How to Use Live Listen on AirPods?

Your Apple AirPods have lots of “superpowers” than most other wireless earbuds in the market. Many iPhone users simply use the AirPods to listen to music and to make calls and leaves most of its unique features unused. One of them is the Live Listen on AirPods, which lets you use the AirPods as a hearing aid. Apple introduced this feature for good. But the Live Listen feature is adopted as a spy tool for eavesdropping. It’s up to you to use the technology for good or bad.

Here is how to use the Live Listen feature on AirPods.

What is Live Listen on AirPods?

Apple AirPods’ most handy features include the Live Listen, which lets you listen to the audio input from the smartphone’s microphone through your AirPods without any delay. In effect, users can use the pair of AirPods as a replacement for the hearing aid.

When the Live Listen is turned on the iPhone which the AirPods is connected with, sound input through the iPhone’s microphone will be transmitted to the AirPods in real-time. The sound will be through the iPhone only. So, if you want to listen to a person speaking through your AirPods, you need to put the iPhone nearby the person speaking. Thus, it is possible to hear what is happening inside a room by just placing your iPhone in the room and standing within a range with your AirPods on.

Read further to set up and use the Live Listen on AirPods, using your supported iPhone. Please note that you need iOS 12 or later, and a supported iPhone model to use the Live Listen feature.

Also Read: How to Use Apple AirPods with Android?

How to Enable Live Listen with AirPods?

Once you have paired your AirPods with the iPhone, you can enable the Hearing or Live Listening feature from the control panel or settings. Before that, you need to add the quick settings icon for “Hearing” on the Control Center. Here is how.

1. Open Settings panel on your iPhone running iOS 12 or later.
2. Scroll down and tap “Control Center.”
3. From the next window, choose “Customize Controls.”
4. There you will see the list of control buttons that are currently added to the Control Center.
5. Add the control “Hearing” from the list of unadded to the added.
6. Go back to save the settings.

How to Use Live Listen with AirPods?

Now, you can turn on or off the Live Listening or Hearing Assist feature on your iPhone while using a pair of AirPods. Go through the following steps to use Live Listen on AirPods after you enabled it from the iPhone.

1. Pair your Apple AirPods with the supported iPhone model.
   • Both the first and second gen variants of AirPods support Live Listening.
2. Unlock your iPhone and pull up the Control Center panel.
3. Tap the “ear” icon that appears on the window.
4. Now you can listen to the voice through the AirPods from iPhone.
5. You can tap ON/OFF to switch the Live Listen on AirPods.

Live Listen- Additional Tips

Even though you enable the Live Listen on AirPods and iPhone, there is some knack to do it effectively, depends upon the way you just want to use it. Here are some useful tips to get the best out of it.

• If you are using it as a hearing aid, hold your iPhone in the hands and place it near or above to your chest so that it can capture others’ voice easily. (A pair of AirPods cannot be a true replacement to the conventional hearing aids, perhaps it can help in its own way.)
• Your iPhone has its microphone at the bottom, so make sure to keep that way open to listen clearly.
• Adjust the device volume for better audio quality.
• Make sure to turn off the Live Listen on AirPods when you listen to music.
• You can move around by placing the iPhone near to someone. But, make sure you are within the AirPods’ range to get better audio quality.
• Turn off Live Listen on AirPods when not using it. Otherwise, it can drain the iPhone battery much faster than it is supposed to be.

Now you are ready to use the Live Listen feature on your AirPods. Feel free to comment down the suggestions and extra points that come into your mind.