Airpods Pro tricks

You’ll be surprised how much you can do with a set of Airpods Pro

You may think that a pair of wireless in-ear headphones simply require putting them in your ears and enjoying the entertainment, but that would be to ignore the clever chip inside and the way Apple has tweaked the software to ensure you can set them up to work exactly as you would want them to. They offer a variety of sound styles which suit different situations and what one person likes another may want to avoid. Also, improvements and new features seem to be appearing all of the time, such as Spatial Audio, and this means that as time goes by you will get even more enjoyment from the clever way they have been designed and implemented for real world use. On top of this there are many hidden tricks you can use to improve things further.

1 Watch controls

There will be times when you need to change the sound profile when out and about and you can do this on the Apple Watch. Simply tap the wireless icon when the Airpods Pro are connected and then choose which sound profile you want to use while running, walking or commuting.

2 Find your Airpods

The Pro version of the Airpods include sensors so that they can work with the Find My app. The feature works in the same way as for other Apple products and you can still play a sound to help you find them. Cleverly, you can choose which Airpod the sound comes through.

3 Check the battery

It is not obvious where you can check the battery level for your Airpods Pro on an iphone or ipad, but Siri is there to help. Simply say “How is my Airpods battery?” to Siri and you will be shown the current battery levels at the bottom of your Home Screen. It works well.

7 Subtle force sensors

The force sensors can be tricky to use at times and different people may need differing setups. Go to Accessibility>airpods and try out the choices under ‘Press and Hold Duration’. The shortest option may work if you often have trouble using the force sensors.

4 One Airpod control

You can set noise cancellation to work when only one Airpod is active by going to Accessibility> Airpods and then enabling ‘Noise Cancellation with one Airpod’. This is useful when taking calls within one Airpod in noisy environments.

8 Share audio

You can share the audio coming from your device with a second pair of Airpods by tapping the wireless icon and then ‘Share Audio’ at which point nearby Airpods will be connected. This is great for two people enjoying a relaxing film or music together when on a run.

5 Check status

When charging your Airpods Pro wirelessly you can check the status by tapping the top of the case. This is a useful quick check, but alas you are only offered two statuses; amber to indicate that they are still charging and green to advise a fully charged state.

9 Remote hearing Airpods

If you leave one Airpod in a room you actually have the ability to listen to what is happening locally via the other Airpod. Go to Control Centre>customise Controls and add Hearing to the control centre. You can then enable ‘Live Listen’ to activate this clever feature.

6 Announce your calls

Go to Settings>phone>announce Calls and enable ‘Headphones Only’ to have calls announced verbally to you when wearing your Airpods Pro. You can decide if you want to answer the call without even picking up your iphone.

10 Time to reset

If you struggle with connection problems or find that your Apple devices often do not sense your Airpods you can reset them. Go to Bluetooth and tap the ‘i’ icon next to your Airpods and then select ‘Forget This Device’. It will only take seconds to reconnect your Airpods.