Conversation Awareness: Explained: Apple’s Conversation Awareness feature and how it helps users

Last month, Apple launched its latest iPhone 15 lineup with USB-C charging support at its Wonderlust event. Apart from the new smartphones, the company also launched two new Apple Watch models and the AirPods Pro which also support USB-C charging. Apart from the new charging system, the latest AirPods didn’t have any other hardware changes. However, the latest AirPods Pro arrived with a new software-related feature called Conversation Awareness.This feature helps users to stay connected to their surroundings while enjoying media with AirPods Pro. Google is also reportedly planning to add this feature to the PixelBuds Pro.
What is AirPods’ Conversation Awareness
The latest version of the AirPods Pro comes with the Conversation Awareness feature. This feature enables users to hear their surroundings without the need to take them out of their ears. The feature is ideal for users while they are listening to music and need to hear people talking to them on airports and public transports.
AirPods’ Conversation Awareness: How it works
AirPods Pro users can access the Conversation Awareness feature from the Control Center of their iPhone. Here, users have to long-press the volume slider to enable the feature. After this, users can tap the dedicated button to use Conversation Awareness.

Once the feature is enabled, AirPods Pro will automatically lower the volume of the media and will increase the volume of the people around the users. The reduced sound will not only allow users to listen to the people around them but will also help them to reply. However, when users will finish talking, Conversation Awareness will be disabled automatically and the media will resume playing at its original volume. The feature will trigger automatically only when users start talking.

AirPods’ Conversation Awareness: Things to remember
To use the Conversation Awareness feature seamlessly on their AirPods, users need to to ensure that the earbuds are fitted properly in their ears. This will help in blocking out noise from the outside world and improve the sound quality offered by the device.
In noisy environments, users may need to increase the volume of the media to hear the volume of the media over the ambient noise. The feature can also be used to further amplify the voices of people in front of them. For this option, users need to navigate to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Accommodations and select Transparency Mode. Here users will get the option to turn on Custom Transparency Mode and choose Conversation Boost.
The feature won’t work with all AirPods Pro models. The latest AirPods Pro with Type-C charging and the second-generation AirPods Pro will support the feature. However, the first-generation AirPods Pro users won’t be able to access this feature.