Your AirPods May Be Getting Some Cool New Features in iOS 26
Credit: Aniket Narula / Unsplash
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One of the great things about Apple’s AirPods is that they’re the gift that keeps on giving. The company regularly adds new capabilities to its in-ear headphones with each major iOS release, and there’s no reason to believe that this year will be an exception.
While we’d only heard rumors about one new feature before today, that one alone was impressive: a “Star Trek-like” universal translator that would offer real-time translation of spoken word audio.
“If an English speaker is hearing someone talk in Spanish, the iPhone will translate the speech and relay it to the user’s AirPods in English,” Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said earlier this year, adding that “The English speaker’s words, meanwhile, will be translated into Spanish and played back by the iPhone.”
However, as amazing as that will be, it looks like Apple has even more in store for earbuds. An exclusive report from 9to5Mac offers an eleventh-hour look at what else might be coming, and while it’s a laundry list of smaller features, they could add up to some cool new user experiences.
More Head Gestures
Among last year’s AirPods enhancements in iOS 18 was a new hands-free Siri interaction that would let you answer calls simply by nodding your head or decline them by shaking it. They initially only came to the AirPods Pro but were also supported by the AirPods 4 when Apple launched them later that year.
According to the latest report, iOS 26 (which is what Apple is expected to call this year’s release) will add support for new head gestures. While it’s unclear what all of those will be, one rumored possibility is support for extending or shortening a Conversation Awareness volume adjustment.
Conversation Awareness was added in iOS 17 as a way of automatically reducing the volume of whatever is playing when you begin speaking with someone, saving you the trouble of manually pausing your music or taking an earbud out. However, sometimes the audio either comes back too soon or stays down long after you’re finished speaking, depending on the environment around you. You can override this by touching the AirPods stem, but a head gesture will be more intuitive, especially in situations where your hands are busy with something else.
Camera Control
While rumors persist that Apple will someday add cameras to the AirPods, we’re not expecting those to show up anytime soon. In the meantime, Apple has what could be the next best thing: letting users trigger the iPhone’s Camera from the stem of their earbud.
This has long been possible with Apple’s wired EarPods, although few people use them these days since Apple stopped packing them in the box. Plus, they only work from a short distance — the length of the wire between the earbud and your iPhone.
Using AirPods for this would function more like a remote shutter control, making it possible to capture posed group shots without relying on a timer. The Apple Watch can already do this thanks to its Camera Remote app, but as much as Apple would like everyone to wear an Apple Watch, there are many more people out there with AirPods.
Automatically Pause Music when You Fall Sleep
While you can set a sleep timer on your iPhone, this process is still much more awkward than it should be. Plus, you need to think about it in advance. If you unexpectedly doze off while listening to music, it’s just going to keep playing until the playlist runs out — which could be never if you’ve toggled on the “infinity” Autoplay option.
According to this latest set of rumors, Apple has figured out a way to detect when someone wearing AirPods has fallen asleep, automatically pausing playback when this happens. There’s a possibility this might require an Apple Watch to handle the sleep detection, at least for now, but with rumors of AirPods getting heart rate sensors, we’re confident they’ll be able to handle this on their own someday, even if that’s not today.
‘Studio Quality’ Audio Mixing
Apple added a new Audio Mix feature to the iPhone 16 Pro last year that uses machine learning to help separate background noise from speech, letting users choose to play studio-quality audio in one of three modes: In-frame, Studio, and Cinematic.
Now, it’s said to be employing those same machine learning algorithms to create a “studio quality” microphone mode for AirPods that could put them on the same level as professional lavalier microphones.
Quicker Pairing with Shared Devices
This last feature might be a bit more niche, but it will be appreciated by students and others who use their own AirPods but often hop between multiple iPads, such as in a classroom or lab environment.
Apple is reportedly working on a way to improve the pairing experience for shared iPads, letting AirPods connect more quickly and easily for temporary use without jumping through all the usual hoops.
iOS 26 and WWDC25
Last year, iOS 18 introduced hands-free Siri interactions, Voice Isolation, Adjustable Adaptive Audio, and Low Latency Gaming to the AirPods Pro, plus personalized Spatial Audio for Gaming to all recent AirPods. In 2023, iOS 17 brought us Adaptive Audio and Conversation awareness, and iOS 16 gave us Personalized Spatial Audio.
Apple is expected to unveil iOS 26 on Monday at the keynote presentation where it kicks off its 2025 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Even if all these new features come to pass, it’s unlikely they’ll all be showcased during the keynote. Apple typically highlights the most interesting features, leaving the rest as more subtle bullet points on background slides or bringing them up later during its developer sessions.
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
