Google Pixel Buds pass through FCC on their way to public release

We’ve been anxiously awaiting the release date for the Google Pixel Buds since our brief time with them back in October of 2019. In case you don’t recall, Google’s new Pixel Buds are direct competitors to Apple’s Airpods and Airpods Pro, giving users a light, small, pocketable set of wireless headphones that should work better with Pixel phones (and likely Android phones by extension) than anything else on the market right now.

When Google announced the new Pixel Buds and their release window, it was painful. After showing a beautiful video about all the engineering and work that went into the new Pixel Buds design, they dropped the bomb that these new, light, beautiful ear buds wouldn’t be coming until ‘next spring.’ I think I audibly groaned. It was both the best and worst part of the keynote for me. I think it is still worth looking at and getting excited about, though, because you know what? It is now ‘next spring.’ Take a look at the 5 minutes the Pixel Buds were given at the event below:

In the many days of waiting since the event, we’ve seen the Pixel Buds pass through Bluetooth SIG certification, the pass through the Wireless Charging Consortium certification, and even show up at B&H Photo briefly. All these sightings have pointed to a release on the way, but today’s appearance is basically the final lynch pin. Found by 9to5 Google, it seems the Pixel Buds have now passed through the FCC and have little in the way of stopping a full arrival at this point.

With the full cancellation of all keynote-driven events like Google I/O, there are no real announcement targets to wait for at this point. If Google has these things stocked and ready to release, there’s really no reason not to go ahead and start shipping them right away. An announcement can go out to media and you can bet we’ll all get the word out as quickly as possible.

Hopes are very high for these new wireless earbuds, and I know quite a few people personally – myself included – who are ready to pull the trigger on day one as soon as they are available for purchase. With some pent up demand already built in, a simple release announcement could save Google from availability woes in the event that they don’t have stockpiles of them already in warehouses.

Either way, we’re insanely excited to see this final hurdle taken care of and what amounts to an imminent release of the highly-anticipated Pixel Buds. How will they sound? How will battery life be? How will they perform with sealing out or letting in ambient noise? How will latency be? All these questions and more should be answered sooner than later as we expect to see the Pixel Buds available for purchase very, very soon.

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