Control AirPods & Galaxy Buds on Ubuntu with ‘BudsLink’

https://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2026/06/budslink-airpods-galaxy-buds-linux

Publish Date: 2026-06-22 15:29:00

BudsLink is a Linux app giving you more control over Bluetooth earbuds from the likes of Apple, Sony, Samsung and Nothing – battery levels, active noise cancellation (ANC) and more, all without needing to use a mobile app.

Most Bluetooth audio devices ‘just work’ on Ubuntu and other Linux distributions for listening to audio, but that’s about it. Pair AirPods or Galaxy Buds with your desktop and you’ll find you can’t adjust all of the on-device features you paid for.

BudsLink is a GTK4/libadwaita app which can. It lets you control earbud features on your Linux desktop, no need to fire up an Android or iOS app. It communicates directly with supported devices over L2CAP and RFCOMM sockets.

Those are included in BlueZ, the default Bluetooth audio stack used in Ubuntu.

Ostensibly similar to LibrePods, which I wrote about last year, BudsLink is more versatile, covers a broader range of hardware and offers desktop integration options.

Access advanced audio device features

The main UI, device overview and settings for AirPods Pro

The majority of wearable Bluetooth audio devices have batteries, so knowing how much battery they have is important. BudsLink’s key lure is displaying per earbud battery levels and charging case battery reporting (on devices that report it).

It should be obvious, but BudsLink is not endorsed or supported by any of the companies whose devices it supports.

It also lets you – device dependent – enable Active Noise Cancellation and Ambient Sound modes, DSEE upscaling and Conversation Awareness (with optional automatic volume reduction when you start speaking).

Media pause and resume via in-ear detection or gestures and button configuration are in there too, and you can define equaliser presets if your device supports those.