After seeing settings appear in beta versions of iOS 16.1 to enable adaptive transparency mode when using first-gen AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, it turns out that this feature will not reach these models. This is reported by Mark Gurman, who specifies that the adaptive transparency mode will be exclusive to the AirPods Pro 2.
A bug in the beta
The truth is that the AirPods Pro 2’s adaptive transparency mode builds directly on the new H2 chips in these headphones. Some with greater power, which allows them to operate the trained models to recognize the different sounds in our environment. In that sense, we were all surprised to see adaptive transparency appear in the original AirPods Pro and Max, but, after all, a beta is a beta.
It turns out, according to Mark Gurman fellwhich is a beta bug. A simple bug that brought an adjustment from the second generation AirPods Pro to the rest of the models. A setting that was not supported by the support of this function by the headset part.
Thanks to this mode, remember, in which the system understands the sounds of our environment, the AirPods Pro 2 are able to assign a higher volume to some while completely silencing others. Thus, in an adaptive way, we will hear, at every moment, everything you need without having to listen to unnecessary noise.
In the absence of an official announcement – and remember that Apple has never told us about adaptive transparency outside of the AirPods Pro 2 – we hope that this feature does not extend to the rest of the AirPods line.