What Are Those Black Ovals On Your AirPods For?

There are a lot of great options when shopping for a pair of truly wireless earbuds, but the AirPods are almost always recommended as the default option if you already own an iPhone or iPad. Apple has managed to build an impressive vertically integrated ecosystem, which is how you are able to precisely locate your iPhone using your watch via Find My or share files between your devices using AirDrop in a jiffy. 

The AirPods have also seen several design and performance enhancements over the years, with the Pro models offering some of the best active noise cancellation in the industry. You even get the option to pick an Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) version of the latest AirPods 4 — despite its open-ear design. Comparing Apple's earbuds with their predecessors also reveals other design improvements, like a shorter stem and better ergonomics for a more comfortable fit. 

Some AirPods models even come with a force touch sensor that eliminates the need for you to trigger Siri just to change the volume levels. In case you own a pair of AirPods yourself, you might have noticed one or more oval-shaped black spots on each earbud. Depending on your AirPods model, this sensor may house different technologies but is designed for the same purpose — automatic ear detection.

If you've ever wondered how your AirPods automatically pause the song you're listening to when you pop one or both of them out of your ears — it's thanks to these black ovals. Housed behind them in the AirPod is either an optical or skin-detect sensor that determines if you're wearing your AirPods. When the sensor detects that you've taken it out, it instantly pauses any song or video that may have been playing on the connected device. The sensor also works the other way around by resuming your media when it detects you've worn your AirPods again. 

AirPods have had automatic ear detection ever since the release of the first generation earbuds in 2016. Apple has used dual optical sensors to achieve this in AirPods 1 and 2, as well as the first-generation AirPods Pro. The AirPods 3 introduced the skin-detect sensor in 2021, which eliminates scenarios where your AirPods start playing music in your pocket, for example. The AirPods Pro 2 also features the same tech, but Apple confusingly rolled back to an optical in-ear sensor for the AirPods 4 — perhaps as a cost-cutting measure.

It's not just Apple's headphones that feature this functionality — most of the higher-end headphones and truly wireless earphones come with in-ear detection that carries out automatic play and pause detection. You will also find microphone and vent grills on your AirPods, which are used for balancing air pressure and active noise cancellation.

With multiple oval-shaped grills on the AirPods, distinguishing them can get tricky. The skin-detect or optical sensor responsible for ear detection is the one that makes contact with the skin inside your ear. To confirm this, you can play some music and cover these sensors on both AirPods with your fingers. The vents located at the top and the rear regulate air pressure, and behind them is a microphone that should be free of dust and uncovered. If you've been noticing poor ANC performance or a muffled sound experience, perhaps cleaning your AirPods could bring them back to life.

An optical sensor works by bouncing infrared light to see if you're wearing your AirPods, whereas a skin-detect sensor, like the one found on the Apple Watch, isn't fooled by anything that might block or reflect this light. While automatic ear detection is a great feature to have, it might get annoying if triggered due to a loose fit. Fortunately, you can disable this feature by navigating to the Settings app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, looking for the AirPods options, and disabling the "Automatic Ear Detection" toggle.

Thanks to the array of sensors packed in each earbud, there are various other settings you can change on your AirPods. For instance, you can pick which microphone is used when placing calls, respond to Siri using head gestures, or even choose for noise cancellation to work when you have just one AirPod lodged in your ear.