An illustration of Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro with various tech gadgets in the background.
Apple’s second-generation AirPods Pro has more effective noise cancellation and better sound quality than the original pair, but the company has also significantly improved the charging case.
Aside from the unique lanyard loop, the case itself now holds a speaker that can cast sounds when you’re trying to hunt it down using Apple’s Find My app. Likewise, the new charging case contains a speaker that makes your AirPods Pro more effortless to find, but the other sounds can get irritating.
By default, the case also recreates sound effects when you hit it in for charging. Of course, some people won’t be a lover of that feature, but thankfully it’s relatively easy to switch off the extra sounds and employ the speaker purely for spot tracking purposes.
How to switch off charging sounds
- With your AirPods Pro linked to your iPhone, open the Settings app.
- Tap on the AirPods shortcut near the top of the next screen. Here, you should see whatever name you’ve allocated to your AirPods Pro.
- An iOS 16 settings menu image shows the new shortcut to access AirPods options.
- On the AirPods summary page, you’ll see the current battery percentage for your earbuds and case, plus settings for noise control, adaptive transparency, ear detection, and more.
- Scroll past this until you reach the toggle for Enable Charging Case Sounds.
- Turn off this setting to get rid of the charging sound effects.
- An image of the AirPods menu in iOS settings displaying the “enable charging case sounds” option.
If you want to enable the sounds later, return to the same menu and flip the toggle back to green. But turning this possibility off won’t stop the case from playing sounds if you’re trying to uncover it with the Find My app; this only silences the other sounds.
The second-gen AirPods Pro is Apple’s first earbuds to deliver swipe-based controls. For example, swipe up or down on the stem to modify the volume. In addition, every pair features a Digital Crown — a more extensive version than the Apple Watch dial—and a secondary button you can employ to alternate between active noise cancellation and transparency modes.
AirPods are also compatible with the latest Apple Watches, iPhones, iPads, and Macs. However, the second-gen AirPods also operate with older devices, like the iPhone 6 and the second-generation iPad Mini.