AirPods Pro’s big feature may not come to older AirPods Pro model

When Apple unveiled the second generation of AirPods Pro last month at the Far Out event, one of the highlights was a feature called Adaptive Transparency. It’s a fresh take on the Transparency mode or Ambient mode, as it is called on other brands’ TWS. What Transparency mode does is that it allows noises from the ‘outside’ world to come in.
Earlier reports had suggested that the Adaptive Transparency feature will come to the previous generation of AirPods Pro as well. However, it seems like that was just a bug in iOS 16, which indicated that the feature will come to older AirPods Pro. This was confirmed by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in a tweet. It did come as a surprise when it was suggested that Adaptive Transparency would come to older AirPods.

Why Adaptive Transparency may be exclusive to new AirPods Pro
During the event — and after that as well — Apple did stress on how good the Adaptive Transparency on the new AirPods Pro actually is. A new feature coming to the older model of AirPods was always going to be a bit difficult. Apple released iOS 16’s latest update — 16.0.2 — in late September. In that particular update, it popped up that older AirPods Pro as well as AirPods Pro Max will be getting the feature. It seems like with the next update it might be clear that Apple will keep the Adaptive Transparency feature exclusive to the new AirPods Pro only.
What is Adaptive Transparency and why the ‘fuss’ over it?
With the new AirPods Pro, Apple has put an all-new H2 chip in its flagship wireless earbuds. What the H2 chip does is that it automatically adjusts the Transparency Mode. If you are having a conversation and at times with the AirPods on it becomes difficult to hear the other person. With Adaptive Transparency, AirPods Pro ensures that spoken words are heard better and users can listen to conversations much better. This is something that ‘normal’ Transparency Mode cannot do. Not just that but with Adaptive Transparency, you can also reduce loud sounds around you.