Learning how to use these features can help you get more out of your AirPods, while still enjoying their simplicity. To learn more about AirPods features that may have escaped your attention, read on.
1. Live Listen
Using Live Listen is a handy feature, especially in a crowded area. With Live Listen, your AirPods can become a personal microphone. It lets you listen to a conversation or hear someone speak from across the room.
To use Live Listen, open Settings, then tap Control Center. Once there, scroll down and find the Hearing entry. Tap the Add icon, then you’re ready to use the function.
Read more: How to Use AirPods: A Beginner’s Guide
Turn on your AirPods and connect them to your phone, if they aren’t already. Then Control Center (swipe down from the top-right on an iPhone with Face ID, or swipe up from the bottom on an iPhone with a Home button). Tap the Hearing icon, then Live Listen.
You can now leave one bud anywhere and hear the conversation through the other like an easily portable microphone. Just don’t be rude and listen to conversations you aren’t supposed to.
2. Announce Messages
With AirPods, as well as some other Apple headphones, you can have Siri read messages that you receive. Siri will first play a sound and announce the name of the sender before reading your message. She’ll then ask if you want to send a reply back.
f the message is overly long, Siri will only announce the sender’s name. You can still ask her to read the entire message to you, if you want. Reply simply by letting Siri know you’d like to respond.
To turn on this feature, head to Settings > Notifications > Announce Messages with Siri. Note that you are only able to use this feature with AirPods or other Apple headphones (like Powerbeats); you won’t see the option if you don’t have compatible headphones connected. Siri will only read messages aloud when your phone is locked.
This feature will come in handy when you are driving or otherwise occupied and can’t use your hands. With your AirPods connected to your Apple device, you can still hear and reply back to your messages.
3. Share Audio With Others
With regular headphones, it’s obvious how to share a bud with a friend. However, with AirPods, it can be a little tricky. Apple has introduced a feature that allows you to share your audio with anyone you want. This feature allows the other person to listen to what you are hearing, whether it’s music, a podcast, a video, or similar.
To turn this feature on, first connect your AirPods to your device. Open Control Center and tap the AirPlay icon (circles with a triangle at the bottom), which should show on the Now Playing widget for your current audio source. Then you can tap Share Audio.
Hold your friend’s AirPods close to your phone and connect them with the resulting prompt. Now, you can both enjoy the same audio.
4. Headphone Accommodations
Headphone Accommodations is a great feature that Apple added with iOS 14. It allows you to manipulate some frequencies and make soft sounds play more loudly. This is helpful if you suffer from hearing loss, or are picky about audio quality and something seems off. This feature works with several Apple headphones, as with the feature discussed above.
To turn this feature on, head to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Accommodations. Turn the slider at the top on, then you can customize the audio setup to tweak sound frequencies.
You can apply it to Phone, Media, or both. There are other options to choose from here, so play around with them and see what sounds best to you.
5. Choose Which Microphone Your AirPods Use
This feature is applicable to all AirPods. Both buds have a microphone built-in, allowing you to conveniently make calls. By default, both microphones are active if you’re using both AirPods. If you only have one in, that microphone will be used instead.
if you’d like to choose one AirPod’s microphone to always use, go to Settings > Bluetooth and tap the i icon next to your Airpods. Next, hit Microphone, and set it to your preference. If you choose Left or Right here, that will be the default AirPod mic, even if that bud is in the case.
6. Use AirPods With an Apple Watch
The Apple Watch is great when you can’t or don’t want to use your phone, such as when running. If you often use just your Apple Watch without your iPhone, pairing your Apple Watch with AirPods can be useful.
Connecting AirPods to your Apple Watch is easy, as they are automatically paired when you connect the AirPods to your iPhone. To start using them, swipe up from the bottom of your Apple Watch and tap the AirPlay icon, followed by your AirPods.
If this doesn’t work, tap Connect a Device at the bottom of the page, then hold the Setup button on your AirPods’s case to put them into pairing mode.
Optimize Your AirPods Experience
Your AirPods become a lot more awesome when you understand all of their features. If you weren’t aware of these yet, give them a try and see what you’ve missed.
And if your AirPods ever refuse to connect, you should know how to troubleshoot in that situation.
