December 2019 • Macworld 31several methods of controlling it beyond that. You
can quickly turn the feature on and off with the
AirPods themselves, you can control it through
Settings or Control Centre, and you can even run
a test to see if you’re using the optimal ear tips. In
this tutorial, we’ll show you how to do all of this.
One note, though: when I say you can ‘turn off ’
noise cancellation, I usually mean you can turn on
‘Transparency mode’, which uses the microphones
to let in the sound of the outside world rather than
blocking it out.
Unlike the normal AirPods, AirPods Pro
come with rubbery ear tips, so you’ll always
have so-called ‘passive noise cancellation’ that
blocks outside sound simply because you’ve
got something stuffed in your ears. This is why
transparency mode is so useful.
Use Siri to turn noise cancellation on or off
The absolute easiest way to turn on noise
cancellation, turn on transparency mode, or turn
off both features is to simply ask Siri. Just say
(depending on the situation):
- “HeySiri,turnon/offnoisecancellation”
- “Hey Siri, turn on/off transparency”
And you’re good to go.Turn noise cancellation on or
off on the AirPods Pro themselves
Apple makes it easy to use the physical AirPods
Pro to turn active noise cancelling on and off. Once