Apple's upcoming iOS 18 software update is packed with features for supported iPhones, but it also promises to improve your AirPods Pro experience with some sophisticated new capabilities drawn from machine learning improvements and AI enhancements.
The following five AirPods Pro features are expected to arrive later this year, when iOS 18 is released to the general public.
Head gestures
Apple is set to add new head gestures that allow users to control AirPods Pro without speaking and with hands. With the new gestures, you can shake your head up and down, or shake it left to right to answer or reject a call. The Siri interactions will allow users to answer or dismiss calls, interact with messages, manage notifications, and more – all without speaking.
Voice Isolation
Apple's iPhones include a calling feature that can make your voice clearer to the person you're talking to during a call, even when you're in a busy environment. In iOS 18, Apple is adding voice isolation to the AirPods Pro so they can reduce loud background sounds as well.
When you're on a call, the mics on AirPods Pro usually pick up a lot of environmental noise, like the sound of wind blowing around the caller. But with voice isolation, machine learning will recognize these sounds, block out any surrounding noise, and prioritize your voice so it can be heard clearly.
Personalized Spatial Audio for Gaming
Personalized spatial audio with dynamic head tracking will be available for gaming on AirPods (3rd generation), AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max – delivering the immersive audio that customers love while listening to music or watching movies and shows.
Apple says that when using AirPods Pro, gamers will get the best wireless audio latency ever for mobile gaming. AirPods Pro users will also enjoy improved voice quality, including 16-bit, 48kHz audio when chatting with teammates and other players. Game developers will also be able to incorporate spatial audio into their games for a more immersive audio experience.
Granular adaptive audio controls
Apple's second-generation AirPods Pro have an adaptive audio feature called Adaptive Noise Control, which adjusts sound and active noise cancellation in response to changes in your environment.
Right now, Adaptive Audio is an all or nothing setting, but that's set to change in iOS 18. Apple has added a “Customize Adaptive Audio” menu that lets you adjust the setting to allow more or less noise through.
hearing aid mode
According to a report in March, AirPods Pro will get a new “hearing aid mode” with the release of iOS 18 later this year. Bloomberg'Mark Gurman. The AirPods Pro already offer a Conversation Boost feature, which boosts the sound and clarity of people directly in front of the wearer, but so far Apple hasn't advertised the earbuds as a hearing aid device.