The new 2nd gen AirPod Pros are more compatible than advertised
I was apprehensive to commit my purchase for the new AirPod Pros when I saw the officially supported hardware list. I upgraded from my mid-2015 Catalina machine about a year ago, but I still use it for certain work, so I wanted to be sure I could make the most of the AirPods purchase on all my computers. What’s strange is that the new AirPod Pros are “compatible with the latest version of macOS and iOS,” but not all of the listed supported devices can run those newest system versions.
At the bottom of the AirPods Pro specs webpage, there is a tiny footnote mark that discloses that they “can be used as Bluetooth headphones with Apple devices using earlier software and with non-Apple devices, but functionality is limited.”
I did some testing to try and see what does and doesn’t work on unsupported devices. Here’s what I connected to and tested the features on of the new 2nd gen AirPod Pros.
Tested Devices
- 2015 MacBook Pro (Catalina)
- 2014 MacBook Air (Mojave)
- iPhone 8 (iOS 14.7.1)
- iPhone 7 (iOS 15.7.1)
- iPhone 4 (iOS 7.1.2)
- Dell XPS laptop (Windows 10)
The bottom line
Transparency Mode, ANC Active Noise Cancellation and volume-swipe gestures continued to function on every device I tried, including the Windows 10 laptop. The single-press play/pause function, double-press skip and triple-press backwards skip even worked for a background YouTube video I had playing on the Windows 10 laptop. That makes me believe that at least some of the Pro’s signature features are hardware based, baked into the earbuds themselves, and so will function regardless of what they’re connected to.
“Limited Functionality”
When first connecting the AirPod Pros to the iPhone 7 (iOS 15), a prompt regarding functionality appeared. I continued by tapping “Set Up With Limited Functionality,” but once they were connected, all of the features still worked. This includes the extra options page when tapping the little “i” on the Bluetooth devices screen.
The only feature missing was the ability to set up a personal Spatial Audio profile, which requires an iPhone with a TrueDepth camera (iPhone X and later).
What didn’t work
One feature, present since the first generation of AirPods, is to auto pause/play your music or video upon removing or putting in one AirPod. This didn’t function on my Windows 10 machine, nor on the iPhone 4. It did work on the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 though, even my 8 is running iOS 14.
All in all
I could be wrong, and should continue testing on an even wider range of products, but I’m comfortable making this judgement based on the devices I used. Feel free to comment if you’ve had a different experience. Thanks for reading!
Resources
- AirPods Pro at apple.com
https://www.apple.com/airpods-pro/ - AirPods Pro 2nd gen Specs Page
https://www.apple.com/airpods-pro/specs/
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12 thoughts on “The new 2nd gen AirPod Pros are more compatible than advertised”
Finally, someone that answers all my questions !!! Thanks for your blog
So glad you found it helpful! I appreciate the feedback
aye thank you, this was very helpful
What about with iPad 2 Air. I just Baugh new AirPods and they disconnect after a few seconds. 😩
iPad Air 2 is specifically listed as compatible on the Airpods Pro 2 spec page (https://support.apple.com/kb/SP880?locale=en_US)
Do you an another apple device nearby that the Airpods might be trying to connect to?
I’ve found the Airpods Pro 2 to work as well as the Airpods Pro first generation with my iPhone 7 except for one aspect. I can’t get Find My … to recognize the Airpods Pro 2.
Oh I never thought about testing Find My. Is your iPhone 7 on iOS 15? I’m going to try this out and will comment back
my iphone is running iOS 15.7.9 .
at the initial setup between AirPod Pro 2 and iPhone 7 a message flashed about updating the AirPod Pro 2. it happened so quickly i don’t know if the update was completed, or i skipped past. couldn’t recreate it when i redid the initial pairing.
thanks Nico, for testing this. it’d be nice to find that i’m just doing something wrong. my AirPod Pro first gen was stolen from the case, and i was able to use Find My… to trace the pods’ last location to a nearby park, where they must have been re-paired. i thought i’d get even better Find My services with the 2nd gen, as the case also communicates with iCloud.
So do they not show up at all on the Find My map? Or are you referring to to the hot/cold feature when you’re in close proximity to them
at all.
i am wondering if the fault is with these particular AirPods. i’ll ask someone with a later iPhone to pair with the Pods and see if that connection works with Find My…
connecting the AirPods Pro 2 to a mid-2010 Mac has same result vis à vis Find My…
but that doesn’t add much to my understanding.
please let me know if there’s something other way i can test this.
i suppose i can go to the apple store; they might say AirPods Pro 2 don’t talk to iPhone 7, or they might give me new Pods.
Check your AirPods Pro firmware version as detailed here – https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT213317 If they’re not up to date (6A301) then the iPhone 7 probably isn’t able to do it, but I read that if you book an appointment at the store they’ll get it updated for you no problem
thanks for that last. i’ll visit my local Apple shop to update the AirPods’ firmware (from 5E133 to 6A301) and ask how to make the AirPods Pro 2 visible to Find My… on my iPhone 7. i’ll report back what i learn.