Manage Automatic Ear Detection

Your AirPods have a feature called Automatic Ear Detection (Automatic Head Detection on the AirPods Max), which, as you can probably guess, lets them detect when you’re wearing them.

With this on, your AirPods will automatically pause any song or video when you remove them, and resume playing as soon as you put them back in your ears or on your head. 

Of course, depending on the situation, this can be very helpful or pretty annoying, but you can manage this feature however you want. 

1. Open the Settings app.
2. With your AirPods in/on your ears and connected to your iPhone, tap your AirPods’ name right below your Apple ID.
3. Scroll down and enable or disable Automatic Ear Detection or Automatic Head Detection, depending on which AirPods you’re using.