In other words, without getting too much into the weeds of things, active noise cancellation works by the device "monitoring" the outside noise and emitting an inverted soundwave, or what Treski calls "the anti phase," to neutralize or negate the external cacophony.

The work that began with EarPods continues to pay off as Apple prepares to ship the noise-canceling AirPods 4.

In a recent interview with Engadget, Apple's vice president of hardware engineering Kate Bergeron and AirPods marketing director Eric

For the first time ever, the entry-level AirPods have active noise cancellation (ANC). Apple unveiled the new AirPods 4 on Sept. 9 at the "Glowtime" event where the Cupertino-based tech giant debuted the new line with two variants: one with ANC and one without ANC.

Apple’s AirPods 4 team sat down for a new interview detailing the challenges and timeline for the new AirPods’ design and development.