AirPods with cameras are reportedly coming this year, perhaps with ‘AirPods Ultra’ branding. And after a new reveal, the rumored product makes a lot more sense to me.
New AirPods to add cameras for visual intelligence, but that may not be the whole story
Rumors from multiple sources have long pointed to AirPods gaining IR (infrared) cameras this year.
We previously assumed this new model would be a variant of AirPods Pro 3 at around $299. Similar to how you can choose AirPods 4 without active noise cancellation for $129 or with ANC for $179.
But with indications that Apple plans to expand its ‘Ultra’ product lineup this fall with the first iPhone Ultra and MacBook Ultra, an ‘AirPods Ultra’ name now seems more likely.
Whatever the branding ends up being, one thing that seems clear is that AirPods with IR cameras are coming.
What’s not so clear is why they are coming.
Mark Gurman has reported at Bloomberg that cameras will enable Apple to offer a variety of new visual intelligence features. Earlier this month he wrote:
The idea is to let users ask questions about an item they might be looking at. For instance, they could be facing food ingredients and ask what they should cook for dinner. It’s a similar experience to what someone gets from uploading photos in AI services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or the iPhone’s own Visual Intelligence function.
Apple has also been working on other uses for the AI cameras. The device could give the wearer a reminder based on something the camera sees, or it might use external visuals to provide more advanced turn-by-turn directions. The AI could cite a specific landmark ahead when telling users when they should turn.
These camera uses seem fine, but none of them really explain, for me, why Apple would put cameras into AirPods.
However, an announcement from the company earlier this week may offer the explanation.
AirPods with cameras might lean into health, accessibility benefits
Earlier this week, Apple unveiled its lineup of new accessibility features coming in iOS 27, iPadOS 27, macOS 27, and more.
And more so than perhaps any other year, the new features offer strong hints at other features and products in the works.
For example, improvements to Voice Control showcase the very agentic capabilities that Apple formerly announced for Siri, and are expected to ship in iOS 27.
And a video showing the upgraded VoiceOver feature in action seems a perfect fit for AirPods with cameras.
Check out the video below, followed by Apple’s description of the new AI-powered upgrades:
With Apple Intelligence, these essential tools become even more powerful. The Image Explorer in VoiceOver uses Apple Intelligence to give more detailed descriptions of images systemwide, including what’s in photographs, scanned bills, personal records, and other visual content. With updates to Live Recognition, VoiceOver users can press the Action button on iPhone to quickly ask a question about what’s in the camera viewfinder and get a detailed response. Users can also ask follow-up questions in their own words to get more visual information.
The new Live Recognition capabilities, and even the concepts behind Image Explorer, both seem like obvious matches for what AirPods with cameras can enable.
In the video, the user has to point their iPhone at objects they want to identify. But with camera-equpped AirPods they’ll just need to say, “Siri, what do you see?”
There are obviously plenty of examples where users with 20/20 vision might still benefit from cameras, like the uses Gurman mentions. But these accessibility features could prove even more transformative and worthwhile.
AirPods pushing further into health and accessibility makes a lot of sense
When AirPods Pro 2 launched support for Hearing Aid, Hearing Health, and Hearing Protection, it was a big step forward for the product becoming a health device.
Last year with AirPods Pro 3, a heart rate sensor continued that trend.
With cameras and visual intelligence, the new AirPods Ultra could push further into the health and accessibility space in a big way. And if that’s a key part of Apple’s story for adding cameras to AirPods, it won’t surprise me in the slightest.
What’s your interest level in AirPods with cameras? Let us know in the comments.
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