How to Use Head Gestures on AirPods

Oct. 11, 2024

Imagine you’re walking with shopping bags in both your hands, and you get an important call on your iPhone. What would you do in such a situation? Let me guess. You would either use your voice to respond to Siri or keep your bags down and press one of the AirPods stems. Well, Apple now offers a much more convenient way to accept or decline incoming calls on AirPods.The latest iOS 18brings head gestures to AirPods so you can answer or reject calls without using your hands or voice. While the feature is super easy to use, you need a compatible model and enable a few settings to make it work. Read on to learn how to use head gestures on AirPods.

AirPods Compatible with Head Gestures

It’s worth knowing that head gestures aren’t available on all AirPods. You can use head gestures only on the following models:

I tested head gestures on my AirPods Pro 2 (Lightning version) with my iPhone and Apple Watch. The feature works perfectly fine and I was able to decline regular phone calls, FaceTime, as well as WhatsApp calls.

To use head gestures on AirPods, your devices must be running the latest versions of their respective OSes. Specifically speaking, you shouldinstall iOS 18 on iPhone, iPadOS 18 on iPad, macOS Sequoia on Mac, and watchOS 11 on Apple Watch. Also, your AirPods should be running the latest firmware. To automaticallyupdate your AirPods, open the lid of the AirPods charging case (with AirPods inside) and place it close to the iPhone with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled.

It’s worth knowing that head gestures are enabled automatically on your AirPods when you update software on connected devices. That said, you can only use head gestures to respond to Siri when Announce Calls and Announce Notifications are turned on in the settings. So, make sure you’ve enabled these features. Here’s how to do it:

When you get a call or message while wearing your AirPods, Siri will announce them for you. With head gestures turned on, you cannod your head up and downto answer the call or reply to a message or notification. To decline a call or dismiss a message/notification, simplyshake your head left and right. When you make a gesture, you will hear a sound in your ears, confirming AirPods head gestures at work. It’s worth knowing that head gestures on AirPods only let you accept or decline calls. If you’re on a call, shaking your head won’t hang up the call for you.

Since Apple has also integrated AirPods head gestures with notification announcements, you can shake your head to start to stop reading notifications. This is great as you can easily skip the notifications you don’t care about. To make sure Siri announces notifications from important apps, go toSettings -> Siri -> Announce Notificationsand turn on apps you wish Siri to announce notifications from.

That’s how you can use head gestures to respond to Siri on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Honestly, it’s a super useful addition that lets you easily answer or decline calls without using your hands or voice. The latest iOS 18 also bringsVoice Isolation to AirPodsso you can enjoy clearer calls even in loud or windy environments.