Big AirPods Update Coming Soon — Key Features Revealed

AirPods may get several new features at once at Monday's WWDC 25 presentation. Sources told us about the features that are being prepared for the headphones and can significantly enhance their user experience.

It was reported by 9to5Mac.

What five innovations is Apple testing for AirPods?

Last year, Apple introduced head nod support for accepting or rejecting calls and notifications, and is now developing additional movements. In particular, the gesture will allow you to end the temporary volume reduction in Conversation Awareness mode and return to the original noise reduction settings without touching the headphone.

Another useful option is auto-pause during sleep. AirPods will be able to detect when the user has fallen asleep and pause music or podcast playback. It is not yet known whether this feature will work independently or in conjunction with Apple Watch, but it should eliminate the need for external timers.

Support for remote iPhone or iPad camera release by pressing the AirPods' foot is also close to release, the feature that has seemed logical for years. Even if the user simply holds one earbud in his hand, the iPhone will be able to take a photo without touching the screen.

The company is also bringing Audio Mix technology from the iPhone 16 to the headset, creating a "studio quality" microphone mode. Machine learning will separate the background from the voice, and the headphones will become the serious competitor to lapel mics, which are often used by content creators.

For school classrooms, Apple is testing the simplified connection of AirPods to shared iPads. The process is expected to be less troublesome and not require unnecessary manual actions, which is especially important when dozens of students are working on the same device.

Traditionally, the company may delay or change some of these features before a public release. However, even a partial announcement will help ensure that current AirPods models will again receive major updates without the need for new hardware.

As a reminder, the hint of the upcoming release of AirPods Pro 3 was found in Apple's software code. One of the lines found indicates that the company is already adapting its systems to the new headphone model.

We also wrote that Apple is developing the new feature for AirPods that will allow translating private conversations in real time from one language to another. This feature is expected to appear along with the iOS 19 update and the new version of the headphones' firmware this year.