If you chose the AirPods Pro over the regular AirPods, it means you want access to some of Apple’s best features for its wireless earphones. That might mean better sound quality, complete with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) support. Or it might mean taking advantage of the first hearing health features available on AirPods, the Hearing Test and Hearing Aid functionalities that can now be found in iOS 18.
If you own AirPods Pro, you might also have discovered they play chimes here and there that you can’t explain. Apparently, the random beeps are puzzling users, who discussed them online, including on the ATP podcast.
It seems that Apple has updated a support document to explain that the sounds are normal and they help ensure the AirPods work as intended.
It’s a feature related to the AirPods Pro microphones, speakers, and hearing test results. From Apple’s support document:
To help ensure that your AirPods microphones and speakers are operating at their best (for example, to help provide high-quality hearing test results), your AirPods may periodically play a quiet chime when they’re in their charging case.
You can hear what the chime sounds like on Mastodon, where Ian Williamson explained the mysterious sound:
Your point about AirPod noises reminded me of a related noise I’ve been meaning to investigate on my AirPods Pro 2, recorded here when I put one AirPod back in the case with the other. You can hear the sad charging noise (overlaid with the case closing snap) but ~15 secs later you can also hear what appears to be a diagnostics sound coming from the AirPods inside the case. It was driving me mad for a while as I kept hearing this sound but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from.
Episode 621 of the ATP Podcast also discusses the AirPods noises right from the start, which prompted MacRumprs to investigate.
Even John Gruber joined in, making some light fun of Apple’s failure to actually address the matter in support documentation:
Years ago, Apple was a successful company and documented how their products work. These days, Apple is struggling financially, and alas can no longer afford to produce something even as simple as an interactive web page with examples of the sounds that AirPods make and explanations of what those sounds mean.
Meanwhile, Apple’s support document explains the Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features, in addition to addressing the mysterious beeps right at the end. You’ll want to check it out in full if you have questions regarding the hearing health features.
