Skip to main content

AirPods become more useful with Conversation Boost

Your AirPods won't just sound better, they'll be harder to lose, too

Promotional logo for WWDC 2023.
This story is part of our complete Apple WWDC coverage

Apple didn’t unveil new AirPods but did highlight some new upgrades and features coming their way at its WWDC 2021 keynote. Conversation Boost will help those who have mild hearing impairments by focusing the AirPods Pro on whoever is speaking directly in front of them to better listen to what’s being said. The feature will also offer the ability to reduce some of the ambient noise to augment voices in the conversation.

Apple is also giving Siri something new to do, and that’s reading important time-sensitive notifications to you automatically. If you set a reminder for a certain location, like a grocery store, for instance, it will read the shopping list you created. It can do the same if you’ve ordered takeout and the driver is about to arrive at your door. You’ll have a choice over which apps to enable for this feature, though it’s not clear yet which ones will be ready when this feature goes live with iOS 15.

Recommended Videos

If you’re generally worried about misplacing or losing your AirPods, iOS 15 will let you use Apple’s Find My network to track down your AirPods Pro or AirPods Max. They send out a secure Bluetooth beacon that other Apple devices can home in on, showing an approximate location to the network and the Find My app. Once you get close enough, you can trigger a sound from either pair of headphones, no matter if they’re in their case or not. Apple is also finally doing the reverse, pushing a separation alert to your iPhone or iPad if you leave the AirPods behind.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Not to leave audio playback out of this mix, Apple is piggybacking off the spatial audio it introduced last year in the AirPods Pro and added to the AirPods Max: The company is moving all of it over to tvOS as well. Wear either pair of AirPods, and you’ll be able to enjoy a show or movie with surround sound playing from an Apple TV. It will be available starting this fall, but only for those headphones, as Apple didn’t reveal anything for speakers or sound bars.

Apple already announced spatial audio for Apple Music, and that’s live as of June 7. It’s also coming to the Mac (including dynamic head tracking) on all computers running on the company’s M1 chipset. That excludes all the Intel-based Macs, and it doesn’t appear likely spatial audio will ever come to those devices, unfortunately.

Ted Kritsonis
A tech journalism vet, Ted covers has written for a number of publications in Canada and the U.S. Ted loves hockey, history…
Apple AirPods Max 2: what we know, what we want, and how much it will cost
Apple AirPods Max with USB-C in Orange.

Apple's first set of wireless headphones -- the AirPods Max -- launched to great fanfare in 2020. At $549, the aluminum-clad cans raised eyebrows due to their price and design. But despite their cost and some odd design decisions (like the lack of an off switch), reviewers were nearly unanimous with their praise, especially for the Max's standout features: active noise cancellation (ANC) and transparency mode. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely.

Originally, we had hoped to see the AirPods Max 2 debut in the fall of 2023. When that didn't happen, we shifted our focus to Apple's iPhone 16 launch on September 9, 2024. That event brought big updates for the AirPods range: new AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC, and plans to give the AirPods Pro 2 new hearing health and hearing aid capabilities. However, the AirPods Max portion of the announcement proved to be a disappointment: Other than a new USB-C charging port and some new colors, Apple's flagship headphones remain unchanged. Call them AirPods Max 1.5, if you must.

Read more
I couldn’t be more disappointed by the AirPods Max update
The AirPods Max in orange at the Apple Glowtime event on September 9, 2024.

Remember when the iPhone 15 launched in 2023? Remember all of the buzz around the fact that it was the first iPhone to ditch the lightning port in favor of USB-C? Imagine if that had been the only change from the iPhone 14. Now, imagine if the only thing that USB-C port enabled was compatibility with USB-C charging, and you'll understand why I'm so bummed about Apple's updated version of the AirPods Max.

It's been four years since Apple debuted the Max, its first wireless headphones. In that time, the company has launched not just one, but two new versions of the AirPods Pro, both of which received Apple's latest H2 wireless chip. During the same period, Beats — which is owned by Apple and leverages many of Apple's technologies — launched the Fit Pro, the Studio Buds, Studio Buds+, Solo Buds, Solo 4 headphones, and Studio Pro headphones.

Read more
Can open-ear headphones really cancel noise? Apple’s AirPods 4 surprised me
AirPods 4 on a stand at the Apple Glowtime event on September 9, 2024.

For years, the biggest feature separating Apple's entry-level AirPods from the AirPods Pro has been active noise cancellation, also known as ANC. When I learned that Apple might outfit a version of its new AirPods 4 earbuds with ANC, I was skeptical. Open-ear designs, which don't fully obstruct your ear canal, make it pretty tough to seal out noise. But now that I’ve had a chance to hear the open-ear AirPods 4 in action, I must admit, I’m surprised at how effective they are.

You may also want to reconsider if you tend to dismiss the idea of active noise canceling in an open-ear earbud.

Read more