AirPods Pro 2 & 3 disconnecting during calls and music on iOS 26

Re: " ... random bluetooth connectivity issues to the point that during calls it automatically switches to the iPhone speakers (where I need to manually switch back to the paired airpods)".

Wondering whether you may want to try :

Route and automatically answer calls on iPhone - Apple Support

Eg: says:

"You can automatically direct the audio of phone or FaceTime calls to the iPhone speaker, a Bluetooth® headset, or your hearing device.

iPhone can also automatically answer calls after a length of time you set.

1. Go to Settings  > Accessibility > Touch > Call Audio Routing, then choose an audio destination.
2. Tap Auto-Answer Calls, turn on Auto-Answer Calls, then set the duration of time before the call is answered by tapping or .

During a call, you can switch the audio routing from your hearing aid to the iPhone speaker by removing the hearing aid from your ear. "

Even choosing Settings > Acessibility > Touch > Call Audio Routing to “Bluetooth Headset” do not help to fix the issue. Also interesting to notice that same happens while listening to music (randomly stops playing and I need to press resume from time to time).

The issue clearly is within iOS 26/26.0.1 because a friend of mine using “Airpods Pro 2” and a new iPhone 17 Pro is reporting the same behaviors. This only started to happen after upgrading to iOS 26

Your last sentence explains the problem. I have the Pro 2s and bought the AirPod Pro 3s thinking that they would at least work well with IOS 18.7 with a few features like translation missing. The main AirPod menu in settings is missing completely in 18.7 unless I go through the bluetooth connection and then the volume sliders for noise cancellation and volume are missing.

A brand new IOS is always a bit buggy and it's the reason I have tended to wait over the years. When I realised that the iPhone 17 Pro Max ships with IOS 26 I immediately put that on hold and now the AirPod Pro 3s are going back too.

The IOS 26 rollout seems to have been a bit rushed to me and as it is an update for everything from Macs to iPads and iPhones bugs at the scale we have this time is not really surprising. When we get to IOS 26.3 or 26.4 things will have probably settled down. I do hope so.