Leaked macOS Code Offers a Glimpse Into Apple’s Camera AirPods

Apple’s work on camera-equipped AirPods has become fairly well documented, thanks to recent reports and a demo video discovered in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate. Now, a user who enjoys digging into new code has discovered even more details about the upcoming earbuds.

A MacRumors forum member, mactracker, has discovered a hidden macOS framework called “AccessorySensorManager” that’s designed to manage sensor data from the AirPods when they are connected via Bluetooth to a Mac.

The following information has been discovered by the user:

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• The new AirPods will capture paired color images: Discovered code indicates that the left and right earbuds each have individual camera sensors that send synchronized RGB still images of up to 1 megapixel with matching frame IDs. This is designed to provide Visual Intelligence with the same scene, but from two angles. While other sensors, like infrared cameras, have been rumored, they aren’t mentioned in the code.
• The new AirPods support periodic image capture but do not provide video support: The cameras are designed to only take internal still frames for Visual Intelligence to process. The buds will not take photos or record video either automatically or at a user’s command. When the AirPods are in “active” mode, the framework can request a synced pair of images, or it can receive pairs of stills which are continually sent at a specified rate.
• Active and passive capture modes use different image resolutions: When “active” mode is engaged, likely by the user via Siri, the AirPods will capture a 640×640 image and return a 1024×1024 image after processing. “That’s about 0.4 megapixels of sampled image data, and a little over 1 megapixel for the output frame,” mactracker explains. While in “passive” mode, the AirPods cameras capture a 320×320 image that can offer a 320×320 or 512×512 output. “These are capture-specific resolutions, and the physical sensor’s native resolution may be larger,” adds the user.
• Passive mode may be intended for background environmental awareness: In the framework, there are mentions of contextual conditions, including changes in the surrounding audio, nearby speech, head rotation, posture changes, and even movement outside a defined area. The discovered code does not make it clear whether every condition will trigger a camera capture.
• AirPods account for continual head movement on the user’s part: The framework also includes lens distortion correction, dual-camera calibration, and camera-to-motion sensor calibration. Images affected by excessive movement or an occluded view will be rejected due to being of no use.
• The new AirPods will handle some processing directly on the earbud: In the code, there are mentions of “peripheral inference,” which would likely allow on-device detection of whether or not a person is in view.
• AirPods will likely include a capture indicator light on each earbud: The framework contains code allowing it to remotely activate a hardware indicator and control its brightness. This suggests that the AirPods will each sport a light to alert other people as to when the earbuds are capturing still images.

Earlier this week, a video was discovered in the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate. The video, which was posted on X, is a short demo of a man holding up a book so the AirPods camera can view the title. “With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes saveable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later,” says the voiceover text.

The AirPods’ cameras will feed information to Visual Intelligence to be processed on the user’s iPhone, allowing Siri to answer questions about the wearer’s surroundings, while also collecting information. There’s also a direct reference to setting up Visual Intelligence on the AirPods.

If your hair covers the AirPods, you’ll receive an alert. “To get the most accurate information about things in your environment, make sure AirPods are not covered,” it says.

On Wednesday, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said the AirPods shown in the video are a pair of AirPods Pro 3 equipped with cameras, codenamed B790. Gurman says Apple no longer plans to release this particular model and is instead working on a new generation of camera-equipped AirPods, codenamed B798, indicating that the discovered framework was intended for use with the cancelled model earbuds.

As with any reports like this, what we’ve presented here is how the camera-equipped AirPods might work. None of this is a guarantee on how these features actually will work — or even if they’ll be present in the final version.

Gurman says Apple is targeting 2027 for the AirPods release, possibly launching alongside the 20th-anniversary iPhone.

[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.]