The Best New Features for Your AirPods

Your AirPods are getting a few new features this fall. Apple announced new changes as well as some significant improvements to existing features for your AirPods during its big WWDC 2023 presentation . Here are all the AirPods updates you need to know about.

Finally you can mute and unmute the sound yourself

The days of having to use your iPhone to hit the mute button while walking through a noisy place while on a phone call are almost over. After all, AirPods should make it easy to make phone calls without your iPhone interfering, which is why Apple is fixing that in iOS 17. You’ll be able to press the stem of your AirPods (or the Digital Crown on AirPods Max) to quickly mute or unmute.

Faster switching

The ability to seamlessly switch between Apple devices is one of the best features of AirPods. With iOS 17, your AirPods move between devices even faster. Transferring a call or sound from your Mac to iPhone or vice versa will also be more reliable, according to Apple. It’s not necessarily a new feature, but the increased speed and reliability are nice.

Three new features for AirPods Pro (2nd generation)

If you have second-generation AirPods Pro, you’ll get three exciting new features with iOS 17. One of them is Adaptive Audio, a new mode that combines active noise cancellation and transparency mode to provide the perfect level of noise cancellation for your environment. Your AirPods Pro will turn up noise cancellation at concerts and turn it down when you’re walking in a quiet park without your intervention.

Conversation Awareness is another useful new feature. If you start talking while wearing AirPods Pro (2nd generation), the volume of calls or music will be automatically lowered and the voices of those you are talking to will become louder. Background noise will also be reduced with this feature.

Finally, there is the personalized volume. Apple says the AirPods Pro (2nd generation) will use machine learning to understand your listening preferences and “fine-tune your media playback.” While they don’t go into details, it’s safe to assume that your AirPods will adjust the volume based on your previous settings.

Dark mode support

When you try to connect your AirPods to an Apple device or open your AirPods case near your iPhone, you’ll see a pop-up that shows either the steps to connect your AirPods or the device’s battery level. In iOS 16, this popup appears in light mode regardless of your preferences. In iOS 17, it will honor system-wide settings. If you are using dark mode on your iPhone, this popup will also be dark.