00:00Hey guys, welcome back to Setup Essentials, the series here on our channel dedicated to making
00:04the most of your tech. Today, we've got the Apple AirPods Pro 3, the AirPods Pro third generation
00:10from Apple, and they have some really noteworthy upgrades over the AirPods Pro 2. I'll be going
00:16over what those are, how to set these wireless earbuds up, my favorite features, and hidden
00:21AirPods Pro 3 tips you might not know about. I also have them linked down below in case you're
00:26interested in picking up a pair, but without further ado, let's get into it. So I've already
00:32got my pair of AirPods Pro 3 open and unboxed. I actually posted the unboxing over on our socials,
00:38so check that out. But basically what you're going to get inside are the AirPods Pro 3 already
00:43inside your case, the selection of ear tips, and that's it. No charger, unfortunately. No, you did
00:51not miss anything. It's just not there. Apple's H2 chip should initiate pairing with your
00:56nearby device. For most people, this would be an iPhone or iPad, and you'll want to make
01:00sure you're running iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 respectively in order to properly set up all of the AirPods
01:07Pro 3 features. If your AirPods Pro 3 don't automatically pair or if you want to pair them
01:13to a different device, you can manually trigger Bluetooth pairing. There's no Bluetooth pairing
01:18button on the back anymore like with AirPods Pro 2, but instead you're going to double tap
01:23on the front of the AirPods Pro 3 case beneath where you'd find the status light. This pairing
01:28method was introduced with AirPods 4, but I'm sure a lot of y'all are going to be seeing
01:32it for the first time. This is also how you compare your AirPods to a non-Apple device,
01:37even an Android phone even. Though keep in mind you are limited to the amount of features you
01:42can use and settings you can change if you're not using it with an iPhone or iPad or Mac.
01:47After you've set up your AirPods Pro 3, you'll probably want to change the ear tips. You get five total
01:53options now. Medium comes installed by default and large, small, extra small, and the new AirPods
01:59Pro 3 extra extra small ear tips are all in the box. To swap them out, just give them a
02:04good tug.
02:05I promise you won't break them. Now, if you have other AirPods Pro and know your size, you can just
02:10go ahead and make the swap, click it in, but I do still recommend using the ear tip fit test
02:15to confirm
02:16you have a good seal. There's actually a section in your AirPods Pro settings that shows you how to make
02:22the change, and now you can even buy replacement ear tips right through the settings if you need.
02:27But you're actually going to want to go to this test acoustic seal section. Tap through,
02:31you'll hear a little chime play, and if you see green good seal on both, you're good. If it says
02:36you don't have a good seal, you'll be prompted to try a different ear tip size, check the fit,
02:41and run it all over again. What I would do next is set up personalized spatial audio for a 360
02:47sound
02:48experience tailored to your ear shape. There's a spatial audio section in settings. Select
02:52personalized spatial audio, take your AirPods out of your ears, and then follow the prompts to do
02:57an ear scan. I know it sounds kind of weird, but it's really not all that different from setting up
03:01face ID. Pretty simple, and there's even a little demo that lets you hear how spatial audio works.
03:07I also will put a link in the description that explains more about spatial audio in case you're
03:11curious. It's definitely one of the best things about owning a pair of AirPods. Still in the settings
03:17here. We're going to spend a lot of time here today. We're going to review our touch control
03:21settings. I personally leave it as it is by default. That's press to hold to switch between A and C
03:27and
03:27transparency listening, but you can also set one of the buds to trigger Siri. Then you can change the
03:32call controls to either work by pressing once or twice. Otherwise, for music playback, swipe up and
03:37down to control volume, short press to pause or play, short press twice to skip the track, and short press
03:43three times to restart whatever it is you're listening to. Now, did you know you can actually
03:48control your AirPods Pro 3 with head gestures? You need to enable two things here in settings. First,
03:54announce calls, and second, head gestures. And there are two different head gestures, basically.
03:59You can accept a call or reply to a message by nodding your head up and down when you hear
04:04an alert
04:05coming in. Or you can shake your head side to side to dismiss the same kind of notifications.
04:10Honestly, I find this feature really convenient, but let me know what you think.
04:15Another really amazing feature with AirPods Pro 3 is that they're FDA-cleared,
04:19over-the-counter hearing aids. In your AirPods settings, select hearing assistance to first take
04:24a hearing test to determine the degree and nature of your hearing loss. Then you can set up hearing aid,
04:30and when enabled, you can make adjustments right in your phone's control center.
04:34Here is also where you can enable hearing protection, which basically makes sure nothing
04:39playing, no media, is above an unhealthy threshold. Protect your hearing people. I love this feature.
04:45I also love conversation awareness on AirPods Pro 3. This feature detects when you start talking,
04:51and in response, automatically lowers your media volume while enhancing nearby voices. Then your
04:57AirPods will resume to normal settings when the conversation ends or when it's not picking up a
05:01conversation taking place anymore. Enable it easily in the audio section here in your AirPods settings.
05:08Live translation on AirPods Pro 3. Well, in case you didn't know, this also works with AirPods Pro 2
05:14and AirPods 4 with ANC, so as long as you're paired to an iPhone with iOS 26 and Apple Intelligence.
05:20Basically, this feature lets you have a conversation with someone who is speaking one of the supported
05:26languages. To start live translation, the gesture is simultaneously pressing both AirPods stems,
05:32but you can also ask Siri to start live translation. There's a chime letting you know you're ready to go,
05:37and from there you can have a conversation using your iPhone to follow a transcript and respond,
05:42unless the other person also has compatible AirPods in which you can simply carry out the chat face
05:48to face. I could see this being helpful for travel, and Apple has already promised support for more
05:53languages coming, but I'm curious to know if this feature stands out to you. Another new feature in
05:58the AirPods Pro 3 is the heart rate monitor. The heart rate monitor in AirPods Pro 3 can either sync
06:03with
06:03a third-party activity app or, more interestingly in my opinion, be the heart rate monitor to track
06:09workouts directly in the fitness app in iOS 26. Did you know you can use your AirPods Pro to control
06:16your
06:16iPhone camera? Super cool. Scroll down to camera control, then tap camera remote. Then choose your
06:22preferred gesture, press once or press and hold. Now wearing at least one paired AirPod, open the camera
06:29app on your phone, select either photo or video mode, then get yourself in frame however you want. When
06:34you're ready to capture, use your chosen AirPods gesture to capture a photo or start recording video
06:39remotely. That simple. Let me know if you try this out. A question I get from people all the time
06:44is how to
06:45check your AirPods battery life. This applies to all AirPods. There's actually a super convenient way to
06:51check. What you're going to do is create a battery widget and then add it to your iPhone home screen.
06:56Long press a blank area on the display, tap the plus icon on the top left, select batteries from the
07:01widget menu. Now you can always know the battery status of not just the buds, but also the charging case.
07:08Finally, if maybe you're realizing you can't find or access all the features I've discussed, or better
07:13yet Apple actually has a pretty solid track record of continuing to add new features to AirPods Pro,
07:18you can check if you're running the latest firmware. Firmware updates happen automatically so long as
07:24your paired device is on, running the latest respective Apple software, and your AirPods are
07:29in the case and within Bluetooth range. You can check the firmware status down at the bottom of settings,
07:34and if you are having an issue with the install, you might want to try the reset process.
07:39So hopefully this video either answered a question you had about your AirPods or maybe
07:44even taught you something new. If that is the case, consider hitting that subscribe button and
07:48letting me know what you want to see in the next episode of Setup Essentials here on the channel.
07:53Thanks for watching, y'all. I'll catch you next time.
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