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karnsculpture

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 19, 2006
141
47
London, UK
I’m thinking of getting AirPods at some point but there are some things I’d like to know about regarding the controls.

I would use AirPods commuting and going from place to place within central London using the underground and buses. I don’t like the idea of using Siri commands in those circumstances - if they would work at all - Siri has trouble understanding me even at home in a quiet environment!

How do you control AirPods without Siri? In crowded situations it’s not always an easy option to get my phone out and with headphones now I use controls.
 

DaveyVigs

macrumors regular
Sep 28, 2016
177
175
Honestly I intended to use Siri only 2 times for fun/trial purposes since getting my AirPods (the rest were erroneous double taps) and haven’t used it since the iOS 11 update which added more functionality for the AirPod double tap setting. I set one to go forward a track or and the other to go back a track. That is how I have mine setup while using a music playlist/library.

If you take a pod out of your ear it already pauses for you.

I used to have an Apple Watch (long story there) but you can use the watch to skip tracks too or use the crown for volume. Otherwise now I just use the phone volume buttons while in my pocket. And if the shuffle of songs is meh I use the phone lock screen to skip tracks faster.

Hope this helps!
 

cyclingplatypus

macrumors 65816
Mar 15, 2007
1,117
237
Earth
I have yet to use siri to control my pods, I use the volume buttons to adjust volume and like DaveyVigs I have them set up so one advances to the next track and the other is previous.
 

NT1440

macrumors Pentium
May 18, 2008
15,089
22,155
I don’t use Siri at all on the headphones (other than “hey Siri, call X” when driving). I just set them to play/pause.

I would assign different controls for each earbud, but I listen to podcasts/hearings all day at work so I like to keep one in until it runs low then switch to the other ear.
 

karnsculpture

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 19, 2006
141
47
London, UK
Thank you for the responses, that along with the tips in another thread about how to ensure a good fit are starting to convince me.
 
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