Apple intends to enrich the functionality of its wireless AirPods headphones by adding the ability to simultaneously translate. This will allow AirPods users to translate spoken speech from one language to another in real time, snob.ru reports with reference to Bloomberg.
The technology is supposed to work like this: when an English speaker hears a French speech, their iPhone will automatically translate what they heard and transmit the result to the user's AirPods in English. In turn, the English speaker's response will be translated into French and played back through the iPhone. It is not currently specified how many languages the headphones will be able to recognize once the new feature is implemented.
The technology is closely tied to iOS 19, an upcoming update to Apple's mobile operating system that is expected to be available to users by the end of 2025.
It should be noted that a similar function was implemented several years ago by Apple's competitor, Google, which produces Google Pixel Buds headphones. When paired with a Pixel series smartphone, these wireless headphones can act as a simultaneous translator, interacting with the Google Translate app and supporting, among other things, the Russian language.