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iOS 26 reveals a new real-time translation gesture for AirPods 4 and Pro 2, and it could make your French phrase book a thing of the past
- Image in iOS 26 shows what looks like real-time translation
- Will require an Apple Intelligence-compatible device
- Could be iPhone 17 only, and possibly 16 Pro/Max
The latest developer beta of iOS 26 has apparently revealed a major unannounced upgrade for AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2: real world, real time translation.
As 9to5Mac reports, iOS 26 developer beta 6 contains a new system asset showing both AirPods stems being pressed simultaneously. The image seems to refer to the Translate app, and shows multiple words in multiple languages including Hello, Danke, Obrigado, Bonjour, Olá and Bye.
Danke, Apple
Apple announced Live Translate last month at WWDC, but not for real-world chatting: Apple focused on FaceTime and phone calls as well as messages. But live, face to face translation was leaked earlier this year by Bloomberg so we knew it was in the works. We just didn’t know when it’d arrive.
There’s a lot we don’t know about this new feature, including device requirements: AirPods and AirPods Pro don’t have the horsepower to run real-time translation natively, so that’s going to be handled by your phone, iPad or Mac.
We also don’t know what languages will be supported when the feature launches, although clearly the leaked asset shows some of them (Portuguese, French, German and, er, English).
It looks likely that the feature will initially support a fairly small selection of languages and require a recent iPhone, iPad or Mac: the Live Translation for phone calls and FaceTime already announced is available for English (UK and US), French, German, Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish and requires an Apple Intelligence-compatible device.
It’s possible that as Apple did with Apple Intelligence last year, the new feature may be exclusive to the iPhone 17 and last year’s Pro models.
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