Speaker 1: You’ve got a pair of AirPods Pro two and want to make the most out of them. Well, you’ve come to the right place as I’ve put together some tips secret and not so secret features to check out whether you have the AirPods Pro two with USBC Lightning or the first generation AirPods Pro. Most of these tips will apply as long as you’re updated to the latest firmware and running iOS 17 or later. Welcome to your weekly dose of all things mobile and make sure to subscribe for lots more. So let’s go
Speaker 1: Make [00:00:30] sure you’re using the right size tips for your ears, pop your AirPods in and then go to settings and find the name of your AirPods right up here. Scroll down to ear fit test and then jam out to the tune it plays you and you’ll get the okay or a notification to change it up. Now, if you have a pair of the original AirPods Pro and struggle with getting a small enough ear tip size good news, you can actually use the extra small tips from the AirPods Pro two on the older earbuds and their only $8. And if that still doesn’t work, try some third party foam tips to see if you can get a better fit [00:01:00] while you’re in this menu. In the Bluetooth settings, you’ll also see that you can scroll up a bit to customize what happens when you hold the left or the right stem.
Speaker 1: You can set it to adjust the noise control, or maybe you’d prefer to summon your voice assistant using the left AirPod and activate noise cancellation from the right. So many options. Swiping down from your home screen to the control center is a great way to get quick access to your AirPods. When they’re connected, you can press and hold the volume slider to change your noise control mode. Turn on conversational awareness or turn [00:01:30] on spatial audio, but there is more. See this ear icon, you can tap that to get extra options like the battery charge on your AirPods. You can listen to soothing background sounds like the ocean or rain that are built into iOS. And these two cool live, listen and conversation boost options. I’ll explain in a moment. Now this might not be turned on by default, so you’ll want to go to settings control center and then add hearing.
Speaker 1: Now go back to the main settings page and then find accessibility [00:02:00] Hearing Control Center and make sure all of these controls are turned on under the included controls category, just tap that green plus icon. If they’re not already in the list, you can use Conversation Boost on the AirPods to better hear somebody standing right in front of you, especially helpful if you’re in a noisy environment. Put the AirPods in your ears and then go to settings, accessibility, audio, visual and headphone accommodations. Make sure this switch is toggled on. Then tap on transparency mode and custom [00:02:30] transparency mode. Here you’ll choose Conversation boost, voila, and make sure you can turn it on from your control center options, just like I showed you in the previous tip. Now live, listen lets you amplify what your iPhone microphone picks up and beams it straight into your ears. This is a great accessibility tool or a way to listen into conversations, but you didn’t hear that from me.
Speaker 1: Now you’ll need to make sure that the hearing option is available in the control center. Now hopefully you’ve already turned that on from the previous tip. [00:03:00] Now, put your iPhone somewhere you want to listen into, maybe say in the kids’ room while you’re making dinner, and swipe down to the control center. Tap the ear icon, then live. Listen, you can adjust so many audio options on the AirPods using headphone accommodations. Go to settings, accessibility, audio visual, and turn on headphone accommodations. Here you’ll be able to tune the audio even more to your liking by choosing a balanced tone favoring vocals or maybe you like [00:03:30] more bright audio. You can also boost soft sounds with the slider and even make a custom audio setup. Now, this is going to switch your AirPods into noise canceling mode, and then you’re going to be asked if you can hear the soft spoken words and it’s going to play you two different audio samples and you’ll get to see which one you prefer.
Speaker 1: Got an iPhone with a true depth camera. You can get personalized spatial audio on the AirPods that’s tuned just to the shape of your ears. Go to settings AirPods, personalized spatial audio, and then follow the instructions. [00:04:00] I’ve already set mine up, but let’s walk through it together so you can see exactly what you need to do. Here’s a fun way to share your tunes with a friend. Swipe down to your control center, then tap the AirPods icon, then share audio. Bring their AirPods or Beats close by and open the lid and follow the prompts to connect your phone by pressing and holding the pairing button on the other pair of earbuds, just like the old days with wired earbuds, jamming out to your favorite songs. If you have AirPods with USVC, you’ve [00:04:30] got a few sneaky ways to charge them up. Plug into USBC like you normally would.
Speaker 1: You can put them on a MagSafe or QI charger for wireless charging. You can also use the Apple Watch charger if you have one of those, or if you have an iPhone 15, you can plug A-U-S-B-C cable in and your AirPods magically charge from your phone. You can use Apple’s Voice Assistant, which I shall not name, so I don’t trigger yours to ask for things. When you’re wearing your AirPods, like turning up the volume, turn up the volume to 25%, skipping a track or sending a [00:05:00] quick message. But one super cool hidden feature that I only discovered recently is how the same voice assistant can describe images that come through messages, so you don’t need to pull out your phone. Now, I haven’t found the perfect magic trick that makes this work all the time, but I’ve generally found this works when I have my phone locked and announce notifications is turned on in the settings. So go to settings, notifications, announce notifications, and make sure that this is turned on. Now scroll down and make sure the messages app is also [00:05:30] turned on. Now just get a friend to send you a photo and see if it works.
Speaker 2: JJ sent a photo with a child sitting in a high chair and eating a cake.
Speaker 1: The shortcuts app on your iPhone can make the AirPods do so many different magic tricks. Here’s just one of many a shortcut to have your favorite setting, like say, noise canceling or transparency mode activate automatically when you put your AirPods in. Now first, make sure your AirPods are in your ears and connect it to your phone. Then open the shortcuts [00:06:00] app on your iPhone and tap the plus icon. Then add action. Here is where you’ll want to search for set noise control mode, and then tap the route option. This should show up with the name of your AirPods right here. Now you can choose if you want to have a particular mode switched on by default. As soon as you put these in your ears, let’s say I want that to be noise canceling, you can get even more complex here if you want and maybe set the volume to a certain level or also play your favorite song.
Speaker 1: There are so many different options you can play around with. [00:06:30] I’m going to show you how to set the volume to be 50% and then choose a playlist to start playing automatically from my library. Now, let’s make sure this shortcut runs automatically. Go to the automations tab in the shortcuts app and then tab new automation, and then find Bluetooth up here where it says Device. Find the name of your AirPods, make sure is connected, is turned on, and then select Run immediately. Hit next. Then choose your shortcut to trigger. Okay, [00:07:00] now let’s see it in action. Running your automation. Make sure you give your AirPods a good clean from time to time because otherwise gross with the Airports Pro, you’ll want to remove the tips and give them a wipe over, or you can even wash the tips under running water, but no soap and leave them to dry completely before putting them back on.
Speaker 1: You can also take a Q-tip and gently, gently wipe any debris from the Speaker Grill, and don’t forget about the case because after a while this can get pretty scratched up. So I’ve actually been using [00:07:30] this leather case from Nomad and for about nine months now, it still looks really, really good and it’s aging pretty nicely with time, and most importantly, it’s protected that white case inside AirPods on Android. Yeah, you actually can, they’ll connect just like any other Bluetooth earbud when you press and hold the pairing button and then find them in your Bluetooth settings, but you’ll lose out on features like spatial audio and the Voice Assistant. But if you are interested in using them on Android, I highly recommend checking out a third party app called [00:08:00] Open Pods. It’s going to show you when they’re connected and the battery percentage of the earbuds and the case itself. You’ll need to download an A PK rather than download this from the App store, but it’s completely free. There’s so many more cool things you can do on the AirPods Pro two, and this just scratches the surface. If you want extra tips, drop me a comment below and if you already knew these, you get a gold star and may your AirPods be blessed with extra battery life. See ya.
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Lexy Savvides
