AirPods, like all the devices we use in our daily lives, can be updated. AirPods firmware update is, nowadays, a somewhat curious process. curious because this happens without our realizing it and we cannot actively ask the update. Amidst all the iOS 16 beta 5 news, however, there are hints of how this firmware update may evolve.
Release notes and possibly manual update
Let’s enter through the quick access in the application Settings or via the section Bluetooth and touch the “i” next to our AirPods, now in the section Version we can find more details, in addition to checking which firmware we have installed. Entering the section we find, for now, three elements: the firmware version number, the software version of the box and a sentence that tells us indicates firmware details are at support.apple.com.
Although we have to speculate a bit, it is true that this menu can mean the start of more in various aspects. For example, Apple does not issue release notes for AirPods firmware updates. This link, which doesn’t take us to a specific page now, might take us to something similar to the AirTag release notes. So we would quickly know what a particular update contains.
Also, while other headings like the AirPods serial number compress all the information into a single heading and it’s a tap that brings up the serial number of the right AirPods or left, here Apple decided to add a submenu. To say that here we could find a button to manually start the firmware update It’s not unreasonable, although at this point we can’t say that either.
Overall, it’s clear that Apple is devoting some of its attention, amidst all the changes iOS 16 brings, to redesigning or improve a very specific section of our AirPods settings. Will it mean news? It just might be, and if not, at least it looks like we’ll have more clarity on what’s happening to our headphones when we update them.
