I fixed my phone's Bluetooth dropouts by accident, and the solution is embarrassingly simple

There are few things as annoying on Android phones as a spotty Bluetooth connection.

If you're trying to listen to music, but your tunes keep cutting out, you keep dropping calls due to confused Android Auto, or your fitness tracker keeps disconnecting, it can be incredibly infuriating.

Sometimes, this can be the result of your chosen Bluetooth gadget not being up to snuff. However, now and then, certain phones seem plagued by this issue.

We've reported on Google Pixel 9 Pro models with Bluetooth problems (which affected the Pixel 8 Pro, for that matter), and I recently spent a month with a Motorola phone that was frustratingly prone to piques of Bluetooth trouble. It was a budget mobile, what did I expect?

Over the course of the month, I was hit by intermittent dropouts and other Bluetooth annoyances. I thought this was just a symptom of using a more affordable handset compared to a premium one — until I decided to get to the bottom of what was going on.

And after some testing, what I discovered helped me reduce the amount of dropping out I suffered.

My Bluetooth problems

I just can't connect

Often, when I was listening to the Nothing Ear (a), which I recently fell in love with all over again, one or both earbuds would drop out.

They'd then spring back to life, but out of sync, and would spend several seconds stuttering, confused, before finally picking back up with the music.

All in all, I'd lose a few seconds of the song. I'm not going to pretend it's a life-or-death issue, or that it ruined my experience of using the phone, but it gave me several seconds of annoyance, several times a day. I thought I'd have to live with it.

That was until, several times in a row, I found myself picking up my phone in the exact same way — and hearing the stutters and cutouts at the same moment every time.

This way was, by putting the palm of my hand over the front-facing camera, an easy way to grab it if it's by the edge of my desk, and I just managed to replicate this three times in a row while writing this article.

That's right: idiosyncratically grabbing the phone, in this simple way, was affecting the music playback. Problem solved, right?

That didn't explain why the drop-outs happened when I was walking around, or not touching my phone at all.

But it had reminded me of a basic tenet of Bluetooth use, and it's something that I think too many wireless gadget users forget.

Bluetooth isn't perfect

There's a reason many prefer the wire

Bluetooth is basically the weakest wireless signal that gadgets commonly use. While Bluetooth is designed for low power and low ranges, both Wi-Fi and 5G are better for range and power.

There's a reason why some of the best home audio set-ups and headphones use Wi-Fi, if they go wireless at all. Bluetooth is convenient, but it's easy to trip up.

Case in point: Bluetooth is incredibly prone to interference. If you're using Bluetooth gadgets in an area with loads of overlapping frequencies, emitted from a wide range of mobile and consumer tech, you'll find unstable connections or sporadic drop-outs.

More relevantly, physical barriers can get in the way of Bluetooth. Materials like glass, wood, and fabric pose little interference, but concrete, plaster, and metal can do an adept job at blocking the signal.

Blocking the signal

And how to avoid it

The only kind of barrier that introduces no interference is no barrier whatsoever. As we've already established, my hand could interrupt my headphones' signal, and it's not alone.

I have a jacket I call my "Bluetooth Killer Jacket" — it's faux suede, made from polyester and elastane — so named, because headphones really struggle to connect to my phone if it's in the breast pocket.

You can buy plenty of metal phone cases, but these can often block signals and do more harm than good.

It's why, when manufacturers make phone cases out of titanium, there are breaks in the shell made of a different material for the antennae.

So there are loads of ways you may be unintentionally blocking the Bluetooth signal between your phone and earbuds or smartwatch. It's a natural byproduct of this kind of connection.

Knowing that, it's easier to avoid it. When I wear the Bluetooth Killer Jacket, for example, I'll put my phone in my bag instead of in the jacket pocket. That way, the connection is perfect.

I've also become very picky about the kind of case I use on a phone. I'll avoid metal ones, as I don't want to block my music, and sometimes eschew them altogether.

Many smartphones come with in-box cases, and I'll often test them, but if they give a hint that they're going to hurt my sound quality, they're gone.

As we've established, holding a phone the right way can also help.

When I discovered my Moto phone could drop out when I held it in the wrong way, I started making a conscious effort not to replicate that. And now, I don't face the problem so much (well, I didn't until I started writing this article and intentionally blocked it again).

Bluetooth is a fickle mistress, and if you don't think about what you're doing, you can end up having a bad experience. But take a little time to figure things out, and you can avoid drop-out, improve reliability, and reduce Bluetooth lag.