How to Use It to Improve Your Audio Experience
Adaptive Audio is Apple’s umbrella term for a trio of audio enhancements: Adaptive Noise Control, Conversation Awareness, and Personalized Volume. They respond to your changing environment, like removing unwanted background noise, enhancing the listening experience.
Adaptive Audio is only available on the second-generation AirPods Pro. It requires an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, running iOS 17, iPad 17, or macOS Sonoma at minimum, respectively. The Adaptive Noise Control feature is supported on Apple Watch and Apple TV, but Conversation Awareness and Personalized Volume are not.
Let’s explore what Adaptive Audio is and how to use these features to improve your AirPods Pro sound quality.
Adaptive Noise Control: Automatically Adjusts External Noise
Adaptive Noise Control uses machine learning to dynamically control Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency, which are noise control modes on the AirPods. Active Noise Cancellation removes unwanted external noises before they reach your ear. Conversely, Transparency mixes external sounds with your AirPods’ audio so that you can still hear what’s going on around you.
Adaptive Noise Control adjusts these two features in real-time to control how much external noise comes through. It’s like having a personal audio engineer who constantly fine-tunes audio settings as you roam between different environments.
For example, when walking down a noisy street, Adaptive Noise Control will eliminate distractions without completely silencing everything. Move into a quieter area like a restaurant and it’ll allow more ambient noise.
You can quickly switch between noise control modes (Transparency, Adaptive, and Noise Cancellation) if you press and hold the force sensor on either earbud, but you may need to customize this gesture. We’ll explain how to do this (where platform-applicable), and how to enable Adaptive Audio, below.
To automatically subdue loud environment sounds like sirens or construction, enable “Loud Sound Reduction” in the Audio section of the AirPods settings on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac.
How to Enable Adaptive Noise Control on iPhone or iPad
Open the Control Center on your iPhone or Pad, press and hold the volume slider, select the “Noise Control” button, and switch on the “Adaptive” toggle.
You can also enable the “Adaptive” option in the Noise Control section of the AirPods settings.
To customize which noise control modes are available through your AirPods gestures, go to Settings > AirPods, choose “Left” or “Right” in the “Press and Hold” section, and select “Adaptive” along with other desired noise-blocking modes.
