AirPods Live Translation arrives — except for millions in Europe

The Live Translation feature will be available to users of certain AirPods models next week. However, it will not be available to millions of EU users.

MacRumors writes why EU users won’t get Apple’s new Live Translation on AirPods.

Why the EU is left out?

Apple has not explained the reasons for this restriction, but the most likely reason is EU regulatory requirements, particularly the AI Act and GDPR. These regulations impose strict rules on language and translation services, including those related to privacy, consent, data movement, and user rights. Regulators may want to examine how Live Translation works, and Apple may want to ensure full compliance before enabling the feature for European accounts.

Although Live Translation was introduced with the AirPods Pro 3, it will also be available on older models, including the AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation and the AirPods Pro 2. With Live Translation, you can communicate hands-free. The user speaks as usual, and for interlocutors without AirPods, the iPhone shows a "live" transcription in horizontal orientation with the translation of the other party's language.

When both participants in a conversation are using compatible AirPods with Live Translation enabled, active noise cancellation automatically silences the other person's voice. This allows the user to focus more easily on the translated audio without disrupting the natural flow of the conversation.

This feature requires AirPods with the latest firmware and an iPhone with Apple Intelligence running iOS 26 or later. Models starting with the iPhone 15 Pro are supported. Apple has been testing the firmware alongside the iOS 16 beta and expects to release it on September 15, when iOS 16 officially becomes available.

At launch, it will support real-time translation between English (US and UK), French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Spanish. Apple plans to add Italian, Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese later this year. 

Read more:

Apple Store goes down ahead of iPhone 17 pre-orders

Apple unveils iPhone Air — thinnest, most efficient iPhone yet