Hidden AirPods Pro Features You Should Try After Unboxing

Written by Nour Abdelkader

If you’ve just unboxed a new pair of AirPods Pro, the experience goes far beyond listening to music and podcasts. Apple packs its premium earbuds with a wide range of smart features designed to improve comfort, sound quality, health tracking, and everyday convenience. Here’s a look at the key AirPods Pro features you should try right away:

Ear Tip Fit Test

AirPods Pro come with multiple ear tip sizes to ensure a secure and comfortable fit. Choosing the right size improves active noise cancellation, microphone performance, and overall comfort.
To run the test, connect your AirPods, open Settings, tap your AirPods name, select Ear Tip Fit Test, and start the test. The system will tell you whether the fit is optimal or if you should try a different size. AirPods Pro (3rd generation) include five interchangeable ear tip sizes.

Listening Modes

AirPods Pro offer several listening modes:

• Active Noise Cancellation (ANC): Uses external microphones to cancel surrounding noise.

• Transparency Mode: Lets outside sounds in so you can hear your surroundings.

• Adaptive Audio: Automatically adjusts noise control based on your environment. With iOS 18 and later, users can customize how much sound is allowed in.

You can switch modes by pressing and holding the force sensor on the stem, through Settings, or via the Control Center.

Conversation Awareness

This feature automatically lowers your audio volume and amplifies voices when you start speaking, making conversations easier without removing your AirPods. Once the conversation ends, audio returns to normal. It can be enabled or disabled in AirPods settings or Control Center.

Touch and Force Controls

Using the force sensor on the stem, you can:

• Play/Pause: Single press

• Skip forward: Double press

• Go back: Triple press

• Answer calls: Single press

• Adjust volume: Swipe up or down on the stem

Head Gestures

AirPods Pro support hands-free interaction using head movements:

• Nod up and down to accept calls or respond “yes”

• Shake head side to side to decline or dismiss notifications

These gestures can be activated from AirPods settings under Head Gestures.

Hearing Test and Hearing Aid Features

Apple has expanded health-focused features, allowing users to perform a hearing test using AirPods Pro. If mild to moderate hearing loss is detected, the earbuds can function as a medically approved hearing aid, offering personalized sound amplification.

Microphone Modes

During calls, users can choose different microphone modes:

• Automatic

• Standard

• Voice Isolation: Focuses on your voice and blocks background noise

• Wide Spectrum: Captures surrounding sounds naturally

These options are available through the Control Center.

Find My Integration

If you lose your AirPods or charging case, you can locate them using the Find My app, play a sound to find them nearby, or enable Separation Alerts to notify you if you leave them behind.

Audio Sharing

AirPods Pro allow you to share audio with another person using AirPods or Beats headphones. Just tap AirPlay in the Control Center, select Share Audio, and bring the two devices close together.

Live Translation

With iOS 26, AirPods Pro support real-time translation during in-person conversations. You can hear translated speech directly in your ears using the Translate app, Siri, or by pressing and holding both stems simultaneously.