That's just Bluetooth being Bluetooth. You can either have good sound quality but no mic or shit sound quality and mic.

I'm surprised and disappointed that Apple, despite the proprietary W1 chip in the AirPods didn't build a custom protocol to work around this limitation.

I use https://c-command.com/toothfairy/ for this issue with my Sony XM3-1000's.

I have this same issue with my Sony headphones.

1. Open Utilities -> Audio Midi Setup 2. In the left pane click + and add a new aggregate device 3. Add your internal mic to the aggregate device 4. Go to System Preferences -> Sound and select the aggregate device as your input

Unlike the 'raw' internal mic device this one should stay active when you disconnect / connect your headphones.

I've never found a better solution than this :( Kind of shocking that this is required - but it works.

Oh boy, at least it's only annoying. Not sure if this is just because I use 3rd-party bluetooth headphones (bose QC35) and inadequate Apple software testing, but if I try to use headphones for audio and switch to the internal macbook mic, Facetime either freezes or crashes every time.

that's a bluetooth limitation likely on the macbook side, so i think the answer is "buy a new macbook pro".