Airpods tips

You might have seen a tiny status light when you open the AirPods charging case. If your case supports wireless charging, this light is outside on the face of the case. Sometimes it may be white, sometimes green or amber/orange, and sometimes it may blink. Here’s what the different AirPods lights mean.

• Green light when AirPods are in the case and the charging lid is open: means the AirPods are fully charged.
• Green light when AirPods are not in the case and the charging lid is open: means the charging case is fully charged.
• Amber light when AirPods are in the case and the charging lid is open: means the AirPods have less than one full charge.
• Amber light when AirPods are not in the case and the charging lid is open: means the charging case has less than one full charge.
• White flashing light: means pairing mode.
• Amber flashing light: means you have to set up your AirPods again.
• No light: means there is no battery left. You can share audio with someone close by. This lets you both listen to the same song playing on your iPhone. You can share audio if you have an iPhone 8 or later, newer iPads, and Apple TV 4K with tvOS 14. The list of supported headsets are:
• AirPods Max
• AirPods Pro
• AirPods 1st and 2nd generation
• Powerbeats
• Solo Pro
• Powerbeats Pro
• Powerbeats3 Wireless
• Beats Solo3 Wireless
• Beats Studio3 Wireless
• BeatsX
• Beats Flex If you fulfill the above conditions, head over to this post and learn how to share audio using your iPhone.

When you get a phone call, Siri can tell you the caller’s name in your ear. This works with all Bluetooth devices, including AirPods. Here’s how.

• Open iPhone Settings and tap Siri & Search (or Phone or FaceTime).
• Tap Announce Calls and select Headphones Only.

If you, your parents, grandparents, or friends have slight hearing problems, the newly introduced Conversation Boost feature can help them hear better during everyday conversations. When you talk with someone and the AirPods Pro are in your ear, their beam-forming microphones will take the other person’s voice and isolate it for clarity when you are in a noisy environment. Thus, amplify it ensuring you hear clearly. To use Conversation Boost, bring the iPhone Control Center and long-press the volume slider. You can enable Conversation Boost and set the ambient noise, adjust the tone and the left-right balance.

With AirPods 2nd gen, AirPod Pro, and some Beats headphones, Siri can read out messages without the need to unlock the iPhone. After reading the message, Siri will listen, and you can dictate a reply. You do not need to say, ‘Hey Siri, reply.’ You can simply speak, and Siri will understand that you are replying to that message it read for you.

• Inside iPhone Settings, tap Siri & Search (or Notifications).
• Tap Announce Messages and enable it.
• Choose the app (if you see). For Messages, you may further choose to announce for everyone, contacts, recents, or only favorites.

Want to give a fun custom name to your wireless bud? It is easy.

• Open iPhone Settings and tap Bluetooth.
• Tap (i) next to the AirPods name.
• Tap Name.
• Type the new name.

Audio plays via the AirPods, but you can change it to some other device like HomePod or the device’s internal speaker. Here’s how to do that.

• On iPhone or iPad: Bring the Control Center and tap the audio AirPlay icon. Next, choose one of the available output options.
• On Mac running an older version of macOS: Click the speaker icon from the top menu bar and change the output.
• On macOS Big Sur: You can use the Control Center to change the output, just like iPhone.

The AirPods charging case can juice up the tiny pods multiple times. Here’s how you can check the battery status of the case and the AirPods using the iPhone, Mac, or Apple Watch.

I have been using the AirPods (1st and 2nd gen) for the last three years. And every time, I have noticed that both the pods do not discharge at the same rate. For example, sometimes, the left AirPod has a 34% charge while the right one has less than 10%. If you, too, have noticed this, you can continue using one of the AirPods while putting the other in the charging case. You may use this trick of using one AirPod at a time to get more listening time out of the charging case.

Find My makes it possible to locate your misplaced or lost AirPods. You can play a sound or get directions to the location it was last connected to your device. I recently wrote a dedicated post that shows you how to find lost AirPods. Take a look.

If you are like me, you may be taking extra steps to keep the AirPods and their case clean. But still, you might see dirt and wax accumulated in the AirPods grills and inside the lid. We have a dedicated post to help you keep your AirPods clean.