Apple's AirPods Max emoji is cool, but it could be so much cooler

Airpods Max Emoji Ios 14 5 Emojipedia (Image credit: Emojipedia)

Apple's iOS 14.5 update is set to bring a ton of new emoji to iPhone but one, in particular, is getting attention. The headphones emoji is switching to a pair of AirPods Max, which is fine. People have already complained that it's advertising of some sort, but I'm not going to dignify that with a response here. What I'm more interested in is how Apple could have gone a step further.

See, the headphones emoji now shows a pair of silver AirPods Max. But what if your iPhone knew which color AirPods Max are attached to your device, or even your iCloud account, and changed the color to match?

I think so.

Wouldn’t it be cool if the new headphones emoji in iOS 14.5 matched the colour of the AirPods Max you have set up on your account?

Instead, we all get white. 🎧Wouldn’t it be cool if the new headphones emoji in iOS 14.5 matched the colour of the AirPods Max you have set up on your account?

Instead, we all get white. 🎧— Oliver Haslam (@OliverJHaslam) February 18, 2021 February 18, 2021

My thinking is pretty simple, really. Your MagSafe case tells your iPhone what color it is, why can't your AirPods Max do the same and then change the color of the emoji to match? Sure, it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things and yes, there are bigger problems to fix in iOS. But this is the kind of thing Apple once prided itself in. It's the kind of whimsy the aforementioned MafSafe cases ooze. And I want my AirPods Max to do it too, darn it.

Airpods Max Iphone 11 Pro (Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

But then someone came up with what is arguably a better idea. Even if it's a little less cool.

Would be cool if you could hold it down and get all the different colour ways.. like you would hold down a person to change their skin toneWould be cool if you could hold it down and get all the different colour ways.. like you would hold down a person to change their skin tone— Matt Campbell (@mattcampbell80) February 18, 2021 February 18, 2021

Yeah. That'd probably be easier to implement now I think about it!

As I just said, I know none of this really matters and I'm nitpicking. But that doesn't mean that people wouldn't enjoy being able to use different color AirPods Max emoji when the feeling took them, right?

If Apple only did things that needed to be done we'd have some pretty boring devices, that's for sure.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.