Six New Features iOS 18 Brings to the AirPods Pro

Friday July 26, 2024 5:22 PM PDT by Juli Clover

iOS 18 is an update designed for the iPhone, but it adds several new features to the AirPods Pro 2, Apple's latest earbuds. The new capabilities require iOS 18, iPadOS 18, or macOS Sequoia and a firmware update that will be released when Apple releases its new software this fall.

iOS 18 and AirPods Pro Feature
This guide highlights all of the changes that are coming to the AirPods Pro 2.

Head Gestures

If you've ever been in a situation where you needed to confirm a Siri request or decline a call without using a voice command or your hands, there's a solution coming.

Head gestures are a new form of AirPods Pro control that will let you nod your head up and down or shake it back and forth to decline a call or interact with ‌Siri‌. When you get a call, you can essentially shake your head no to decline it or nod yes to accept it.

When you're responding to ‌Siri‌ for controlling notifications and incoming or outgoing messages, you can use the same gestures for yes and no without having to speak.

Voice Isolation

With Voice Isolation, the AirPods Pro can cut down on loud background sounds when you're on a phone call, allowing the person you're speaking with to hear you more clearly.

The AirPods Pro will use machine learning to detect and isolate ambient noise such as wind, cars nearby, people speaking, and more, blocking out the sound and prioritizing your voice. Voice Isolation is a feature coming to both the original AirPods Pro and the AirPods Pro 2.

Better Adaptive Audio Controls

Adaptive Noise Control is designed to adjust Active Noise Cancellation and the sound you hear in response to the ambient noise in your environment. Adaptive Audio has been an all or nothing setting, but with iOS 18, there are more granular controls for tweaking the feature to allow for more or less noise to come through.

Personalized Spatial Audio for Gaming

Personalized Spatial Audio is a feature that already exists for movies, TV shows, and music. It uses the TrueDepth camera on your ‌iPhone‌ to scan your face and ears, developing a personal profile that customizes Spatial Audio just for you.

With iOS 18, Apple is expanding Personalized Spatial Audio to gaming, with the aim of delivering more immersive sound for gameplay. Game developers can incorporate spatial audio in their games as part of this change. Personalized Spatial Audio for Gaming is actually coming to the AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, and the third-generation AirPods.

Voice Quality in Games

The AirPods Pro 2 feature voice quality improvements for in-game chat and streaming, along with dynamic head tracking and support for 16-bit 48kHz audio in games.

Lower Latency

According to Apple, the AirPods Pro provide the best wireless audio latency ever for mobile gaming, thanks to improvements coming in iOS 18. Improved latency means that you'll see little to no delay when taking an action in the game and hearing the resulting sound, making for a more responsive experience.

Other AirPods Models

Many of these features are limited to the latest AirPods Pro models. Head gestures and Voice Isolation won't be available on devices other than the AirPods Pro 2, but Personalized Spatial Audio for gaming will be more widely accessible.

Much more on all of the new features that Apple added in iOS 18 can be found in our iOS 18 roundup.

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Top Rated Comments

CraigJDuffy

20 months ago

I can’t say the sound is excellent but I still love it due to the convenience and advanced features.

It’s undeniable that they sound excellent in their size class.

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Cirillo Gherardo

20 months ago

Head gestures are a new form of ‌AirPods Pro‌ control that will let you nod your head up and down or shake it back and forth to decline a call or interact with ‌Siri‌. When you get a call, you can essentially shake your head no to decline it or nod yes to accept it.

I appreciate this but, the first I try to shake my head to decline a call and it answers instead will be the last time I try that feature, and I expect that's how most would feel. Heck, I'm even leery about saying Yes or No when Siri asks if she should answer.

Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)

mblm85

20 months ago

I was very wary when I moved from corded EarPods to my AirPods Pro 2. Would they fit well and would they be practical to use? Well they've turned out to be a great investment. Excellent sound quality and noise cancellation that has improved with the steady stream of updates.

I was expecting there to have been a new version by now with these features held back for that. Really looking forward to having them on my existing pair.

Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Shirasaki

20 months ago

Well, will this firmware update finally get something good on improving call quality? Every time I use AirPods Pro to receive phone call, same speaking volume, some works fine, while others say they can’t hear. And no, it has nothing to do with receiver’s age. So much so that I stop using AirPods Pro for phone call whatsoever.
Also, can Apple finally make connection switch less dumb When multiple devices are placed nearby? Last time I checked it has some sort of motion detection feature now. Can that figure out I am not actively using the device it tries to connect to?
Used to have generic Bluetooth headset that works way better in both call quality and connection switching. I hope Apple has improved the above two or I’m thinking about abandoning AirPods altogether.

Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)