Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that the first generation AirPods Pro and AirPods Max won’t get Adaptive Transparency mode from AirPods Pro 2. The setting appears in iOS 16.1 Beta 3 as a bug.
The official description of the mode reads, “Adaptive Transparency mode harnesses the power of the H2 chip to dramatically reduce the intensity of loud noises like honking horns or power tools so you can hear your surroundings comfortably.
Previously, after upgrading to the latest iOS 16.1 Beta and AirPods Beta firmware, AirPods Max and first-generation AirPods Pro users noticed the addition of an “Adaptive Pass-through” setting to the existing pass-through options, which many media and users believe Apple is Many media and users believe that Apple is extending this feature to other devices.
Apple doesn’t often advertise new features like Adaptive Transparency and bring them to older devices, so this is an odd decision. And it makes sense that Gurman says it was actually added by mistake. The original AirPods Pro and AirPods Max likely didn’t have an Adaptive Transparency implementation at all, and Apple accidentally made the Adaptive Transparency setting visible to devices that don’t actually support it.
