Key Takeaways
- Should you’re on the lookout for some nice worth, Third era Airpods are the way in which to go, at $169 or $179.
- They provide 6 hours of battery life and water resistance, identical to the AirPods Professional.
- Lively Noise Cancellation (ANC) is the one main characteristic Third era AirPods customers miss out on.
For $169 or $179, relying on whether or not you get a Lighting or MagSafe charging case, 3rd generation AirPods are fairly nice worth. By adopting the design of the AirPods Pros, enhancing battery life, and changing into waterproof, Third era AirPods are wonderful for many people who find themselves solely actually opting out of Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). Having been launched three years in the past in October, I’ve owned a pair since day one as an improve to my 2nd era AirPods.
Listed here are 5 underused ideas and tips I’ve come to depend on after almost three years of possession.
1 Power sensor gestures
Keep away from pulling out your cellphone
Hidden within the stems of your Third era AirPods are “drive sensors.” Changing the tapping gestures of the 2nd era AirPods, the Third era options a number of to regulate your audio by squeezing the indent on the stem of one in all your pods. Utilizing these gestures avoids pulling out your cellphone to pause, play, or skip audio.
Listed here are the drive sensor gestures you may have:
- Press as soon as to play or pause media
- Press twice to skip ahead
- Press three instances to skip again
- Press and maintain for Siri

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2 Name controls
Reply calls with ease
Personally, I consider among the best makes use of for AirPods is for taking calls hands-free. I hardly ever take a name with out my AirPods to maintain each fingers free to finish duties whereas chatting. When your AirPods are in, you’ll be able to reply, finish, and mute calls from them with out taking out your iPhone. Press your AirPods’ stem as soon as to reply a name, and press it twice to finish a name. You can even mute and unmute your self throughout a name by squeezing on the stem, too.
To customise your name management gestures: open Settings > choose your AirPods > scroll all the way down to Name Controls > faucet Mute & Unmute or Finish Name > choose Press As soon as or Press Twice. The opposite gesture will revert to the alternative setting routinely.

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3 Personalised Spatial Audio
Enhance your listening expertise
When listening to audio, you would possibly typically discover the course of it coming out of your left, proper, and even high or backside. It is a characteristic known as Spatial Audio, the place audio is perceived to be coming from completely different instructions. Spatial Audio goals to create a extra immersive listening expertise, and the 2nd era AirPods help it. You can even take it one step additional — customized Spatial Audio lets you create an improved customized listening expertise through the use of a Face ID iPhone or iPad.
To arrange Personalised Spatial Audio, open Settings in your Face ID gadget > choose your AirPods > scroll all the way down to Spatial Audio > faucet Personalised Spatial Audio > Personalize Spatial Audio… > Proceed > Begin Seize > transfer your head to the left and proper as directed > faucet Finished.

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4 Optimized battery charging
Assist maintain your battery more healthy longer
Batteries naturally degrade over time — it is a limitation of recent battery expertise. Admittedly, a significant environmental criticism of AirPods is how their tiny batteries degrade comparatively rapidly, changing into e-waste. One solution to help batteries last longer is to keep away from charging them previous 80% for lengthy durations. Optimized battery charging helps cut back battery growing older on AirPods by maintaining your AirPods at 80% whereas charging till you are about prepared to begin your day.
To allow optimized battery charging: Open Settings > choose your AirPods > scroll all the way down to Optimized Battery Charging > toggle it to inexperienced.

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5 Discover My community
By no means lose your AirPods once more
Apple’s Find My network is the corporate’s safe solution to monitor gadgets, permitting house owners to recuperate them rapidly when misplaced. Enabling the Find My network for your AirPods lets you get notifications when leaving them behind and play a sound or be directed to your AirPods by your iPhone when close by.
To allow Discover My Community: Open Settings > choose your AirPods > scroll all the way down to Discover My Community > guarantee Discover My Community is toggled to inexperienced.

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