Tired of losing earbuds? OnePlus could introduce a new feature to help

Have you ever lost an earbud because it unexpectedly fell out of your ear? OnePlus and OPPO appear to be working on a new feature that could help save you from suffering such a fate again.

While investigating the Hey Melody app (version 116.3.0), we discovered a new feature that OnePlus and OPPO could introduce to their earbuds. This unreleased feature is called “Earbud fall detection.” The function comes complete with its own settings page where you can toggle it on or off.

If you decide to turn the feature on, a sound will be played on both earbuds if one falls out of your ear. You’ll also receive an alert on your phone to help you find the missing earbud. However, the settings page notes that if the “Notifications” permission is turned off or the app is terminated, you may not receive an alert.

If OnePlus and OPPO release this feature, it will be interesting to see how this works. Most earbuds are equipped with in-ear detection, which detects if you have removed your earbuds from your ears. This is typically used to instruct your device to play or pause whatever you’re listening to. So what technology will this feature use to distinguish between a fall and a regular removal? Our guess is that it will rely on a combination of hardware and software to tell the difference.

We were unable to find any additional details. As a result, it’s unclear which of OnePlus’ and OPPO’s earbuds would support this new feature.