iOS 15 was released earlier this month, and I enthusiastically downloaded the latest version of Apple's iPhone operating system on launch day. since installing iOS 15, my AirPods have been causing persistent and very annoying problems.

First, after downloading iOS 15, I was forced to resync my AirPods to my iPhone 12, and things only got worse from there. Immediately, I noticed a loss in sound quality. Music was playing at a lower volume and lacked the clarity I had previously enjoyed. I chalked this up to me overanalyzing things and figured it was nothing to worry about.

My suspicions that there was something wrong with the AirPods were confirmed when the phone refused to play audio from the earphones when I tried to make a call. The option to select the AirPods as audio output was still present, but selecting it only caused my phone to freeze for a moment before defaulting back to the built-in speaker.

One of my favorite features of the AirPods is the ability to sense when they are being pulled out or put in the ear and play/pause audio accordingly. Unfortunately, this does not work in iOS 15: when the AirPod is removed from the ear, the audio pauses, but when it is put back in, the sound does not resume, often forcing the user to manually press the play button on the phone instead.

It seems I am not the only one experiencing AirPods issues with iOS 15; a quick look at sites such as Reddit shows that other users are also experiencing problems after the upgrade. Some users cannot even connect their wireless earbuds to their devices due to microphone issues.

It is not only regular AirPods that are experiencing problems, but PC Mag has also reported that iOS 15 is breaking the functionality of the AirPods Pro. Until now, users of Apple's high-end wireless earbuds have been able to use Siri to toggle between various active noise canceling modes. In iOS 15, however, asking the voice assistant for help will be met with the response, "Sorry, we can't help you with that."

The good news is that this particular AirPods Pro issue has been resolved in iOS 15.1, according to MacRumors. This first update to the OS is currently in the beta testing phase and will likely be rolled out to all iPhone users in the coming weeks. Hopefully this patch will also fix some of the issues that I and other users have been experiencing the past few days.

If you are a heavy AirPods user, I would not recommend updating your phone until iOS 15.1 is launched and fully tested. Alternatively, get the best wireless earbuds we have to choose from.