Play pause works fine for me. On mobile.
To connect E8 to laptop, my steps were:
1) turn on bluetooth on laptop
2) on the E8 take both buds out of charging case.
3) left & right hold for ~5secs to set E8 to pairing mode(right bud will flash blue led). Remember once in pairing mode, release touch. Otherwise holding for ~10secs will set E8 to reset all previously paired devices.
4) on laptop while your E8 is set on pairing mode, scanning should detect the E8. Connect to it.
5) enjoy
not sure why but mine doesn't work on youtube on ios11. is yours android?