Ever bought wireless earphones and been disappointed with the noise-cancelling tech on offer? Qualcomm is here to try and fix that, with the introduction of Adaptive ANC, or Adaptive Active Noise Cancelling (or even AANC - as we suspect it'll become known).

First a little detail on ANC. The 'active' aspect of this noise-cancelling technology is based on microphones listening to surrounding ambient audio to counteract that noise (it effectively reverses the signal - as the collision of identical sounds results in muting of the noise you don't want to hear). ANC requires power and isn't entirely related to fit.

However, fit is integral to any headphones. And with wireless in-ears rising in prominence over recent years, many more of us are wearing 'buds buried in our ear canals. Different people have different ears, different headphones have different designs and silicone tips, thus different fitting experiences.

This is where AANC comes into play. Even with poor fit, the audio technology is able to adapt to what it's presented with, providing improved active noise-cancelling that continues to adapt - even if it's not a super tight fit.

As this technology will become available on devices using Qualcomm's QCC5141 silicon - which is already in the market, as announced in March 2020 - we suspect (although it's not confirmed, despite our query to the company) this means AANC will become available to a wide range of current headphones.

This is Qualcomm's announcement to kick off IFA 2020, so we'll update this news story with any additional comment that surfaces from the show.