Without any noise, without waiting for any beta of iOS and without even being notified with a small note in the Notification Center of our iPhone, Apple has just updated the AirPods to firmware 3.5.1. The update happens completely in the background without user intervention, and we do not have any note from Apple indicating what changes it brings.. What it has brought, at least in my case, is the obligation to reset them after the update so that they work correctly.
To find out if the version of your AirPods is already up to date or not, you should go to the iOS Settings menu, and in General> Information, the firmware version of your AirPods will appear at the bottom, which in this case should indicate 3.5.1, as long as they are connected to your device as is evident. In the case that it has not yet been updated to this version, you should only be careful to place them near the iPhone, open the lid of its box so that they connect and leave a few minutes to see if the update occurs automatically.
After the update, I have noticed that my AirPods had more problems to connect with my iPhone automatically, as well as that the playback did not stop when I removed one of them, as it should. Unlinking them completely from the iPhone and resetting them before linking them again seems to have been the solution to that problem for now. We will see if Apple has improved one of the aspects that many users complained about: an excessive battery consumption with the AirPods at rest, inside their box, with the result that the battery of the set does not last more than 3 days without even having used them. Another problem that caused calls to be cut off when using the AirPods as hands-free has also been widely repeated by users. If there is any news about what this AirPods firmware update includes, we will inform you promptly.