Apple is rumored to be updating your entire AirPods lineup over the following few years. This is what the rumor mill believes is on the best way for AirPods, AirPods Professional, and AirPods Max.
Apple’s iconic AirPods have been round for simply over eight years, as the primary iteration debuted again in 2016. They have been introduced alongside the iPhone 7, which notably lacked a headphone jack. When you nonetheless acquired a pair of wired EarPods with the iPhone 7, Apple’s AirPods made the identical design wi-fi, bypassing the necessity for a connector of any form.
Wi-fi earbuds have been hardly a brand new idea on the time, however the launch of the 2016 AirPods marked the start of a brand new Apple product line. Over time, the iPhone maker unveiled three separate AirPods upgrades, every delivering new options.
Later, in 2019, we acquired AirPods Professional, and in 2020, AirPods Max, including fairly a little bit of selection to the vary.
The AirPods lineup continues to evolve, and rumors counsel that main {hardware} upgrades are within the works. Leakers and analysts alike have supplied particulars surrounding the totally different AirPods options that may debut within the subsequent few years, and so they have rather a lot to say.
AirPods may acquire cameras for Visible Intelligence
The most important change slated for Apple’s AirPods is a brand new digital camera system, which is anticipated to facilitate Visible Intelligence options on the corporate’s wi-fi earbuds. The corporate desires to increase the provision of Apple Intelligence throughout its totally different platforms, and that plan reportedly includes camera-equipped AirPods.
Apple’s camera-equipped AirPods could provide improved Spatial Audio via Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional integration
The notion of such a tool, reportedly codenamed B796, first surfaced in February 2024. The identical supply reiterated claims of camera-equipped AirPods in October 2024, December 2024, January 2025, March 2025, and Might 2025.
Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has additionally steered Apple’s AirPods may acquire a digital camera â first in June 2024, after which once more in Might 2025.
The AirPod cameras could not essentially be a full shade model, however may as a substitute use infrared (IR) sensors for depth mapping, in accordance with Kuo. Such a system may very well be used extra for navigational functions, and probably use much less energy than the total video variations.
If carried out, this may enable the AirPods to detect when the person’s atmosphere modifications, usually as a result of they’ve moved their head. The brand new digital camera system might also work along with the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional. Particularly, Kuo says that the camera-equipped AirPods will have the ability to relay route to the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, which can then regulate the steadiness of any taking part in Spatial Audio.
Which means, for instance, if a person have been to show their head to look in a sure route, the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional would know to emphasise the audio associated to what they’re viewing. Ming-Chi Kuo believes that customers could have the option to manage their new-and-improved AirPods with gestures as effectively.
Such future AirPods may additionally go on knowledge to help the Apple Intelligence engine on an iPhone. The AirPod cameras may add Visible Intelligence info to the iPhone whereas nonetheless within the person’s pocket, as an example.
Visible Intelligence is at present obtainable on the iPhone 16 vary and the iPhone 15 Professional, but it surely may increase to AirPods sooner or later.
Visible Intelligence is at present obtainable on the iPhone 16 vary, in addition to the iPhone 15 Professional. It lets customers acquire details about their atmosphere via the built-in digital camera system and Apple Intelligence, a collection of generative AI options.
The concept of the trouble is to make use of the built-in AirPod cameras in order that AI can see the skin world, which can be utilized to ship detailed info that may improve queries. For instance, a question asking the place the person is situated could use native signal scans as a strategy to decide an approximate location, or a person may very well be informed which means a store is predicated on storefront imagery.
Kuo claims there can be manufacturing capability for as much as 10 million camera-equipped AirPods, and says they are going to be manufactured by Foxconn. AirPods are already made by Foxconn in India, and there are plans to increase manufacturing, so Kuo’s claims appear believable in that regard.
The entry-level AirPods are solely a part of Apple’s product line, nonetheless, and the corporate will undoubtedly improve the AirPods Professional and AirPods Max as effectively.
AirPods Professional 3 may obtain a redesign, a heart-rate sensor, and extra
The following main improve to the AirPods Professional is ready to debut inside just a few months, in late 2025. One in every of Apple’s software program releases from Might 2025, seemingly confirms that Apple is engaged on a wholly new mannequin.
The AirPods Professional 3 are anticipated to function design modifications and ANC enhancements.
We have heard rumors surrounding coronary heart price monitoring coming to AirPods Professional 3 for some time, since December 2024. With the launch of the Powerbeats Professional 2, which helps this function, it appears much more seemingly. A September 2024 rumor additionally indicated the function can be obtainable with the AirPods Professional 3.
Patents relationship way back to 2014 and 2017 point out Apple thought-about including heart-rate sensors to its wi-fi earbuds. It might be a logical subsequent step to convey the function over from the PowerBeats Professional 2 to the AirPods Professional 3, as a further promoting level.
Design modifications, energetic noise cancellation enhancements, and a brand new H3 chip are among the many different modifications rumored for the third-generation AirPods Professional. They’re anticipated to hit the cabinets within the coming months. Based mostly on years previous, they will be unveiled throughout Apple’s fall iPhone occasion round September 2025. If pricing stays constant, they will come out with an MSRP of $249, the identical because the AirPods Professional 2.
Lighter AirPods Max and iOS 19 stay translation options
As for the AirPods Max, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo mentioned in Might 2025 that Apple was engaged on a brand new mannequin. Particularly, Kuo claims {that a} considerably lighter AirPods Max mannequin will enter mass manufacturing in 2027. This implies the system would possibly debut throughout the vacation season that yr.
Apple may introduce a lighter AirPods Max mannequin in 2027.
Any discount within the weight of the brand new AirPods Max would absolutely be welcomed by future patrons. For reference, the present model weighs 13.6 ounces, or 384.8 grams. The AirPods Max have been final up to date in September 2024, after they acquired a USB-C port, changing the Lightning port discovered on the unique model.
Other than the load discount, nonetheless, no different particulars in regards to the 2027 AirPods Max mannequin have surfaced. The newest USB-C mannequin acquired assist for lossless and ultra-low latency audio with a latest firmware replace. They’re, nonetheless, equivalent to the mannequin with the older Lightning port, so an AirPods Max redesign would make sense.
On the software program aspect of issues, a March 2025 report steered that AirPods would acquire a stay translation function with the discharge of iOS 19. If true, which means that Apple’s AirPods will have the ability to translate in-person conversations from one language to a different. Samsung already has the same Dwell Translate function, which is out there with OneUI model 6.1 or later. Google’s Pixel Buds provide nearly the identical performance via a devoted Dialog Mode.
Apple’s patents, AirPods Lite and different rumors
Apple’s patents, in the meantime, include fairly just a few concepts for AirPods upgrades. A June 2024 patent revealed the corporate was contemplating including a display screen to the AirPods charging case, one thing that may already be discovered on knock-off AirPods. The show would enable customers to skip via music tracks, amongst different issues.
Apple’s patents present the corporate has been experimenting with the concept of a display screen for the AirPods charging case.
It is essential to recollect, nonetheless, that the concepts described in Apple’s patents do not at all times attain finish customers. With its Bongo venture, as an example, Apple filed a patent software for an issue-prone haptic button module that was scrapped, and faraway from the iPhone 15 Professional and iPhone 16 vary earlier than they reached mass manufacturing.
In February 2020, one rumor steered that Apple may very well be engaged on “AirPods Professional Lite,” a product designed to fill the area of interest between AirPods and AirPods Professional. Nonetheless, rumors relating to “AirPods Professional Lite” tapered off by the tip of 2020, nonetheless. Analyst Jeff Pu made the same declare about low-cost “AirPods Lite” in January 2023, although this mannequin by no means materialized both.
Total, the brand new camera-equipped AirPods will seemingly be the star of the present, as soon as they debut. Their existence has been corroborated by a number of sources. The AirPods Professional and AirPods Max, in the meantime, will obtain modifications which are arguably much less spectacular, however visually and functionally distinct nonetheless.
