Deep dive into Adaptive Audio and Intelligent Noise Control
Adaptive Audio, Conversation Awareness, and Personalized Volume work together to create a seamless listening experience, automatically adjusting noise control and media volume so you can stay aware of your surroundings without constant manual adjustments. These features are designed to make interactions with the world around you feel more natural, even while you're enjoying your audio.
What's new
With this update, your AirPods Pro gain three powerful new capabilities that intelligently manage your sound environment. You can now access these features directly from Control Center or fine-tune them in your AirPods settings.
- Adaptive Audio: A brand new listening mode that dynamically blends Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode. It adjusts the level of noise control based on the changing sound conditions in your environment, reducing distracting noise while allowing important sounds to come through.
- Conversation Awareness: When you start speaking, this feature automatically lowers your media volume, reduces background noise, and enhances the voices of the people in front of you. This allows you to engage in a conversation without needing to remove your AirPods.
- Personalized Volume: Using machine learning, this feature learns your listening preferences over time. It then automatically adjusts the media volume based on your environmental conditions to provide a more consistent and comfortable listening experience.
How to use this feature
- Connect your AirPods Pro and open Control Center by swiping down from the top-right corner of your screen.
- Long-press the volume slider to open the audio control panel.
- Tap Adaptive to enable the new listening mode. You can switch between Transparency, Adaptive, and Noise Cancellation here.
- Enable or disable Conversation Awareness by tapping the center icon. This can be used with any listening mode.
- To enable Personalized Volume, go to Settings > [Your AirPods Name] and toggle on Personalized Volume.
Key capabilities
- Move seamlessly between environments. Walk from a quiet room to a noisy street, and Adaptive Audio will automatically reduce sustained background noise like traffic while still letting you hear important sounds like sirens or people calling your name.
- Start conversations instantly. With Conversation Awareness, simply start talking to a colleague or barista, and your podcast or music will automatically lower, allowing for a natural conversation without fumbling for controls.
- Get a consistent listening experience. Personalized Volume learns your preferences and makes subtle adjustments for you. If you enter a loud area, it might slightly increase the volume to match, then lower it again when you return to a quiet space.
- Customize your level of immersion. If you find Adaptive Audio is letting in too much or too little noise, you can adjust its sensitivity. Navigate to Settings > [Your AirPods Name] > Adaptive Audio and use the slider to fine-tune the balance.
Tips for getting the most out of this feature
If you prefer to have full control, you can disable Conversation Awareness and Personalized Volume individually in the AirPods settings while still taking advantage of Adaptive Audio. For environments where you need maximum focus, such as on an airplane, manually switching to full Noise Cancellation mode will provide the strongest level of sound isolation. Remember that Personalized Volume improves over time, so the more you use your AirPods, the better it will become at anticipating your needs.
Summary
Adaptive Audio and its related intelligent features transform your AirPods Pro into a smarter listening companion. By automatically managing noise levels and media volume based on your actions and environment, these features provide a more effortless and immersive audio experience. Set your preferences once and let your AirPods handle the rest, keeping you connected to both your audio and the world around you.
