the sound settings, the Microsoft developers intended to make a distinction to use a devise for communication = hands-free or as an audio-device=playback of streams. However, somehow, some other parts of Windows 11 do not seem to respect this setting (if my interpretation of the sense of this setting is correct).

Long story short: microsoft needs to fix it!

On the latest version of Windows 11, it seems to switch automatically! However, some background processes using the mic, even with the settings turned OFF, can prevent this.

On my PC, Nvidia Overlay was preventing this. To turn it off, go to GeForce Experience > Settings > Nvidia Overlay and turn it off. Then, the headphones mode will switch automatically

Hi,

I had the same problem and disabling additional audio drivers for my laptop helped me. In my case, it's Intel® Smart Sound Technology for Bluetooth® Audio. I also turned off everything related to Intel® Smart Sound Technology.

I hope this information will be useful to someone.

Best regards.