There’s a huge cold front crossing much of the United States and temperatures in New York are in the high 20s – but it’s more like the teens with the wind chill. Sure, I still wear the AirPods Pro 3 on my walks listening to Bruce Springsteen, but I like to keep my hands in my coat pockets and rely on hands-free controls.
Aside from crossing my fingers that the AirPods’ microphones were good enough to pick up my voice and transcribe things correctly, I also relied on a lesser-known feature: gesture controls. Yes, they may make me look a little weird to people passing me on the sidewalk, but shaking my head up and down or left and right is a surprisingly easy way to get a notification read out loud – or not – as well as respond to a message or ignore it altogether.
Let’s break this down and explain why these head-based controls are so convenient and how they complete the hands-free experience.
Make sure gesture controls are enabled and customize them
The first step is to open Settings on your iPhone while it’s connected to your AirPods. From there, you’ll see your AirPods listed at the top of the settings – in my case, they appear as “Jacob’s AirPods Pro.”
Tap it to open the AirPods settings panel, then scroll down to the section called “Head gestures” and tap it. On this screen you will find a brief explanation of how the feature works, as well as the option to enable or disable it.
You can also decide which gesture – up and down or side to side – is used to accept or decline. You will have to assign one to each and you can test them on site. I recommend doing this, as it may take a few deliberate head movements in the right direction to trigger the desired action.
This is also where you can adjust other controls to your liking, like what a single press or a long press of the stem does. Of course, your options will vary depending on the model of AirPods you’re using.
Gesture controls are great for getting a message across quickly
What I like most about these commands is that they’re generally faster than interrupting Siri while the assistant is in the middle of announcing a notification. They’re also much less distracting than blurting out a command when you’re walking near other people or in a crowded transit center.
They also help you get back into your groove – whether it’s a favorite walking track or a podcast – with fewer interruptions. If a long Slack message starts playing, for example, you can quickly shake your head from side to side to ignore it and let the crossfade restore your audio.
This is especially useful if you find yourself in a “quiet car” during your journey. In my case, the first and last NJ Transit cars are designated as quiet zones, where all conversations should be kept to a low voice, making it a perfect control option since it doesn’t require you to say a word.
So yes, AirPods head controls have been around for a while, but as temperatures continue to drop, I’d much rather shake my head and keep my hands in my pockets than trigger a command with my fingers or voice. And that still allows me to continue listening to the Boss.
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