iOS 18 brings 6 new features to AirPods Pro

Apple mentioned some features coming to AirPods at the WWDC 2024 event. With the release of iOS 18 beta versions, details of these features began to emerge.

While the iOS 18 update is eagerly awaited by iPhone users, other Apple devices will have many new features. You can find the new features that will come to Airpods headphones with iOS 18 in the details of the news.

Head movements

If you need to confirm a request from Siri or reject a call, you'll be able to do so without using voice commands or your hands. Head gestures will be available as a new form of AirPods Pro control, allowing you to bob your head up and down or shake it back and forth to reject a call or interact with Siri.

When you receive a call, you can shake your head "no" to reject it or "yes" to accept it. When responding to Siri to check notifications and incoming or outgoing messages, you can use the same gestures for yes and no without having to speak.

Sound isolation

With Sound Isolation, AirPods Pro can reduce loud background noises when you're on a phone call, allowing the person you're talking to to hear you more clearly. Sound Isolation will be a new feature coming to both AirPods Pro and AirPods Pro 2. AirPods Pro will use machine learning to detect and isolate ambient noise such as wind, nearby cars, people talking, and more, blocking out sound and prioritising your voice.

Better adaptive voice controls

Adaptive Noise Control is designed to adjust Active Noise Cancellation and the sound you hear in response to ambient noise in your environment. The Adaptive Sound feature will have more granular controls to adjust to let more or less noise through with iOS 18.

Personalised spatial audio for gaming

Personalised Spatial Audio is a feature already available for movies, TV shows and music. It uses the TrueDepth camera on your iPhone to scan your face and ears and develops a personal profile that customises Spatial Audio just for you.

With iOS 18, Apple is extending Personalised Spatial Audio to games to deliver more immersive audio for gaming. Game developers can add spatial audio to their games as part of this change. Personalised Spatial Audio for gaming is coming only to AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, and third-generation AirPods.

Sound quality in games

AirPods Pro 2 features audio quality improvements for in-game chat and streaming, as well as dynamic head tracking and support for 16-bit 48 kHz audio in games.

Low latency

AirPods Pro deliver the best wireless audio latency ever for mobile gaming thanks to improvements in iOS 18, according to Apple. Improved latency means you'll see little to no lag when performing an action in a game and hearing the resulting sound.

Other AirPods models

Most of these features are limited to the latest AirPods Pro models. Head gestures and Sound Isolation will not be available on devices other than AirPods Pro 2, but Personalised Spatial Audio for gaming will be more widely available.