Apple’s AirPods Are Getting Eyes — And They’re Almost Ready
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Reports have been heating up over the past several months that Apple is working on a slate of new AI-powered devices that could start rolling out as soon as early next year, and now it looks like at least one of its more long-term projects has reached a significant milestone.
While most of the buzz lately has been around Apple’s work on smart glasses, with some additional reports of a mysterious AI ‘pendant’, there’s actually another camera-equipped device that’s been in the works for even longer, often flying just below the radar.
That’s because it’s not strictly a “new” device so much as the evolution of an established product: the AirPods Pro. Reports of Apple’s work on camera-equipped AirPods Pro go back to at least 2024, when Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman and supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo independently shared info from sources that Apple was at least exploring the idea of putting cameras on its AirPods Pro.
While it wasn’t entirely clear back then what these cameras would be used for — Kuo speculated they’d integrate with the Vision Pro for better gesture controls — it’s much easier to see how they fit into a broader AI future. Last year, Apple’s former chief designer, Jony Ive, partnered with OpenAI to work on a new type of AI-powered device, and while the duo appears to now be prioritizing a smartphone, that doesn’t mean it’s abandoned other plans.
Not to be outdone by what is essentially still an AI software company, Apple has reportedly been ramping up its efforts. Multiple reports have indicated that it plans to double-down on visual intelligence — the Apple Intelligence feature that analyzes real-world objects through the iPhone camera and in screenshots — by bringing cameras to a whole new class of wearable devices.
At one time, this even included the possibility of an Apple Watch with a camera — not for FaceTime as had long been assumed, but for AI capture. By all accounts, Apple ultimately scrapped that plan as it was deemed impractical due to how the Apple Watch is typically worn.
Still, Apple is said to be moving full-steam ahead on its other three devices: the AirPods, the glasses, and the pendant/pin. There’s no firm word on which one we’ll see first, but this week Gurman reported that the AirPods with built-in cameras are approaching their final prototype.
The project has entered a phase where prototypes feature a near-final design and capabilities, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The earbuds, which rely on cameras to see the space surrounding a user and provide information, are in advanced testing, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the work is still under wraps.
Mark Gurman
According to Gurman, Apple’s goal is to leverage the popularity of the AirPods to give it an inroad into AI-enhanced hardware. After all, Apple has already sold hundreds of millions of AirPods, so it’s an established product category that users are familiar with. That makes a camera-equipped version a much easier sell than an entirely new platform like a pendant or smart glasses — especially with Meta’s Ray-Bans giving the latter category a bad name.
The new AirPods are expected to be a higher tier of the earbuds rather than a direct replacement for the AirPods Pro — effectively the “AirPods Ultra,” although that’s an entirely speculative name. They’re said to resemble the AirPods Pro 3 with longer stems to accommodate the cameras, which won’t be used for something as mundane as capturing photos or video. Instead, they’re expected to be low-resolution cameras designed to capture visual information that can be fed into Apple’s AI algorithms.
This would allow users to interact with the same visual intelligence features found on the iPhone. For example, it’s already possible to point your iPhone camera at a food item and get a list of ingredients, or at a laundry label to decipher the washing instructions. Putting cameras in the AirPods would let users do the same as they go about their day, without the distraction of pulling an iPhone out of their pocket. Apple is also expected to improve visual intelligence in iOS 27, integrating it more seamlessly into Siri and adding support for things like scanning nutrition labels on food packaging.
Gurman says that Apple is so far along in the development of these new AirPods that it had actually hoped to put them on sale in the first half of this year. However, much like Apple’s new smart home products, it’s Siri that’s thrown a monkey wrench into the company’s plans.
Apple’s beleaguered voice assistant, which was initially expected to be significantly improved in iOS 18.4 last year, has already put Apple’s smart home hub on ice, even though the hardware was otherwise ready to ship. While the new camera-equipped AirPods weren’t nearly as ready as that, it’s also possible Apple has taken some more time to sweat the details while it’s waiting for the software to catch up.
Now that the new Siri capabilities are on track for a September launch, the new AirPods may not be far behind. Gurman says that testers are already actively using the prototype in the design validation testing (DVT) stage, and if everything goes smoothly there, then they’ll soon be ready to move onto production validation testing (PVT), which is where Apple’s suppliers figure out how to actually mass produce them.
[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.]
