The Coolest New AirPods Feature Is Skipping the EU
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Millions of European users will miss out on Apple’s new Live Translation feature for AirPods when it rolls out next week, likely due to strict European Union regulations.
On its feature availability webpage, Apple notes that “Live Translation with AirPods is not available if you are in the EU and your Apple Account Country or Region is also in the EU.” While Apple doesn’t give a reason for the restriction, EU legal and regulatory restrictions are the most likely reasons for the omission.
The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) both place strict requirements on how speech and translation services operate. There’s also the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which will force Apple to make connectivity features available to competitors.
These regulators will want to study how Live Translation operates and its impact on EU users in terms of their privacy, consent, data handling, and rights. Once the EU figures all of that out, Apple will then be required to ensure its system complies with the EU’s rules before enabling the Live Translation feature across European users’ accounts — and it will undoubtedly resist attempts by the EU that would force it to support Live Translation beyond the iPhone and AirPods.
Apple unveiled its Live Translation feature during its AirPods Pro 3 announcement at the iPhone event on Tuesday. In addition to the AirPods Pro 3, the feature will also be available on older AirPods models, including AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation and AirPods Pro 2.
Live Translation, powered by Apple Intelligence, enables users to listen to people speaking in another language and then hear translations through their AirPods. The process happens on the fly. The user can then respond by simply speaking naturally, and their words will then appear in the other person’s language on the user’s iPhone screen. If both conversants are fortunate enough to have compatible AirPods, they can each speak in their own language and hear translations through their AirPods.
The AirPods Active Noise Cancellation feature automatically lowers the volume of the other speaker, allowing users to better focus on the translated audio while still allowing for a natural conversation flow.
The new feature requires compatible AirPods with the latest firmware installed and that are paired with an Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone running iOS 26 or later, meaning iPhone 15 Pro and later models. Apple has been beta testing new firmware for AirPods alongside the beta testing of iOS 26, and the firmware is expected to be made available the same day iOS 26 drops, which is scheduled to take place on Monday, September 15
The feature will initially support real-time translation between users speaking English (UK and US), French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish. Support for Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) will be added later this year.
In June, Apple indicated that European Union users might find themselves missing out on several new features. In a media statement, Apple indicated that it would be forced to choose to remove features from iPhones sold in the EU rather than comply with these “deeply flawed rules.”
“In the end, these deeply flawed rules that only target Apple — and no other company — will severely limit our ability to deliver innovative products and features to Europe, leading to an inferior user experience for our European customers,” said Apple.
With the release of iOS 26 looming on the horizon, two iOS 18 features are still missing in Europe: iPhone Mirroring and SharePlay Screen Sharing. This is likely due to the DMA potentially requiring iPhone Mirroring and Screen Sharing to also be made available to Windows and Android users.
