Shake or Nod to Siri

Once you have iOS 18 and the appropriate firmware update for your AirPods Pro installed, you can respond to many yes/no requests that come through your earbuds just by nodding or shaking your head.

This will be particularly useful when you’re in a quiet or crowded place where you’d rather not speak up or even if you just find it awkward to talk to Siri when you’re out for a walk. If an incoming call comes in and Siri asks if you’d like to answer it, just gently shake your head to decline the call, and it will be sent to voicemail.

These gestures are recognized by the accelerometers inside the AirPods Pro used to detect motion and speech and processed by a combination of the H2 chip and your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. It’s a similar machine learning model to the one that powers the new Double Tap gestures on the latest Apple Watch models, and it’s doing more than just detecting motion; it’s analyzing it to make sure you’re really shaking or nodding your head and not just quickly glancing up or to one side.

Like most of the new AirPods features introduced in iOS 17 last year, this one will be exclusive to the second-generation AirPods Pro since it relies on the H2 chip found only in that latest model. However, if the H2 chip comes to the AirPods 4 or AirPods Max 2 later this year (which seems likely), those newer earbuds should be able to participate, too.