Airpods: Apple will notify (almost) empty battery in the future

There is hardly anything more annoying for audio fans than earplugs and headphones that have run empty before mobile use. Apple’s Airpods can be quickly charged in their charging shell, but there is no such thing with the Airpods Max. In addition, you mostly want to hear immediately and do not wait. With iOS 26 (and probably also MacOS 26 and IPADOS 26), Apple has now provided a small but useful change: you get charging instructions for Apple’s audio devices.

Please load, otherwise empty

In practice, this means that there is so -called Battery Reminder or “Charging notifications” on request: once in the area of ​​battery, iOS reports that it is “time to charge your airpods”. In the future, you no longer have to switch manually to the battery overview, which is available as a widget or in the menu bar on the Mac. If you get the notification, you connect your air pods to the charger (or put them on a loading mat) and ensure electricity. This should no longer appear unloaded plugs or over-ears.

Apple seems to proceed quite intelligently, as beta attorney of the current developmental opera version of iOS 26 report: Notifications come, for example, if you hang your iPhone on the charger in the evening. So you can then supply both devices with electricity at the same time. But the notifications also come during the day as soon as the Airpods fall below a certain battery level. It is still unclear whether Apple also implemented the feature for the Beats and/or audio devices from other manufacturers for products. Technically, it is already possible to pass the battery level via Bluetooth, for example, the headphones of Sennheiser or Sony do it.

Always new features

The new function shows once again that Apple expands the functionality of once purchased devices step by step. For example, a gesture recognition with the AirPods was submitted by the new firmware, with which you can react to calls by shaking your head or nods. AirPods and beats also receive a new sleep recognition.

In iOS 26, it is also possible for the first time to hide firmware updates for the Airpods manually, also a long hoped-for function. At the moment there is no way sanctioned by Apple, so many users are waiting for the update longer.