Managing Bluetooth earbuds on Linux often means relying on the desktop’s basic Bluetooth menu, with little access to device-specific features like case battery levels, noise control modes, gestures, or in-ear detection. BudsLink change this. It is a new Linux app that aims to close that gap for several popular earbud and headset families.
Available via Flathub, the app provides battery monitoring and feature controls for supported Bluetooth wearable audio devices, including AirPods, Beats, Sony audio devices, Samsung Galaxy Buds, and Nothing/CMF buds.
On the features side, BudsLink shows battery levels for earbuds and (when supported) the charging case. It also provides controls for Active Noise Cancellation and Ambient Sound modes, Conversation Awareness, automatic volume reduction during Conversation Awareness, media pause and resume via in-ear detection, and device-specific gesture or control configuration.
On top of that, appearance options include custom device icons, dark mode override, and accent color override.
Under the hood, the app communicates directly with supported devices using L2CAP and RFCOMM sockets. The developer said BudsLink can run as a background service and work with BudsLink-Companion applets or widgets, allowing the interface to appear automatically when a compatible device connects.
Companion integration is currently listed for KDE Plasma, Cinnamon, and GNOME desktop environments. However, the developer said the KDE Plasma and Cinnamon versions have not yet been submitted to their official stores or sites.
Early user reports on Reddit mention successful use with AirPods Pro 3, Galaxy Buds Pro 2, Galaxy Buds Core, and Nothing Buds on KDE. Users have also asked about future support for Pixel Buds, Soundcore, Huawei FreeClip, Sennheiser, and Redmi devices. The developer said Sennheiser and Redmi are the next targets if users are willing to test or provide Bluetooth snoop logs.
For more details, see the project’s GitHub repo.
Image credits: BudsLink
BudsLink will go good with my cool buds and tasty waves.