Apple’s AirPods Pro are a significant upgrade over the regular AirPods. The base model allows you to listen to your favorite music and podcasts, talk to Siri, trigger features with a tap, check the battery charge, and find them if they’re missing. But with the Pro, you can get a better fit, fully enhance the audio quality, optimize battery charging, and take advantage of other cool features. Here are a few tips to help you get the most out of your AirPods Pro.
What can you do with new AirPods Pro? Here are some tips, courtesy of PCMag’s Lance Whitney.
Take the Ear Tip Fit Test
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One of the drawbacks with the regular AirPods is that they use a one-size-fits-all approach with an in-ear design that doesn’t necessarily fit all ears properly. If the fit isn’t snug, the AirPods can easily and quickly slip out of your ears. The AirPods Pro corrects that flaw by switching to an in-canal design with replaceable tips for small, medium, and large ear canal sizes (the 2nd-gen AirPods Pro also offer an extra small option).
By default, the AirPods Pro are packaged with the medium tips, but you can easily change sizes. To switch out the current tips, pull firmly on them until they detach from the base. Position the new tips so that the center white circle meets with the center black circle on the base. Then push until they click into place.
To help you determine which of the three size tips will provide the best seal and sound, take an Ear Tip Fit test. To do this, attach one pair of the tips to the base of both AirPods Pro. Then insert both AirPods in your ears. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Bluetooth. Tap the info icon for your AirPods Pro and tap the link for Ear Tip Fit Test. At the screen to test the fit of your ear tips, tap Continue, then tap the Play button. A short music clip plays.
Afterwards, the app will tell you if your current tips offer a good fit. If not, it will tell you to either adjust your tips or try a different size. Go through all three sizes until the app tells you that both AirPods have the Good Seal of Approval.
Change the Name of Your AirPods Pro
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The name of your AirPods Pro appears in a few different places, but you’re not stuck with it. On your iPhone, go to Settings > Bluetooth. Tap the info icon for your AirPods Pro, then tap the current name. You can then revise the existing name or delete it and create an entirely new name. When finished, tap Done.
Control Music with a Press
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Control the flow of music by pressing the stem of either your left or right AirPods Pro. To do this, you’ll need to press the stem with your thumb and forefinger until you hear a low click. Press once to pause/play, double-press to skip forward to the next track, and triple-press to skip backward to the start of your current track or to the previous track.
Customize the Presses
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By default, pressing and holding the stem of either AirPod Pro moves between Noise Cancellation and Transparency, but you can change that for one or both of them. With the AirPods Pro in your ears, go to Settings > Bluetooth and press the info icon next to your AirPods. Under the Press and Hold AirPods section, tap the entry for Left or Right.
Here, you can keep Noise Control as the activated action when you long-press but add the Off setting to the mix by tapping its entry. Alternatively, you can change the action from Noise Control to Siri by tapping the entry at the top for Siri. As a suggestion, you may want to keep Noise Control enabled for one bud but switch to Siri for the other.
Adjust the Volume on 2nd Gen AirPods Pro
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The second generation AirPods Pro enhance the earbuds with better audio quality and other features. One new option allows you to adjust the volume by swiping up and down on a sensor located on the stem of the AirPods. To enable this, go to Settings > Bluetooth > [Your AirPods info icon] > Accessibility. Turn on the switch for Volume Swipe. You can also adjust the time between swipes to avoid accidental volume changes by selecting Longer or Longest.
Fire up some music or other audio, put your thumb on the stem of either AirPod, and use your index finger to swipe up or down on the control. As you do, the volume will increase or decrease.
Turn on Noise Cancellation
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The AirPods Pro offers two different listening modes that can help clamp down on background noise. The Noise Cancellation feature blocks out virtually all background sounds, so this feature can come in handy in a noisy environment where you want to be able to clearly hear your audio.
Transparency mode muffles the background noise so you can still hear it without it interfering with your audio. This would be a good option for public places where you still need to hear announcements or otherwise remain aware of your surroundings.
Switch between Noise Cancellation and Transparency mode with a long press on the stem of either bud until you hear a chime. If you prefer to go through your iPhone, there are two options.
Open Control Center, then press down on the audio control. Tap the icon for Noise Control, then choose Noise Cancellation or Transparency, or just tap Off to turn off Noise Control altogether. You can also go to Settings > Bluetooth > [Your AirPods info icon], then tap Noise Cancellation, Off, or Transparency in the Noise Control section.
Tweak Accessibility Settings
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To further control certain accessibility features of your AirPods Pro, go to Settings > Bluetooth > [Your AirPods info icon] > Accessibility. Here, you can change the speed required to press the stems of your AirPods to pause, play, skip ahead, or go back. You’re also able to adjust the duration needed for pressing the stems to change the noise cancellation mode. Further, you can enable noise cancellation with one AirPod and control the volume swipe.
Improve Sound Quality
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Introduced in iOS 14, a feature known as Headphone Accommodations enhances the audio from your AirPods by boosting softer sounds and certain frequencies.
Go to Settings > Bluetooth > [Your AirPods info icon] > Accessibility > Audio Accessibility Settings > Headphone Accommodations and turn on the switch. Tap Play Sample to hear a sample, then tune the audio for a balanced tone across a range of frequencies, a vocal range for middle frequencies, or brightness for higher frequencies. You can also boost softer sounds slightly, moderately, or strongly.
You may want to try playing music, podcasts, audiobooks, or other audio from your own library to discover which settings work best for your own tastes. Alternatively, the audio output can be customized if you tap Custom Audio Setup and answer a few questions. Your audio settings will change based on your answers.
Turn on Spatial Audio
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A feature introduced in iOS 14 and unique to AirPods Pro and the third generation AirPods is spatial audio, which brings head tracking and surround-sound effects to supported videos. To enable this, you must be running iOS 14 or higher and have your AirPods Pro firmware updated to version 3A283 or higher (Settings > Bluetooth > [Your AirPods info icon] > Version).
Apple TV+, Disney+, iTunes, and HBO Max all support spatial audio, so play a movie or TV show from one of those services. If you picked a compatible video, you should now hear the audio shift in surround sound as you move your head, body, or iPhone.
Enable Adaptive Transparency on 2nd Gen AirPods Pro
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Another option new with the second-generation AirPods Pro is Adaptive Transparency, which automatically lowers the volume of any loud sounds around you to protect your hearing. To enable this option, go to Settings > Bluetooth > [Your AirPods info icon] and turn on the switch for Adaptive Transparency. Any loud sounds detected while you’re wearing your AirPods now should be lessened.
Share With Other AirPods Users
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If someone else has a set of AirPods Pro, regular AirPods, or even Beats headphones, you can share your audio with them. While listening to something with your AirPods Pro, access the Control Center on your iPhone and tap the AirPlay icon for the current audio.
Tap Share Audio and choose the other set of AirPods or Beats headphones. You should then see entries for both headphones. Tap the circle for the other set to connect it. You can now control the volume for both or for each one separately.
Turn Your AirPods Into a Hearing Aid
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You can use your AirPods Pro as a hearing aid through a feature called Live Listen. First, you’ll need to add the feature to Control Center on your iPhone. Go to Settings > Control Center, then tap the plus sign next to Hearing to add it to Control Center.
Put the AirPods Pro in your ears. Open Control Center and tap the Hearing icon and tap Live Listen to turn the feature on. Now place your phone next to the person or audio source that you want to hear more clearly or loudly, and the sound will be amplified. Turn off Live Listen by tapping the entry in Control Center.
Check the Battery Charge
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You can use your iPhone to check the current charge on your AirPods Pro and their charging case. Keep both AirPods Pro in the case and open the lid. A card appears on your iPhone’s screen to indicate the charge levels of both the case and the AirPods. Take one AirPod out of the case, and the card changes to show the charging level for each AirPod separately. Take them both out of the case, and the card shows the charging level for the AirPods, but not the case.
Finally, you can help extend the overall life of the battery for your AirPods Pro by telling your earbuds to wait to finish charging past 80% until you need to use them. To try this out, go to Settings > Bluetooth > [Your AirPods info icon] and turn on Optimized Battery Charging.
If you decide you don’t want this setting, turn the switch off again. You’ll be asked whether you want to turn it off until tomorrow or turn if off permanently.
This article originally appeared on PCMag.com, Mashable’s sibling site. PCMag.com is a leading authority on technology, delivering Labs-based, independent reviews of the latest products and services.
