Airpods: New live translation on the march

There have been rumors for months that Apple is planning a new live translation function for its AirPods earplugs. The idea: The wireless listeners should translate conversations into different languages almost in real time – in combination with the iPhone. It is already known that Apple will incorporate such functions for Facetime and phone calls into iOS 26 – from the iPhone 15 Pro. Now there have also been evidence of the AirPods in the Developer Beta 6 and the public Beta 3.

Probably in five languages

One Corresponding graphics Shows two AirPods per second generation, including different language words such as “Hello”, “Bonjour”, “Olá” or “Thank you”. The stems of the Airpods Pro apparently have to be pressed for this, at least these symbolize two circles. The languages called Apple are English, French, German and Portuguese, but it should be more. Apple also announced Spanish for Facetime and phone calls. Portuguese is apparently intended for Brazil, English will be available for the United States and Great Britain.

According to reports, the live translation function for second generation AirPods and for the AirPods 4 is planned-whether only the ANC model is supported in the latter or the variant without is still unclear. It also remains to be seen how the concrete implementation takes place. It would be conceivable that one gives one of the plugs of the other person so that they get the translation directly into the ear – but for hygienic reasons a little unsightly. Alternatively, the AirPods could only serve as a microphone and loudspeaker for the device owner, while the translations for the opposite side sound from the iPhone (a sensible combination because there would be no overlap).

Only for the iPhone 17?

Use directly on the AirPods without a connected iPhone is considered very unlikely, since the plugs do not have sufficient computing power. Whether Apple really supports all current iPhones that also master Apple Intelligence (from iPhone 15 Pro) or the feature only reserves the new iPhone-17 models that appear in September has not yet been leaked through. It is at least interesting that the function is haunted by the rumor mill, but was not mentioned in the presentation of iOS 26 in June.

The new operating system that could be released in mid-September also comes with a new translation function for texts in the news app. In addition to the languages intended for Facetime and phone calls, Italian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese (short signs) are also supported here. It remains to be seen whether these four additional languages will later be submitted for voice communication.