Strangers AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones try to connect to my iPod?

A few months ago, I purchased the latest iPod Touch (7th generation) and, a few weeks ago, I upgraded my iPod's firmware to iOS 13 (I'm now on 13.1.2 but whatever).

I recently flew to visit family in another state. At some point during the plane ride there, my iPod kept asking me if I wanted to connect a pair of AirPods to it. I do not own any AirPods nor do any of my family members that I was traveling with so I denied the request. Long story short, eventually, the owner of said AirPods, who I can only assume was my seat mate (I was not sitting with the rest of my family) realized that they were doing something wrong and the pop ups stopped on my iPod.

Coming home I also had a similar issue but with a pair of Beats earphones. At some point during the flight, my iPod asked me if I wanted to connect a pair of Beats to it. I own a pair of Beats but not the ones my iPod asked me about so I denied the request and, again, the pop ups stopped.

I have friends and family members with iPhones and iPads and I have never been told that my Beats Studio Wireless headphones are attempting to connect to their devices.

Why do I get pop ups on my iPod about nearby Bluetooth earphones/headphones attempting to connect to it? Does not let you choose what device you want to connect your Bluetooth enabled earphones/headphones to?

Few months ago, I purchased the latest iPod Touch (7th generation) and, a few weeks ago, I upgraded my iPod's firmware to iOS… Show

It's best to turn off Bluetooth when you're not using it. When you want to connect a Bluetooth device, try to do it in a place away from other devices.

Have you given it a unique name so it's identifiable?

If the name is still whatever generic one, it's likely there are others with that same name so it's guesswork for anyone trying to connect anything to them.

I've not got an ipod now, but in the iphone the device name is set in settings > general > about.