How to adjust press speed & press and hold duration for your AirPods Pro and AirPods Max

Apple lets you change how quickly you must press the stem on your AirPods Pro earbuds or the Digital Crown of your AirPods Max headphones before an action occurs. Follow along with our quick tutorial as we show you how to customize your AirPods button presses.

AirPods accessibility settings

Aside from the main AirPods settings available by tapping “i” next to your listed AirPods in Settings → Bluetooth, you can find other customizations in your accessibility settings.

AirPods press speed hold duration teaser image

As per Apple, these options include spatial audio head tracking, noise cancellation when using a single AirPods, and—yes!—adjusting your press speed and the press and hold duration.

Changing AirPods press speed & hold duration

To customize your button presses and change the AirPods press speed and press and hold duration, you’ll need to adjust two features in your AirPods accessibility settings.

  1. Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Choose Accessibility from the root list.
  3. Touch the AirPods option, then select your AirPods if you have multiple ones.
  4. Now set your desired AirPods press speed and the press and hold duration.
  • Press Speed: Adjust how quickly you must double/triple-press before an action occurs.
  • Press and Hold Duration: Change the duration required to press and hold a button.

These button customizations are only available on the AirPods Pro and AirPods Max.

An iPhone screenshot showing customization for button presses in the AirPods accessibility settings

On the AirPods Pro, this affects the speed of double or triple-pressing a stem to skip forward or backward, plus how long a stem must be held down for Siri to spring into action.

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On the AirPods Max, press speed affects how quickly you must press the Digital Crown two or three times to skip forward or backward, respectively. Conversely, press and hold duration determines the duration required to press and hold the Digital Crown to invoke Siri.

→ How to reverse Digital Crown volume controls on your AirPods Max

You can access additional assistive options for your AirPods, including the handy Headphone Accommodations, by choosing the option Audio Accessibility Settings.