AirPods will receive new features supported by artificial intelligence
The AirPods and its lightweight operating system They have started to have a certain presence within WWDC. And it is not the first year that Apple dedicates a section of the Keynote to talking about them. Are new features They are included in the general news of iOS 18 and deserved a specific article so that you know everything you can do if you have AirPods.
Answer or reject calls with a simple nod
It was one of the wow moments of the presentation. Incredibly simple and incredibly useful. After updating to iOS 18 and if you have AirPods Pro 2nd generation, you can decide if you want to answer a call by nodding your head. If, on the other hand, you want to reject the call, you will have to make the “no” gesture. This works thanks to miniaturized sensors that the AirPods Pro 2 have inside their powerful H2 chip.
Voice isolation for better calls with AirPods
The AirPods microphone is one of the weak points they have. In noisy environments it can be really difficult for our voice to be heard clearly. Technically it is complicated since they are very far from our mouth; Even so, Apple has made an effort supported by artificial intelligence with Voice Isolation mode.
When you update your iPhone to iOS 18 and with 2nd generation AirPods Pro, you can activate Voice Isolation mode from the same Control Center. This way you will have the best audio quality during phone calls regardless of the outside conditions. Specifically, it uses the machine learning of the H2 chip in AirPods Pro 2 also supported by the linked iPhone, iPad or Mac. It will isolate your voice, improve sound quality and at the same time will eliminate background noisessuch as wind or the general noise of a bus or subway.
A better experience playing with AirPods
The most powerful iPhone, iPad and Mac models can run PlayStation-worthy games. The arrival of titles such as Resident Evil or Assassin’s Creed. To further enhance this great experience, AirPods 3rd generation, AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max will have custom spatial audio with iOS 18. This means you will have the same ssurround sound sensation what about Apple Music but in your games.
Plus, with the 2nd generation AirPods Pro you’ll get a lower audio latencywhich is essential for action-packed and collaborative video games. In fact, the quality of the voices is also improved so that the conversations with other players be more fluid. This, of course, will also work for online work meetings.
Setting up AirPods Pro Adaptive Audio
While last year with iOS 17 adaptive audio came to the AirPods Pro 2, this year with iOS 18 it goes a step further being able to choose the noise reduction level. What is adaptive audio? It is an automatic mode in which the AirPods adapt the level of noise cancellation depending on the environment you are in. With iOS 18 you can choose between three levels within this automatic mode. A kind of profiles that will allow you to leave it as default, apply more reduction or, on the contrary, lighter noise cancellation.
Compatibility of new AirPods features
Many of these features will only be supported on the most advanced AirPods model we currently have, the second-generation AirPods Pro.
| AirPods Pro 2 | AirPods 3 | AirPods 2 | AirPods Max | AirPods Pro 1 | AIRPODS 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head gestures | Yeah | No | No | No | No | No |
| Voice isolation mode | Yeah | No | No | No | No | No |
| Spatial audio in video games | Yeah | Yeah | No | Yeah | No | No |
| Better latency in video games | Yeah | No | No | No | No | No |
| Adaptive audio with profiles | Yeah | No | No | No | No | No |
Taking into account this compatibility and the rest of the differences between the AirPods models, The second-generation AirPods Pro become the most interesting option. We are waiting to see some alleged AirPods 4 and AirPods Max 2, which surely also have some of these future features. To do this, we will have to wait until at least septemberboth to update to iOS 18 and to learn about that possible next generation of AirPods.
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