Apple continues to work on various features of its devices, and often unannounced capabilities of certain products are added to their list of capabilities over time. One of them is real-time text translation using AirPods, which is currently being worked on.
Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman has learned that the company is preparing such a feature for current models. The principle of operation is quite simple: when someone addresses an English-speaking AirPods owner in Spanish, for example, the user will hear an English translation, and the English response will be played in Spanish through the iPhone.
Similar capabilities have been offered by competitors, such as the Google Pixel Buds, for quite some time. However, Apple has not yet responded with such functionality.
What's nice is that the real-time text translation feature will be part of the iOS 19 update, allowing owners of current AirPods models to take advantage of the functionality without having to buy new headphones. For example, last year, a software update brought Hearing Health features to the AirPods Pro 2.
Recall that a major design update is also expected in iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and macOS 16.