The Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are a totally new kind of audio wearable device: premium sound built into a cuff-shaped earbud that doesn’t cover your ear. Proprietary Bose OpenAudio technology allows the earbuds to play rich, immersive audio privately even though the speakers on the earbuds sit a short distance from your ear canal, leaving you open to the sounds of your surroundings. The cuffs hook around the outside of your ear so gently that you might forget they’re even there, so you can leave them on all day, always ready for music, calls, or videos.

The Open Earbuds were designed from the ground up to give you a soundtrack for your life: to let you enjoy your music without blocking your ears, in a shape so comfortable you can almost forget you’re wearing any earbuds at all. The engineering of these earbuds was a matter of squeezing Bose OpenAudio technology — which projects deep, rich sound across a short distance of open space to your ear canal — into a shape that could grip your ear extremely gently, leave your ear open to outside sounds, and contain a long-lasting battery. This design process resulted in the Open Earbuds’ unique shape, inspired by ear cuff jewelry. The light-as-air flex arm connects the audio portion of the earbud to a battery barrel that goes behind your ear, providing just enough grip to keep the earbuds secure on any size ear.

Yes. The Open Earbuds are excellent for exercise, thanks to their confident stability on your ear, powerful sound, and open design. Bose’s unique OpenAudio technology allows air to keep your ears cool and dry while you enjoy both your music and sounds from your environment, such as city sounds, nature, input from a coach or workout partner, or sounds that help you play a sport such as tennis or basketball.

Yes. The combination of skin-safe materials, a fully open design, long battery life, and unparalleled comfort means you can leave the earbuds on all day, always connected to your device and ready to produce rich audio the moment you need it.

In stereo mode, the earbud batteries will provide up to 7 hours of play time or 48 hours of standby time (no audio playing). For all-day wear that involves a mix of audio listening and standby, the battery life will vary depending on the proportion of each. For example, 5 hours of audio would leave 10 hours of standby life remaining. And if the battery does run out, a quick 10-minute charge in the case will add up to 2 hours of play time.

Yes. You can slide the earbud slightly up or down the outside of your ear to adjust for comfort, preferred sound balance, looks, or to avoid interference with jewelry. 

Yes. The Open Earbuds are uniquely designed to attach to a part of the ear that does not interfere with most glasses, hats, and piercings. If your accessories touch the product, that’s no problem as long as the earbuds remain comfortable and secure. The magnets that help the earbuds attach to their charging case may occasionally stick slightly to jewelry made of ferromagnetic metals like nickel; this is not damaging to the earbuds or the jewelry, but if bothersome can be avoided by slightly sliding the earbud up or down the ear, away from the jewelry.

OpenAudio is a proprietary Bose technology that allows audio played a short distance from your ear canal to be rich, deep, and private — without sealing your ear. Each earbud uses a tiny dipole transducer system engineered for loud-and-clear personal audio that stays at the ear — instead of going everywhere else.

It’s easy to hear the difference Bose OpenAudio makes by comparing the power of the Bose Ultra Open Earbuds with a traditional set of earbuds held slightly outside your ear. If you remove the traditional earbud from your ear canal and hold it near your ear at the same distance that the Open Earbuds sit, you’ll notice the much greater volume and richer bass from the Open Earbuds.

Bose OpenAudio directs rich, deep audio into the ear canal while using proprietary technology to minimize sound spillage in other directions. In most environments and at most listening levels, people around you won’t hear a thing. If you turn up the volume all the way in a very quiet environment, others may hear that something is playing from your earbuds, but they won’t be able to hear any detail unless they get very close.

No. By design, the Open Earbuds don’t block out the world or have noise cancelling, so you can enjoy your music while staying open to the sounds of the world around you. They do have an automatic volume control feature, available in the Bose app, that helps you hear your music evenly as your environment changes from quiet to loud and back. 

Yes. The Ultra Open Earbuds have the Bluetooth multipoint feature allowing them to connect to two source devices at the same time. This is a recent update as of July 2024, so be sure to set up your earbuds with the Bose app to receive software updates.

The Bose app also allows you to customize the shortcut function on each earbud’s button, and one of the available options is Switch Source. Setting a shortcut to Switch Source will enable you to switch between previously connected Bluetooth source devices with a press and hold of the earbud button without needing to take the earbuds off. 

QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds offer all the same features as their predecessor, QuietComfort Earbuds II, plus breakthrough Bose Immersive Audio and the addition of Immersive Audio settings for Custom Modes. Other new features include Snapdragon Sound certification, using hi-res audio and low latency codec, Qualcomm aptX Adaptive, and Google Fast Pair. QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds also feature a new metallic finish on earbuds, as well as a new notch/key alignment feature for stability bands that makes them easier to swap in and out.

Immersive Audio allows you to hear audio as if it were coming from beyond your QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, thereby allowing for a more spacious, natural listening experience. Your music and other audio will have a wide sound stage in front and to the sides, just as if you were listening to a pair of stereo speakers and seated at the sweet spot between them.

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds utilize both passive and active noise reduction technologies. Passive noise reduction is similar to when you wear earplugs; there is a physical blockage preventing some of the sound from entering your ear. This is achieved through the earbud design with materials such as silicone eartips, and the acoustic seal created by having a proper fit. For active noise cancellation, your earbuds use sophisticated proprietary electronics with microphones both inside and outside the earbuds. The electronics system senses the sound in almost any environment and then measures, compares, and reacts — instant by instant — to produce an opposing cancellation signal.

The controls on the left and right earbud surfaces are the same, and they include:

• Swipe up or down for volume control

• Tap once to play or pause content

• Tap twice in quick succession to skip forward

• Tap three times in quick succession to skip back

• Press and hold the earbud surface to access a Shortcut. The default Shortcut function on both buds is to toggle back and forth between Quiet Mode (full noise cancelling) and Aware Mode (hear outside sound). You can add additional noise cancelling modes at sound levels between Quiet and Aware using the Bose app. The Shortcut on one or both earbuds can also be customized in the Bose app to access a mobile device’s built-in voice assistant

• Tap once to accept an incoming call

• Tap twice in quick succession to end a call, or decline an incoming call

Yes. The Single-bud Use feature allows you to take calls and listen to music using one bud. It will also seamlessly switch between your earbuds, and switches automatically if one of the earbuds runs out of battery or disconnects from Bluetooth®.

Yes. The Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds have passed IPX4 testing, which means they are protected against sweat and splashing water from any angle. The interior of the charging case is resistant to water or sweat that may remain on the buds when they are placed inside for charging; however, it is not recommended that the outside of the case be exposed to water.

You should take some time to experiment with different eartip and stability band sizes to arrive at a combination that suits you, providing a gentle seal and a comfortable, stable experience. Keep in mind that it’s common for left and right ears to vary slightly in shape, so sizes may not match from left to right. Also, eartip and stability band sizes may be mixed and matched (such as using a size small eartip with a #3 stability band). If you find that you need alternate sizes, extra small and extra-large eartips and stability bands are available through Bose Support.

There are two lights: an Earbud status light inside the case between the earbuds, and a Charging Case status light on the outside of the case. Earbud status light (inner):

• Slowly blinks blue – Ready to connect

• Solid blue (5 seconds) – Connected

• Blinks white 2 times – Device list cleared

• Solid white (5 seconds) – Earbuds are fully charged

• Solid amber (5 seconds) – Earbuds are charging

• Blinks white 2 times – Reboot complete

• Blinks white 3 times, repeated – Updating earbud software

• Blinks amber and white – Error, contact Bose customer service

Charging Case status light (outer):

• Solid white – Case is fully charged (100%) and plugged in

• Solid white (5 seconds) – Case is charged (34% to 99%)

• Solid amber (5 seconds) – Case has low charge, less than one full earbud charge remaining (10% to 33%)

• Blinks amber 2 times – Case needs to charge (Less than 10%)

• Solid amber – Case is charging

• Blinks white 3 times, repeated – Updating case software

• Blinks amber and white – Error, contact Bose customer service

Yes. Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds have an adaptive microphone system that allows you to use them during calls when connected to any smartphone. In addition to traditional calls, the earbuds work with many apps that use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), such as Teams, Zoom, or FaceTime. The microphone system adapts to your environment to isolate your voice from competing background noises and wind. In addition, self-voice (adjustable in the Bose app settings) allows you to hear yourself naturally, as if you weren’t wearing earbuds at all, so you can monitor the volume of your voice and minimize the effects of speaking while wearing earbuds.

Yes. The Ultra Earbuds have the Bluetooth multipoint feature allowing them to connect to two source devices at the same time. This is a recent update as of July 2024, so be sure to set up your earbuds with the Bose app to receive software updates.

Snapdragon Sound refers to an audio and software processing infrastructure developed by Qualcomm, focusing on robust and low latency Bluetooth connectivity and leveraging the aptX Adaptive codec. AptX Adaptive will “adapt” the audio quality seamlessly and continuously based on the strength back to the source’s device to maintain a good wireless connection and avoid audio dropouts. This means that for a great wireless connection, you can get the highest possible audio quality up to and including “lossless” audio. The normal sampling rate applicable in your Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds is 44.1 kHz and will adapt up to 48.1 kHz when “high resolution” listening. The codec also has a low latency mode, aka “Gaming Mode.” Just as with audio quality, the codec will “adapt” to achieve the best (lowest) latency possible given the current wireless conditions.

Snapdragon Sound is applicable only to Android users with Snapdragon Sound Certified devices.

Google Fast Pair is a technology developed by Google to expedite the initial pairing process between source devices and headphones. Android users (OS 6.0 or newer) will enjoy the rapid setup Google Fast Pair has to offer by simply turning on their headphones and selecting the Google pair pop-up window on their Android device (Android device location services and Bluetooth must be set to “on”).