Music is a powerful motivator, but safety always comes first. That’s where transparency mode comes in. This clever new feature on the latest running headphones helps you stay in tune with your surroundings—whether that’s the noise of nearby traffic or just the Starbucks barista calling out your postrun coffee order. If you’ve never come across it before, here’s everything you need to know about how transparency mode works and why it’s useful for music-loving runners.
What is Transparency Mode?
Many new Bluetooth running headphones and earphones now have audio tools that improve your listening experience. These features include customizable EQ, sound profiles you can tailor for the gym or the urban sidewalks, and noise control tools like Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) and transparency mode.
ANC is ideal for when you want to isolate yourself in an audio cocoon. It actively filters out the noisy world around you, quieting things like the rumbling background sounds of trains, traffic, or the murmur of café conversation.
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Most headphones with ANC also offer transparency mode. This does the opposite, deliberately letting in more outside sounds. It’s almost as if you’re not wearing headphones while you’re still wearing headphones. That means you can listen to your tunes or the latest true crime podcast and stay connected with your environment. Or, have conversations with running buddies with your buds still in your ears. Transparency mode gives you another option on those occasions where you might consider ditching your headphones altogether.
Which Headphones Have Transparency Mode?
You’ll find transparency mode on the best wireless running headphones including the Apple Airpods Pro, Jabra Elite Active 75t, Jaybird Vista 2, and Beats Fit Pro. They’re also starting to appear on cheaper true wireless headphones, too.
Transparency mode is Apple’s name for this awareness tool but you’ll also hear it given snappier names like HearThrough (Jabra), Surround Sense (Jaybird), Social Mode (Nuheara), OpenAudio (BOSE), or Awareness Mode as each brand tries to put their unique stamp on the technology.
How Does Transparency Mode Work?
Most Bluetooth earbuds are designed to fit snugly. The ergonomic seal of the ear tips creates a seal that passively filters out ambient noise, helping you hear more of your music and less of the unwanted rattle and hum of the world outside. Smarter headphones with Active Noise Cancellation and transparency modes do this as well, but they also use microphones built into the buds to enhance your audio.
With ANC, the microphones listen to noise outside and then play inverse soundwaves that effectively cancel out more of the unwanted hubbub than passive noise-canceling headphones. Transparency mode uses the same technology but instead of filtering out the hustle and bustle, it pipes through more external sound. A good transparency mode helps you hear more of the outside world when you’ve got your earbuds in, even when there’s no music playing.
The quality of the transparency modes varies. Pay special attention to what reviewers say about how the earbuds cope with windy conditions on the run. Some awareness modes unfortunately amplify the wind, meaning that’s all you can hear.
Another consideration is battery life. ANC and transparency modes cut the listening time. How much faster they drain the battery life changes from brand to brand, but it can be as much as 30 percent.
How Do You Switch Between ANC and Transparency Mode?
The controls will vary on Bluetooth headphones. Most headphones let you switch conveniently between audio modes while you’re running, with a single or combination of taps to your earbuds.
Not all transparency modes offer the same audio experience either. Some running headphones drop the volume of whatever you’re listening to and boost the ambient sound. Others pause your music while piping in the outside world. In many cases, you can use a partner app to customize the controls and how you want the transparency mode to work. For example, you can often tweak how much ambient noise to let in.
What Are the Benefits of Transparency Mode For Runners?
Transparency mode’s most obvious benefit is safety. Whether you regularly run on city streets, parks, or trails, flicking on this mode helps you hear more of what’s happening around you. That includes things you definitely don’t want creeping up on you unexpectedly like traffic, bikes, humans, and animals.
But there are other advantages, too. Let’s say you stop midrun to buy water or a sports drink. You may need to chat with the cashier, but don’t want the hassle of removing your headphones and stashing them safely in the case. Fire up transparency mode and you’re golden. Or you might decide you want to temporarily tune into nature on a park or trail run for a few miles. Again, awareness modes let you do this without fiddling with your headphones.
It’s also great for races—particularly busy, atmospheric city marathons. You might want to start with some motivational music, then switch between hearing the crowds or course band, chatting with other runners, and then locking in a kick-ass playlist to help you survive those final few miles.
Some headphones also use the transparency technology to protect your ears, too. Apple’s new Adaptive Transparency feature on the Apple Airpods Pro 2, spots any harmful noises above the 85dB threshold and automatically lowers the volume.
Are There Alternatives To Transparency Mode?
The majority of run-friendly headphones that offer transparent mode are in-ear buds. If you’re not a fan of that design or you struggle to get them to stay in your ears, bone conduction headphones like the Shokz OpenRun Pro, might be a good alternative. With bone conductors, the “speakers” sit on your cheeks just in front of your ear and essentially vibrate against your bones, transmitting sounds directly to the inner ear. That leaves your ears open to soak up the noise from cars, birds, or your running buddy’s best chatter.
If your true wireless headphones support single-bud usage—and many now do—the other option is to run with just one earbud in. The added bonus here is that it doubles your listening duration since you’re only burning through half that battery at any one time.
Forty-three-time marathon finisher and cofounder of The Run Testers, a YouTube running gear reviews channel, Kieran Alger has been testing the latest running gear for more than a decade. A minor running tech obsessive, he is also “experienced” (okay, old) enough to remember life before Strava, Spotify, and smartphones.
