Apple will reportedly announce new features for its AirPods at WWDC
9to5Mac says that it has learned that Apple will allow a head gesture to extend the use of Conversation Awareness volume adjustment before the wearable returns to the original noise-control settings. Currently, pressing on the AirPods stem or swiping up on the stem will end a Conversation Awareness adjustment although soon a head gesture might accomplish the same thing. Conversation Awareness allows you to better hear someone talking right in front of you by lowering media sounds and reducing background noise.
Another new AirPods feature Apple is reportedly working on is one that will detect when a user is sleeping and will automatically halt playback if that is the case. Apple could have this feature work with the sleep detection capabilities of the Apple Watch. AirPods camera control is supposedly coming. A click on the AirPods stem will allow the user to snap a picture using an iPhone or an iPad camera.
Apple is also looking to improve the way AirPods pair with shared iPads. This would impact students in classrooms where multiple users often share iPads. Apple hopes to make it easier to pair AirPods with its tablets. Also believed to be under development is a microphone mode for AirPods which could drive sales of the wearables to content creators looking for a high-quality “studio microphone.”
Besides iOS 26, other OS names will include:
- iPadOS 26
- macOS 26
- watchOS 26
- tvOS 26
- visionOS 26
