Last week Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple is Planning an AirPods Overhaul with AirPods Pro getting a possible redesign and new chip(s) in 2025." At the end of the report I noted that "One feature that I would like to see come to Apple’s AirPods Max is allowing two people watching TV or streaming channel content together be able to converse with each other about a show without having to remove the headphones." Well, today Apple was granted a patent that would grant my wish titled "Audio-based Presence Detection."

Apple's granted patent covers a process and system that can determine if two (or more) devices and users are within an audible zone (e.g., within the same room) based on audio.

Based on whether the devices and users are within an audible zone, the devices can automatically modify the manner in which it processes audio.

One method for estimating when users and devices are within a physical proximity may be to analyze location data provided by GPS. Another method may be to detect the presence of a device through a wireless communication protocol. For example a device of the first user may check a local network to see if the device of the second user is on the same network (e.g., a local Wi-Fi network).

It should be noted that, although this will work with a conference call, the patent can also pertain to one-on-one conversations such as, for example, a Wi-Fi phone call.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 below illustrates a system with microphone-signal-driven-speakers for detecting presence based on audio; FIG. 6 illustrates a use case for detecting presence based on audio.  

Further, FIG. 6 can communicate over a network #81. The network can be any combination of communication means including the internee, TCP/IP, Wi-Fi, Ethernet, Bluetooth, etc.

For more details, review Apple's granted patent 11805381.