Overview
- Apple rolled the AirPods public firmware beta this week, beginning the staged rollout on Tuesday and making build 9A5314b available to public testers running the iOS/iPadOS/macOS 27 betas.
- The public beta is identical to a recent developer build and supports AirPods Max 2, AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 2 (Lightning and USB‑C), and AirPods 4 variants.
- The firmware unlocks specific iOS 27 features: custom three‑band EQ controls, a redesigned AirPods settings interface, an Adaptive mode slider, and compatibility with the new Siri AI.
- To join the beta users must enable AirPods Beta Updates in the AirPods section of Settings on a device running an iOS/iPadOS/macOS 27 beta and then leave their AirPods in the charging case near the paired device while they install automatically, a process that can take hours.
- Testers should expect limited rollback options while enrolled and may want to use secondary AirPods or devices for testing; Apple plans to ship the firmware widely when iOS 27 reaches general release in September.