MacOS – Can AirPods’ double-tap to Play/Pause be made to work in other macOS applications than iTunes

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In macOS, it's possible to assign AirPod double-tap to Play/Pause audio (under Bluetooth options; instead of invoking Siri).

But for some reason double-tap Play/Pause only works with iTunes.

If you use the Play/Pause button on the Mac keyboard, or even send it via the wired EarPods, the command command can be intercepted by other applications like VLC. I also use a Chrome extension called StreamKeys whereby the Play/Pause button can control playback on popular audio and video streaming sites.

Question: Is there a way to make the AirPods control system-wide Play/Pause? If no simple solution exists, could this be done some elaborate way via scripting?

Best Answer

It works just fine with applications like

  • QuickTime Player.app
  • the Lynda.com app from the Mac App Store
  • YouTube videos played in Safari

However, it does not work with these applications:

  • QuickTime Player 7
  • Vox (audio player)
  • VLC
  • MplayerX
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