Airpods mic delay

My AirPods (Gen 1) microphone seems to turn off after a few seconds of not talking, it then takes a good 3-4 seconds to realise I am talking again before activating the microphone, if there is background noise it works fine but if it is quiet it does not. People are only hearing half my sentences because once it has realised I am talking its too late. Is there a way to have the microphone just constantly on and not sound activated as it seems to be?