How do the touch controls work on the Sony WF-1000XM6?

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The touch controls on the Sony WF-1000XM6 are way more flexible than previous models. You can now customize pretty much everything.

Each earbud has four touch gestures: single tap, double tap, triple tap, and long press. You can assign different functions to each one, independently for left and right. So that's eight total customizable actions.

The functions you can assign include the usual stuff: play/pause, skip tracks, activate your voice assistant, toggle noise cancellation modes, and adjust volume. There's also Quick Attention, which temporarily pauses your audio and lets outside sound in while you hold your finger on the earbud – handy for quick conversations.

Volume control works by long-pressing and sliding up or down. It takes a bit of practice to get the feel for it, but once you do, it's nice not having to grab your phone.

Setting all this up happens in the Sony Sound Connect app. You pick the earbud, then assign functions to each gesture. The interface is straightforward.

This is a big step up from the XM5, where you were stuck with preset control schemes. Now you can set things up exactly how you want.

One thing people have asked for that's missing: a quick way to disable touch controls entirely without opening the app. Like a home screen widget. That's not available yet, so if you need to disable touch to avoid accidental presses, you have to dig into the app settings.