Apple has released new updates for almost all AirPods models. Unless you own the first generation, which are almost a relic, like mine, or you own the new AirPods Pro 2, all the others have received new improvements and bug fixes. That is, the updates are intended for the models of AirPods 2 and 3, 1st generation Pro and the Max. You don't have to do anything special, because the good thing is that they update silently, in the background, although you can check manually if yours already have the latest version.
Apple today introduced the new firmware 5B58 for AirPods 2, AirPods 3, original AirPods Pro, and AirPods Max. The last update that was released was in May when we were able to see the version in action the firmware version 4E71. At the moment we are not aware of what news Apple has been able to include in this new update, since the company has not offered notes on what has been included. We believe these were performance improvements and bug fixes and released at the same time as iOS 16.1.1 and iPadOS 16.1.1 which fixed various issues. It's likely to be an adaptive update to that new iPhone and iPad operating system.
As we said before, there is no manual way to update AirPods. These update themselves. All we have to do is connect them to an iOS device. Put AirPods in the case, connect them to a power source, and then pair them with an iPhone or iPad. This should force the update after a short time. What we can do is check if they have actually been updated. For this we can connect the AirPods or AirPods Pro to an iOS or iPadOS device. We open the Settings application. Click on General> About> AirPods> Firmware version.