They don't make 'em like that any more: the 3.5mm headphone jack socket

Headphone jacks are easier to use with friends. A few years ago, if a friend was riding with me in the car, I would offer them a chance to plug their phone into the audio system using a 3.5mm cable. Now, most of my friends don't have a phone with the audio jack, and pairing their phone via bluetooth is a small headache that also seems to have a small random chance of failure.

Similarly, I used to keep a "headphone splitter" cable in my laptop back and backpack. If I were listening to something interesting or funny, I could share that with someone, connecting two (or more!) pairs of headphones to one device. I think it may be technically possible to do something similar on the latest bluetooth standards, but even thinking about trying to do it makes me tired.

On a different note, I have an old but nice hifi stereo in my home. It has a few different audio sources, but the one I use the most is my previous smartphone, which sits next to the stereo, permanently connected with a 3.5mm cable. It has no mobile data plan, but it connects to my home's wifi, and I use it to play music from a streaming service and to my media server that holds a collection of ripped CDs. I think it's a great way to extend the usefulness of an elecronic device, but that is only made possible by utilizing widely adopted standards.

I went shopping for a new mobile phone this year. Excluded anything that did not include 3.5mm headphone jack.

I don't own wireless headphones, and while I grant it does solve the various problem of wires it clearly introduces the problem of batteries and charging.

(Can you even replace batteries in wireless headphones that aren't holding charge anymore? Never mind, don't answer that, I can guess).

Anecdotally I feel like wired headphones run the battery down less than bluetooth broadcast.

I bought a Motorola something or other. Works fine.

They missed my biggest frustration with Bluetooth audio. I want to connect to the TV or my phone, but my headphones want to connect to my computer upstairs or vice versa. Now I have to go upstairs, apologize to the person using that device, and reach over their shoulder to unpair before it lets me connect to my phone. With a 3.5mm I know exactly which device I'm going to connect to and I don't have to negotiate with any 3rd parties for the privilege.

I too like the simplicity and standardisation of the 3.5mm headphone jack, and think it's a shame that it's fallen out of fashion in smartphones. But I think this is something that a small number of people get really disproportionately angry about. It's most obvious every time Fairphone crops up in discussion here, and all you see on HN are people furiously shitting on it over its lack of headphone jack.

> If you’re a fan of the 3.5mm jack, it’s time to vote with your wallet.

Not sure why the author thinks this hasn't been happening already, and the 3.5mm jack is simply losing the popular vote. I really just don't think that many people care about it, in the scheme of things. If removing it helps make the phone even marginally thinner, cheaper or more waterproof, I suspect most consumers will happily make that trade-off. Bluetooth headphones can also be more convenient in that you don't have to remain wired to your phone or deal with tangled cords, etc. Like the author, I also have a Samsung Galaxy S10 that still has the headphone jack but a few months ago I finally caved and bought a pair of bluetooth earphones.

Bluetooth headphones seem to add sufficient lag that they prevent me from playing an instrument (like a synth) over them. I'm not sure bluetooth can solve this problem, but I'd be pleased to be surprised.

I prefer wireless locally, and wired when traveling.

I use a two inexpensive LG neckband style wireless headsets during workout, short (under 4 hour flight); and whatever I can get my hands on flat wired headset, for long flights.

Loss of buds: I have seen too many travelers freak out with their earbuds dropping on the floor on trains, planes, and taxis. With the wireless neckband and wired sets, there is much less chance of losing them, and even if I lose them the cost is minimal.

Battery runs out: I have yet to have a wireless headset that can do a good job on long flights. They will run out of juice, specially if I turn on noise cancellation.

Battery concerns: At several airports, I have to pull the wireless headsets out and place them separately because (justified or not) concerns over battery fires and "technology". No one cares about wired headsets.

Microphones: I have yet to experience small, portable wireless headsets (not headphones) that have good enough microphones without a boom. Even the "inline" microphones for wired headsets often out-do wireless earbuds and similar.

Size: Unless I use earbuds of some sort, a full around and even over the ear wireless headsets are significantly larger than some small wireless in-ear solution. When traveling size and weight counts. Earbuds although significantly smaller, they still have the charging pod/box that make them larger.

The flat wired headsets just rarely tangle, and easy to fold. I can shovel one (or more) in any pocket, not have to worry about batteries, batteries exploding, and recharging.

I do like the freedom of wireless when working out.

Q: Anyone uses earbuds for conference calls? The biggest issues for me are either they cannot hear me, the background noise is too much, or they die too fast. I would welcome some suggestions. It would need to be able to pair with Android, iOS and PC. Thanks!

> The headphone jack is a “just works” kind of technology: there’s nothing complicated about it [..]

While the connector itself is indeed simple, a DAC is also needed inside, and one needs a decent DAC/amp on the phone to get a decent signal. In a cheaper smartphone, you are probably better off with bluetooth/aptx. Moreover, jack cables "just work" until they start making weird stuff depended on how they get bent or stretched or the connectors touch. I experience a surge of anxiety even writing this right now.

My only complaint with the lack of a 3.5mm jack is that people apparently can’t figure out BT headphones, so they just play anything and everything through the phone speakers, whether others are around or not. It’s like the boombox era of the 80s, only with much more shitty sound quality, and it’s Grandma being obnoxious and not some punk teenager.

It's nowhere near as widely used, but there is such a thing as a 2.5mm jack, and you can buy a converter from 2.5mm male to 3.5mm female. Has any telephone handset ever had a 2.5mm headphone jack?

(Presumably no telephone handset has ever had a ¼-inch jack, even in olden times?)

Rose-tinted glasses strike again...

The audio chips in phones were woeful. Not every headphones could be driven by them. There was a whole cottage industry of DAC that you had to plug between your phone and your headset.

As a very deep hole, the jack was also a dust/lint catcher, almost impossible to clean. And because of its length, it had a lot of leverage on the board, requiring fairly heavy-duty soldering to avoid damaging the board.

And the first reason the jack went out is not thinness but water resistance.

Everyone gets to feel their own feelings, but there's just so much that doesn't resonate with me here...

> I can’t use my Bluetooth earbuds while they’re charging.

Many bluetooth headphones have battery life measuring in tens of hours. And every set I've used, long life or otherwise, recharge to 80% in a handful of minutes. I agree that an airpod's miniscule battery life is appalling, but you can stand to pull them out of your ears for five minutes every four hours, and you can charge them one at a time so you never need to stop listening, and my Bose QC35IIs still get more than an entire day of playtime after multiple years of recharge cycles.

> In a critical-care facility, it’s hard enough to find one free mains socket to connect a charger to, let alone two.

I haven't used a single-port USB charger in a decade. All of my chargers have multiple ports on them. GaN tech makes them very compact even at high power output.

> Sound quality is better.

Maybe in the abstract, but for most people this isn't meaningfully true in any way that actually matters to them. And if you're listening to "comedy shows and audiobooks" it definitely doesn't matter. Speech has an extremely limited useful frequency range, and those tracks are typically extremely compressed without any ill effect.

> The headphone jack is a “just works” kind of technology...

Nothing is ever fully a "just works" kind of technology. Things only just work until they stop working. The 3.5mm jack wore out after a year or so on every device I've ever owned that experienced plug/unplug cycles a few times per day because of accumulated minuscule amounts of force over time. This is more likely for devices like phones which are ultracompact and go in your pocket. Google for variations of "3.5mm port broken" or "loose audio jack" some time and you'll see that this is a common problem. The wires themselves also wear out from repeated flexing over time, even with strain relief. I had a pair of Shure E2c years ago that stopped working if I didn't hold a bend in the non-replaceable cable at a particular spot with a rubber band.

> Ordinary wired earbuds can be small enough to wear whilst sleeping. I’ve never seen Bluetooth earbuds that are.

Then you didn't really look IMO. Bluetooth headsets for sleeping is a whole cottage industry now. Anecdotally, I personally sleep fine in honking large Bose QC35 IIs, but that obviously depends on sleep position.

I've come around on USB-C headphones, which seem to be reeeeasonably decent and which, as an added bonus, bypass the absurdly terrible sound chip on my laptop to provide decent quality audio for two of my devices. But until phones ship with two of the ports, they fail to solve the "use while charging" issue, and there's still the secondary issue of 3.5mm devices being absolutely everywhere on this green earth, and not in the remotest way compatible with this fancy new USB-C thing. There's not a reverse dongle, and there really can't be, as the 3.5mm jack doesn't provide power.

My unpopular opinion is that wired earphones are really great if you really love the sensation of getting your ears ripped off when your cord hooks on something when you stand up, and you don't care much about maximizing battery life in your mobile device.

They are also truly ridiculous now that you can just swap out your cable for a USB audio cable. (If the cord is hard-wired to the headphones… okay so you have cheap headphones? Why even care then?)

I don't get it.

My reason for sticking with the jack (and buying a phone that has one) is that I extensively jump between my phone, computer, tablet, 3ds, switch (and sometimes other consoles) and the jack is the most plug&listen I know that just works

It isn't even "Bluetooth vs 3.5mm" it's 3.5mm vs. Not having 3.5mm

Every phone prior to 2020 had both. If your 3.5mm broke that sucks, but that would just put you in the exact situation we have today generally. If you never use it anyway why do you care?

I just don't understand how so many people are arguing in favor of a company obviously making a move to force their customers into buying something they didn't necessarily want.

I prefer wired too, because of the much reduced latency and better sound quality both in and out.

Especially important with calls around the world, where electron/light speed already adds 150 ms.

I would hope that my call partner acted similarly but unfortunately they nearly never do.

Maybe some future directed microphone and speaker setup in rooms will finally lead to the same comfort without the wire.

All the phones I used were Nexus and Pixel. Pixel 3a XL was my last Pixel and now I switched to Sony. They're expensive - they're priced without care to competitor's pricing and sold at Sony stores only. Most people in the street wouldn't know Sony still make phones today.

I don't think I'll go back to Pixel until Sony drop the headphone jack as well, or someone invented a lightweight pluggable backpack that charges everything inside. Until then I'm not touching the backpack when I'm at home - the wireless mouse use disposable AA batteries, my portable battery stays uncharged, the laptop is charged while using it.

Also on Bluetooth, the phone connects to the Tesla and the Samsung soundbar with SBC as the only option. The only thing that use something else is my DAC with Sony's own LDAC. There's nowhere telling you why it doesn't use better codec. Wired always deliver the best quality your hardware could.

Does anyone else use a cheap MP3 player and RSS feeds or am I the last dinosaur?

I was pleased to find that USB-C earphones are now inexpensive and plentiful. It was a must-purchase for my Pixel. The USB audio interface is mature and stable. It better supports the little remote button controls too.

There are unfortunately two drawbacks which may make USB inferior to other interfaces: the C plug is small and weak. Already my first set of earphones became unusable due to a loose, flaky connector. Also, given that phones only sport a single USB, the earphones monopolize it and, sadly, prevent charging, PC interface, tethering, etc.

So, while this is kind of true, and I totally support having headphone jacks in phones (I'm on a Pixel 4a) this post lacks many details and "alternatives".

Modern phones might have wireless charging - so charging while listening is possible even with a dongle.

There are USB-C only headphones - so not always a dongle is required.

There are (overear) Bluetooth headphones that support charging while listening

> The headphone jack is a “just works” kind of technology: there’s nothing complicated about it, and its not encumbered by patents, so anybody can make compatible equipment.

Oh boy did Apple have success using a proprietary chip for their volume control in EarPods[1] and preventing others except 1more from supporting it.

Although proprietary I just love the support oft TRRS driven playback control Apple introduced (play, Pause, rewind etc). Android also supports this these days, although not AS good.

I even submitted a PR[2] to audiobookshelf to support Apple like headset controls, but it has not been merged yet.

I still use an iPod Nano 7g to listen to audio books until today :-)

1: https://tinymicros.com/wiki/Apple_iPod_Remote_Protocol

2: https://github.com/advplyr/audiobookshelf-app/pull/1218

It seems they flagged this post. I can only find it by searching for keywords.

I think I will change one of the speakers of my new jack-less phone for a switching audio jack port.

I seem to have noticed a marked increase in the number of people in public listening to music with no headphones over the past several years, as in going from essentially 0 to it now being a thing. I wonder if this came from people not wanting use or buy USB headphones? Or because phones don't come with headphones anymore? (Personally, I have earpods but don't like them. I use a set of standard Apple headphones.)

If USB-C becomes the new standard for wired headphones, I'm ok with that, especially if it means thinner phones.

I inherited a Pixel 3A a couple years after it was released, and I still have it. I didn't even realize that headphone jacks were being phased out. It would be nice if we started to get more than one usb port on a phone, but I already have small USB-C docks for laptops that would work well.

I don't use wireless headphones because they are impractical and quality is low and I feel unconfortable to put wireless emitter almost in my brain.

I don't use 3,5mm jack on my phone as well, because output from S10e is terrible. So I connect fiio DAC via USB-C and wired Shure headphones to DAC.

I don't understand why anyone, who cares about sound quality, complainis about output, that crippling that quality.

I'd probably like bluetooth headphones more if they actually worked more than 50% of the time. Probably because the rooms where I use them are filled with RF noise from so many other devices, they just don't work reliably enough to be usable. They work for a while and then drop out, or simply can't connect at all. Luckily Sony still sell wired headphones.

Reminds me of the late Neil Postman, who gave space to consider that technological trends have secondary effects that can potential make life worse.

As an avid user of wireless headphones I think its worth briefly entertaining the side effects. Increased expectation of isolation in classically social settings, possible long term ear damage, increased baseline cost to consumer.

Obviously there is the cynical explanation of forcing consumers to buy pricey wireless headphone, but what are the stated arguments that manufacturers give for not including the jack? Is it literally the space requirements? (But ofc my wireless headphones and their charging case take up much more room.)

Separately on this:

> The way to discourage companies behaving this way is for us all to take our business elsewhere. It’s still possible to get decent cellphones from Motorola, Asus, and Sony that retain the 3.5mm jack.

Choosing the most important tool in your life based on this one hostile feature seems like a high price to pay. (Should I vow to never do business with Google in any form?) Maybe just better to commit to buying wireless headphones from an opposing company? That removes the manufacturers incentive.

i’ve started carrying the cheap wired Apple earbuds because the call/microphone quality on Bose QC45 headphones and Ultra Open earbuds is so bad, especially when outside. i really wish there existed some solution to use the phone’s built-in mic when using bluetooth headphones

I feel like Bluetooth earbuds are almost in the phase where they will, at the low end of the market, completely displace wired earbuds. At my local Dollar Tree, wired earbuds (and USB-C charging cables) are now available for $1.25. Micro USB charging cables are no longer in stock, but a couple of years ago, they were $1, while USB-C charging cables were too expensive to appear at the Dollar Tree.

At that same location, Bluetooth earbuds are now available for $5, but perhaps in a couple of years they will be $1.25, or whatever the least expensive items at a “dollar store” will cost at that time.

I own at least ten pairs of headphones, as well as some small amps and a DAC, but I end up going back to the $19 Aukey Bluetooth earbuds from Amazon. They sound good enough, battery still lasts 5 hours and they must be six years old, and they're cheap enough where I don't care if they are damaged or lost, but I haven't managed to lose them.

Sure, on an airplane I'll drag along some noise cancelling ones, and I keep a wired set of Sennheisers in my bag for a backup, but I never use them otherwise.

I recently tried out wired headphones (over a USBC adapter) after years of using true wireless ones and was blown away by the sound quality difference. I forgot how amazing things can sound, when I chose convenience. Apart from limitations of Bluetooth and the confusing landscape of codecs, there are physical limitations - wireless sets have to make room for antennas and batteries and chips that could otherwise be used for pure sound quality instead.

Nothing beats the cable. It simply works. You don't need to worry about running out of battery, bluetooth disconnections or getting hurt in case a battery explodes (as was discussed in a thread about someone who if I recall correctly got their Bose headphones turning on fire). Wireless audio should always be a secondary thing. All devices should come with the beloved jack. Even if you purchase some respectable audio speakers or sound bars is very likely they come without it. Is really lame. But as the article mentions, these wireless headphones are designed to be purchased over and over again, hence the reason to put this technology everywhere. As someone else said it, would be awesome to have a regulation to force companies to always provide the headphone jack.

I know it's not what he is looking for: https://www.belkin.com/uk/p/3.5mm-audio-usb-c-charge-adapter...

A USB-C adaptor for mobile phones to allow charging whilst listening on a 3.5mm headphone jack.

My understanding of the advantages is that the 3.5mm Jack is "big" in terms of space taken on the internal of the phone, and that real estate is valuable. Also it was becoming a bottleneck for phone thickness. Don't know if that's all just marketing bs though

While it is hard to do damage to a 6.3mm TRS socket and plug, I wouldn't say the same of the 3.5mm one. As a kid / teenager I damaged a number of sockets and bent a number of 3.5mm male TRS plugs.

So I wouldn't call it a "just works" technology as it is far from perfect.

It's easy to absolutely prove that wired headphones/earbuds are better than wireless:

1. Have one person with wireless earbuds and one person with wired earbuds stand over a street grate.

2. Each person removes one phone from one ear and drops it.

3. The one who can recover their earpiece wins.

Ugh, this infuriates me to no end.

I used to own LG V-series of mobile phones. They had a better-than-usual DAC and a headphone socket. Then LG stopped making that series. Now I have a pixel.

Now I have a USB external DAC (TempoTec Sonata HD pro) that used to work with Spotify, but now the only way I can use it is with a specific USB DAC application that hooks into Tidal. I'm assuming Android updated its audio stack in such a way as to break my external DAC. It's the same with my little desktop DAC, a Schiit Modi.

I just want to be able to listen to music on my preferred headphones, using a good quality DAC!

I disagree with the sentiment "wired headphones are better by every metric" because when doing sports, cables are simply annoying. Having said that, my phone does have an audio jack, because once a year I actually do need it.

I've held onto my Pixel 4a5g as long as I could, being the last Google phone with a headphone jack. My Pixel 9 arrives in a few weeks but I was able to buy a used iPod to help satisfy my 3.5mm needs.

As much as I agree generally that headphone sockets are great, there's a couple of missed disadvantages with including them in your phone: waterproofing and thickness.

I use to own expensive (~250+€) bluetooth earbuds, with ANC and all that jazz. I broke them by trying to clean them one time (my ears are very "waxy" and every earbuds always ends up coating in nastiness from my ears very quickly, so i need to clean them regularly). So I went back to the cheap wired (but still USB-c) earbuds I got. I do resonate a lot with this article. Wired earbuds just works. With wireless earbuds I cannot count how many time I had issue with bluetooth. The microphone on every wireless earbuds is awful because you cannot put it right to your mouth like you can with wired ones. You have a limited battery time. Wireless earbuds are bulkier so they get out of your ears easier, ...

The only thing I miss is the ANC, which was surprisingly working well on trains and planes.

And yeah, I which I still had a jack on my phone. My best wired earbuds use jack, so I have to carry this annoying dongle, usb-c is also flimsier, and I am way more worried about breaking it, since I also need it to charge my phone and transfer files.

Brings to mind a viral tweet I saw years ago, "my roommate asked to charge his cigarette but he had to wait as I was charging my book. The future sucks"

Isn’t adding a headphone jack introducing another pathway for liquid to enter a device, or would well-constructed hardware prevent that from happening?

Another positive point for wireless headphones: you never have to deal with detangling a cord, getting caught in it, or it pulling on you.

It’s sad, but at least portable USB DACs have come a long way. My personal choice is the Qudelix 5K.

It's disappointing seeing the slow decline in the number of devices that include a 3.5mm headphone jack. Personally I don't want any hassle from my headphones, I just want to plug them in and use them.

FWIW you can get adapters from Lightning or USB-C to 3.5 mm jack for 5 Euros/Dollars.

I avoided phones without a headphone jack for a while for similar reasons. I didn't want to use a dongle or buy new wired headphones, and I didn't want to use a 1-to-2 USB-C/lightning dongle to listen to music and charge at the same time.

Then I invested on a Sony WH-1000XM3 and suddenly battery life wasn't a problem anymore. That was a big change from the cheap bluetooth earphones I had used until that point, which had terrible battery life. I could use them for a full day, maybe forget to charge them, and it never ran out of battery. So I stopped using wired headphones.

The downside was the price... the WH-1000XM3 wasn't cheap, but things have changed. Last year I wanted something smaller, so I bough the Anker Liberty 4 NC. Much cheaper, good noise cancelling, good enough sound quality, and from time to time use them for 8 hours straight (AAC mode) without putting them in the case. The earphones + case can last a week without charging them (with my usage of course). It wouldn't be a problem even if I was in hospital for a while, like in OP's case.

So I'd say that the list of downsides is getting shorter as good bluetooth headphones get cheaper. It's still more expensive, but it's a different world compared to 5 years ago.

If you still want to use wired headphones, then yeah, nothing has changed and losing the headphone jack is bad. But if you're willing to try wireless, then it's not as bad as it used to be.

Is water resistance a reason why we're seeing the elimination of the 3.5mm jack?

> The headphone jack just works

...except when you can't make good contact and you wind up with one stereo channel muted and you have to fidget manically to fix it....which seems to occur with every damn headphone jack on every device without exception.

I just this weekend """upgraded""" from an S9+ to an S24+, losing the 3.5mm jack, but not without the exact sentiment of the author. I looked at every possible option to retain my jack, but ultimately found myself forced into either a new Samsung or Pixel due to their commitment to an actually reasonable-ish update lifetime promise of 7-ish years. (I'd really expect 10 at this point, but c'est la vie). I upgraded ONLY because I'm uncomfortable not having security updates/patches. Otherwise, frankly, I can't even tell the difference. Upon quick tests, I think I even prefer the camera on my S9+.

I absolutely, passionately hate Bluetooth. I hate not being able to share the jack in the car. I hate spotty connections. I hate needing a dongle. I hate the subtle loss of high end frequency content's quality. I hate the pain in the ass of pairing. 3.5mm had its share of problems, but this was a cartel making a cash grab and I am absolutely livid I have to play the game.

I've ran a poll in a lot of the tech group chat's I'm in multiple times. Over 40%, each time, is willing to pay $50 more to have the jack back. The manufactures know this, but know it pales in comparison to the profit of some new bluetooth headphones.

We don't need monoplolies to negatively impact tech, just a few big players to intentionally normalize boning their own customers. We need consumer protection laws that reflect that normal.

I wish there were phone with 3.5mm jack...

...which can also lie down of the table flatly.

I would vote with all my money for it, maybe I would even buy few in advance for future.

Unfortunately these are sick man dreams these days.

Its literally one of the dumbest things the "environmentalists" have shoved down consumers throats.

"environmentalists" being you know:

- https://www.apple.com/environment/

- https://www.samsung.com/us/aboutsamsung/sustainability/envir...

- https://sustainability.google/

It's all greenwashed bullshit.

i don't get why the author makes it out to be some big conspiracy, many people including myself are very happy with wireless headphones and would never go back to the hassle of untangling wires

also there are wireless headphones which have 24 hour battery life

Voting with your wallet probably isn't going to work, because you probably represent a drop in the bucket of sales.

If you want this changed, start a campaign and write to your representative in Congress. If the EU could make Apple put USB-C on the iPhone, maybe you can get the 3.5mm jack back on your phone. But you won't get there by kidding yourself thinking your individual sale matters.

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I'm seeing any number of dongles that include a charge port on Amazon, like this one: https://a.co/d/hwiLAqp

Wireless charging for your phone is also an option.