Using a Jabra dongle with another headset

The other night I was tagged into a Twitter thread about headsets and the new range of Jabra Evolve 2 that is now out and I got talking to Andreas Villumsen, who is the EMEA Marketing Manager for Jabra. He mentioned that you could pair a Jabra headest with a Jabra dongle to get a stronger Bluetooth connection and I was intrigued.

If you follow me you'll know I am a huge fan of the Jabra range and have used several of the headsets over the years, my usual go to headset is the Jabra Evolve 65 when working from home, the connection dongle sits permanently plugged into my Surface Dock and my headset is stored on a hook under my desk. Being Microsoft Teams Certified, it's a great go to device for meetings.

However lately, I've been using the Jabra Elite 85H more, to listen to music while working and then using it as speakers on a call and using my Rode NT USB microphone for audio. The Jabra Elite 85H is paired to my phone (Samsung S9) and my Surface Book 2. The Jabra Elite 85H isn't Microsoft Teams Certified but it works fine connected.

I have noticed that sometimes the Bluetooth connection can be a bit temperamental, occasionally the sound comes out sounding like a robot. The tip that Andreas gave me suggested I could use any Jabra dongle and connect the Jabra Elite 85h headset to to make a stronger Bluetooth connection.

And I can say it seems to have worked. I'm listening to music on the headset connected via my Jabra Elite 65 dongle and the connection is really good. In order to do that I had to pair my headset to the dongle. The steps I took were:

1. Opened up my Jabra Direct software
2. Click on the Bluetooth menu
3. Turned on my Jabra Elite 85h headphones
4. Held the multifunction button on the right earcup for 3 seconds
5. Click Start in the Jabra Direct software, so it would start to search for Bluetooth devices in the area
6. The devices paired together

So if you have a dongle around and are looking to make a strong connection to your headset, give this a try!