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This upcoming AirPods feature will make travelling a lot easier
Published onMarch 21, 2025
- Rumors point to a new live translation feature coming to AirPods this year.
- The feature will likely launch alongside the release of iOS 19.
If you frequently travel, you’ll be excited to know that real-time translation functionality may be coming to AirPods this year. Recent reports suggest that along with the release of iOS 19 this summer, Apple will be adding a new translation feature to AirPods. The feature will be linked to the native Translation app on iOS, which means your AirPods will need to be connected to your phone in order to translate conversations in real-time.
For example, if a traveler wearing AirPods is speaking English and begins a conversation with someone who only understands Japanese, the iPhone will pick up the Japanese speaker’s words, translate them into English, and play the translation through the AirPods. When the English speaker replies, their response is translated into Japanese and spoken aloud by the iPhone. While Apple’s Translate app already supports this kind of back-and-forth dialogue, integrating the feature directly with AirPods would make the interaction smoother and more seamless.
We’ve seen this feature on other flagship earbuds before, such as on the Samsung Galaxy Buds3 Pro. While we appreciated the feature, we found it cumbersome that you can’t split the translation audio between the two earbuds on the Galaxy Buds3 Pro. It appears Apple’s implementation will experience the same shortcoming. At the very least, Apple adding these features means you won’t need to waste your money on dedicated translation earbuds anymore.