Skip to main content

Pioneer’s Lightning-connected earbuds auto-mute your mic when you’re not talking

Pioneer’s Lightning-connected earbuds auto-mute your mic when you’re not talking

Share this story

If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

Image: Pioneer

Pioneer announced its Rayz Plus earbuds earlier this year with the promise of continual software upgrades. Today, the company is adding new functionality to the Lightning-connected earbuds with its “Smart Mute” feature. The earbuds’ mic will automatically mute when you’re not talking during a phone call. It’ll unmute once you start talking again.

I tested this feature out over the past week or so and found that I could verify my mic muting from my iPhone’s call screen. You see the phone call mute button turning on and off. None of the people I called seemed to notice a difference in our call quality, though, so while the feature’s neat, I could take it or leave it. The selling point of these earbuds is still that it features adaptive noise canceling, pass-through charging, and will auto-pause your music when you take the earbuds out.

Now, most people probably didn’t go out of their way to purchase the Rayz Plus from Amazon, so today the company is also announcing that they’ll be available to purchase at Apple Stores worldwide soon. The retail launch accompanies the release of two new colors, too: rose gold and black. They’ll cost $149.95.