AirPods users will soon be able to discover what’s new in each firmware update. The current iOS 16 beta includes a link to a description of the current firmware on Apple’s website.
That’s a notable change from iOS 15 and before, where firmware updates for these wireless earbuds are an almost complete mystery.
AirPods firmware updates revealed!
AirPods aren’t a “set it and forget it” product. Apple periodically releases firmware updates. It doesn’t announce these, and we generally don’t know what’s changed because Apple doesn’t make release notes available for this type of update.
That’s about to change. A Reddit user noticed that iOS 16 developer beta 5 shows Apple is about to get more descriptive about AirPods firmware updates.
With the the latest beta running on an iPhone connected to a pair of AirPods, tap on Settings > [AirPods Name] > Version to open a new screen. This is apparently true for every type of AirPods.
On the new screen is the note “Firmware details available at support.apple.com.” Currently, this is linked to a non-existent page on Apple’s support site, but it’ll presumably include the promised details after iOS 16 goes live this fall.
That’s much better than what Apple does now: not announce AirPods firmware updates and leave users guessing about what they contain.
Screenshots: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Is a manual AirPods software update too much to hope for?
The Reddit user who noticed the change even went so far as to hope that Apple might be prepping a “future manual AirPods Software Update.”
As it stands now, there’s no way to request an AirPods firmware update. Updating your AirPods firmware is a frustratingly indirect process. Clearly, there’s hope that the AirPods firmware update screen now being added to iOS 16 will someday have a button that says “Update firmware.”
