No AirPods with cameras yet at Apple's event — and that's a relief

At its annual September event, Apple unveiled several new products, including its first foldable phone, the iPhone Duo, alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max. The event also brought active noise cancellation to the budget AirPods 5 and introduced a Siri Recap feature for the Watch Series 12 and Watch Ultra 4. Notably absent, however, were the long-rumored AirPods Pro with built-in cameras. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, that product has been delayed until 2027.

A Verge writer expressed relief at the delay, citing concerns about placing cameras in devices as ubiquitous as earbuds. Even a low-resolution camera reportedly not designed to capture photos or video — but instead meant to feed Siri's AI and Visual Intelligence features with information about surroundings, such as for directions or identifying objects and text — would still amount to constant environmental and human surveillance. LED indicators on glasses or earbuds rarely reassure people being recorded, and some Meta smart glasses users have already demonstrated ways to conceal recording activity.

Potential accessibility benefits

Such a camera could aid people with visual impairments in navigating their surroundings, help hard-of-hearing users by supporting lip-reading, and improve microphone focus on whoever a wearer is speaking with.

During the event, Apple also introduced Audio Intelligence for the Apple Watch, seen as a likely precursor to the anticipated Visual Intelligence feature on future AirPods Pro. Apple's support documentation states that audio isn't stored and can't be accessed, that data behind Siri Recap summaries isn't accessible even to Apple, and that stored data is end-to-end encrypted. Since the feature hasn't launched yet, how well it performs remains untested. The writer concludes that despite privacy concerns, Apple's growing reliance on sensors to interpret the world around users appears to be an inevitable direction for the company.