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Apple Bringing Enhanced Audio and Gestures to AirPods

Nod to answer an incoming call instead of saying "yes" to Siri.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
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Ty Pendlebury
man standing in crowded elevators

You can refuse calls in the elevator by shaking your head. 

 Apple/Screenshot by James Martin

Apple has unveiled enhanced sound quality and two new Siri gestures for AirPods at its WWDC conference in San Francisco.

The company showed two gestures powered by the Apple AirPods accelerometer -- nod for "yes" and shake for "no." The company said the feature was useful for situations where it wasn't feasible to talk to Siri. Apple showed a video of a man in a crowded elevator shaking his head to reject a call from his grandmother.

More from WWDC

Watch this: You'll Soon Be Able to Control AirPods by Nodding

Apple also detailed improvements to call quality when using AirPods Pro by introducing Voice Isolation to assist in "windy conditions or places with loud background noise."

Lastly, the company said it was expanding spatial audio to include gaming, with Need for Speed mobile by Tencent being one of the first to support it.

Read more: WWDC 2024: How to Watch and What to Expect, From iOS 18 to 'Apple Intelligence'

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