Apple delivered a solid update to its best wireless earbuds with the launch of AirPods Pro 2. Apple has since turned it up to 11 with five more features added to gen-two AirPods Pro.
Adaptive Audio
AirPods Pro 2 started with three modes of noise control. Noise Cancellation effectively mutes the world around you. Transparency pipes in sounds around you while your ears are plugged. And off… off is what in-ear headphones sounded like before AirPods Pro. Damp and muffled. You’re probably in Noise Cancellation or Transparency.
Enter Adaptive Audio. You may never need the other two modes again.
Adaptive mode “dynamically blends Transparency mode and Active Noise Cancellation together based on the conditions of a user’s environment to deliver the best experience in the moment,” says Apple.
And it works like a charm.
Adaptive Audio lets you enjoy the presence of Transparency while you’re doing dishes, then seamlessly adjust to Noise Cancellation when you turn on the vacuum cleaner. You won’t even realize mode switching occurred because audio playback just sounds consistent. The return of ambient sounds around you will wow you when you notice what just happened.
Conversation Awareness
From the very first version in 2017, AirPods have always been great at letting you stop the audio and tune in to the world. With Auto-Pause, you just remove an AirPod from your ear to stop playback. Slick.
Conversation Awareness is a fresh take on a similar idea.
If you speak with Conversation Awareness turned on, AirPods Pro 2 automatically lower your volume and enhance the voices of people speaking in front of you. While this is happening, Conversation Awareness will actively reduce background noise behind you.
This makes jamming to music and saying hello to someone passing by possible without ever touching your AirPods.
Mute or Unmute
Mute or Unmute may not sound as mind-blowing as Adaptive Audio and Conversation Awareness, but it’s just as convenient if you ever use your AirPods Pro 2 on a phone call. This lets you easily mute yourself during any call through your AirPods by pressing the stem. Press again to unmute. No need to pull out your phone.
Personalized Volume relies on machine learning to let AirPods “understand environmental conditions and listening preferences over time to automatically fine-tune the media experience.”
Automatic Switching is a feature for moving between Apple devices that has existed for a while. An update to the feature means the “connection time between a user’s Apple devices is significantly faster and more reliable,” according to Apple.
iOS 17 first introduced these features to AirPods Pro 2. Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, Mute or Unmute, Personalized Volume, and Automatic Switching improvements are available after updating to iOS 17.
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