Technology

as a backup. like when on a plane and my wireless ones die. or to plug into stereo aux

I do a good 50% of my phonecalls on wired earbuds or wired headset. It's much more convenient than holding the phone, especially for long calls.

When my phone had one, I used it probably every day.

I still miss it. All Bluetooth buds I've used have this stupid quirk in Teams, for example, where a call will interrupt the meeting and even if I immediately hang up, it takes like 2-5 seconds for Teams to switch back to Bluetooth. I never had this issue with an aux jack.

I also had a problem the other day where my Bluetooth buds just would. not. connect. for some stupid reason despite having worked OK for a week prior. On my phone with an aux jack that was never a problem.

For music, I used to use a really nice set of Sennheiser's with my phone, and while I'm no audiophile, I swear using an adapter just isn't the same (even though I know technically it should support the same bandwidth).

Another thing I really miss are phones that came with IR Blasters.

I used mine almost every day. My Lightning>1/8” adapter has a permanent spot in my pocket, inside of a miniature altoids tin to protect it.

But I also work as an audio technician, and use my phone for sound checks. And professional audio gear doesn’t use Bluetooth, for a variety of reasons. So I bet my use case is probably a little skewed.

My current phone doesn't have a headphone jack, but if it did I would every day. Still use wired every day on laptop and pc.

Definitely wired for more serious listening and important calls.

I see a lot of people talking about latency - I am generally very sensitive to this, but I think Apple gets the delay down pretty low with AirPods.

I have another complaint, though: the Bluetooth spec doesn't allow for enough bandwidth to simultaneously send and receive audio at proper bitrates, so any time you are doing both, it dramatically reduces the quality of both. This means if you are using Bluetooth for anything better than PSTN calls, you sound like shit.

Also, the microphones in AirPods make this so much worse by emphasizing sounds of anything you are doing - if you wash dishes or crumple a bag or basically anything, even if it seems relatively quiet for you, there is a good chance it will be loud as fuck for the other person.

I run a small dance association. When I go to a club and want to play some music through the speakers in that club, I need to plug my phone in to their system. Usually there's no bluetooth option. That's why I need the headphobe jack

I have been using the headphone jack on every single smartphone I've owned. When I was in school I'd listen to music whenever I was in the bus, when I was going from class to class, when lunchtime came around, whenever I could. When I got home, I would listen to music and watch videos. Hell, I still use my phone way too much for videos and music when I don't have anything to do.

I listen to so much audio that I couldn't imagine a world with a limited battery for my headphones.

I use mine everyday. I listen to music, podcasts, and sometimes watch videos at work, basically the entire time I'm working. I usually have my phone connected and charging at the same time through the charge port. Wireless charging doesn't work because of my Pop Socket.

They also break or I lose them in occasion and it takes a quick trip to any gas station, grocery store, or basically any nearby store during my lunch break, and I'm able to pick up replacements for $10-$20.

Fair to say, I refuse to buy my next phone without headphone jacks. I do use wireless headphones for when I'm working out, but otherwise, at work or on walks, I use wired ones connected to my headphone jack.

literally every day while I work so I can listen to music

I have my headphones in literally right now. I use my phone as my primary media system, so video sources like YouTube and Nebula and audio like music and podcasts. I listen with wired headphones for any time I am not physically very involved as they are higher quality and provide a much more enjoyable listening experience, but I will switch to Bluetooth headphones when being more physically active.

That said, I am a very high consumer of audio. I currently have 129 podcasts I am subscribed to (some no longer run, but most are weekly to monthly), along with a whole lot of audiobooks. I am currently at well over 2200 hours played in my podcast app this year and that excludes all the audiobooks and videos.

There's probably a lot of selection bias going on right now, but I feel compelled to say "I won't buy a phone without a jack".

The convenience of not having to charge headphones is great. I use them so infrequently that when I pull them out on a trip, I don't want to go "ah shit, forgot to charge them". But on long trips, bluetooth kills my battery so jack is the only way to go for me.

I use it quite frequently for both making calls and listening to music or videos.

It is not my primary method of audio use, I use bluetooth earbuds/headphones in a workshop environment for that so I don't get the cables caught on machinery or materials but I use it when traveling or listening to music at home because the sound quality is better and there is only one device to keep track of or charged. Its not an everyday thing but still a requirement for me.

I use it regularly on steam deck, but not phone

I use it a lot. Both to listen to music while on public transportation and to connect the phone to my stereo at home.

I would if it had one.

I use it in my car

I use it daily for connecting it to my car stereo, and about once a month when I mow my lawn or have to fly on a plane. I'll never buy a phone without one.

I prefer wired headphones. I don't want to worry about keeping them charged, and the few pairs of wireless headphones I have tried died or had the buttons stop working after a few uses from getting waterlogged with sweat, while I've been using the same pair of $6 wired headphones for 10 years without issues.

I don't care for Bluetooth or USB audio connections as they don't always work intuitively, they might take multiple button presses to set up, and every manufacturer seems to think they need to be set up in a slightly different way, while the auxiliary audio cable just works with no setup.

The $15 USB adapters is kind of annoying, but I think I really only am really peeved about it is when I am flying and can't charge my phone and listen to music at the same time. For me I think there are a few factors that have made my headphone jack less necessary.

1. Covid and WFH. I used to listen to music on my commutes and in the office from my phone on wired cans. Now I WFH and have speakers or have headphones running from my PC's DAC.
2. Streaming Speakers/Receivers that are wifi enabled. I no longer have to worry about using AUX inputs on my speakers, since I have wifi enabled devices that allow me to "cast" music to any device in my home from my phone instead of plugging it in or using a weak bluetooth connection.
3. Android Auto or other car/phone USB/bluetooth integrations. No longer need to use Aux in cables to a car to listen to music.

Every day at work when I listen to music.

I keep losing my usb c to headphone jack, but I usually use it a couple times a week when its not lost. I have airpods, but I'm on android so I lost the charger for it, and nearly lost the airpods many times.

I use it a lot for podcasts and music. I won't buy a fucking phone without a fucking headphone jack. That shit can burn in hell.

Every Monday when I game with a buddy online.

Wish I still had one. I use wired headphones on my iPhone daily.

I love rhythm games so when I play the mobile ones, maybe 2 times a week? Bluetooth is too slow and prone to disconnection to be reliable, I missed everything when I tried, and muse dash even alerts you on boot to not use bluetooth.

Regularly

I use it a few times a year at most. I only use Bluetooth headphones, and have android auto in the car. Every now and then I need to plug my phone into a stero or something.

One of my old phones is my dedicated stereo phone at home, it's permanently plugged into the aux of my receiver.

I always use mine, the audio delay that bluetooth headphones have make them almost useless for me. I'm also not a fan of the fact that they either make loud noises or have some form of a voice to tell you when it's either connected to a device or got a low battery.

I would use it, if my phone had one.

One every month or two, when I play audio in the old vehicle. It's nice to be able to charge at the same time.

Only a little. I use Bluetooth earbuds most of the time. I have an older work vehicle without Bluetooth though, so I still have to use the aux cord on some drives.

I do.

I got a Bluetooth headphones with a backup jack. If the headphones run out while I'm using them, I use the wire that came with the headphones.

At home I have much larger headphones that I use for my PC, my Steam Deck, and yeah, my phone too. It's 100% wired. I specifically went out of my way to buy wired logitech headphones because I got sick of Bluetooth headsets after many years of using one.

I regularly use wireless earbuds, which are extremely convenient, but I am not looking forward to the day when the battery is insufficient for me and I can't replace it due to "innovation". I also miss out on having splitters so that 2 people can listen to the same audio. I know Bluetooth LE is supposed to fix that, but I don't even know what devices support that. Like others said, having the choice is important, but Apple's "bravery" and market domination removed that from us...

I use wired headphones daily thru a USB c adapter