AirBuddy 3 launches as a major update to the popular macOS utility, evolving from a simple AirPods connector into a full‑featured device management hub.
The new Action HUD floats along the top edge of the screen and can switch between compact and expanded layouts, letting users place it near the notch or on a secondary monitor.
Users can customize which data points appear in the HUD, such as battery percentages, connection status, and audio route indicators, creating a personalized glanceable dashboard.
Accompanying the HUD is a refreshed Dashboard that adopts the Liquid Glass design language from macOS Tahoe, offering translucent, blur‑rich visuals while falling back to an opaque mode on older Macs.
The Dashboard groups device handoff, battery monitoring, and automation shortcuts into logical sections, reducing cognitive load when searching for a specific function.
A new set of desktop widgets can be positioned anywhere, independent of the Notification Center, showing live battery levels for AirPods, iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
These widgets offer quick playback controls, media metadata, and can be resized, stacked, or combined with third‑party widgets to build a bespoke information hub on the desktop.
The Now Playing module delivers a rich media controller accessible from the desktop, Lock Screen, Action HUD, or as a standalone widget, displaying album artwork, track title, artist, and playback progress.
When nothing is playing, Now Playing surfaces recent‑content suggestions, turning idle moments into discovery opportunities while staying tightly integrated with the system’s media session.
Automation is boosted with expanded AppleScript capabilities, allowing scripts to query device states and trigger actions like connecting Bluetooth peripherals or toggling the new Audio Input Lock.
Shortcuts integration exposes system toggles such as Dark Mode, True Tone, Night Shift, display brightness, Spatial Audio, Bluetooth pairing, and Magic Handoff as automatable actions.
Audio Input Lock prevents macOS from switching microphones unexpectedly during calls or recordings by holding a preferred input source steady, configurable via a global shortcut or Shortcuts action.