- New Airpods Characteristics claimed for presentation wwdc 2025
- Airpods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 can obtain camera control, a new microphone mode and new head gestures
- Sleep detection may also require Apple Watch
We are only a few days after the Apple Annual Developer event, WWDC 2025, and that means that the revelation of the next macOS, iOS and iPados are imminent. And if the reports are correct, that means more really interesting updates for Airpods 4, AirPods 4 with Anc and Airpods Pro 2.
The news occurs through 9to5Mac, which has shared five characteristics that expect to be revealed during the key note on Monday, June 9, although we cannot use them until the beta versions are published in the period prior to its usual September launch date.
What new features will come to Airpods in iOS 26?
According to the reports, iOS 26, the numbering moves years instead of versions so that all Apple operating systems numbers are synchronized, will introduce five characteristics: new head gestures, automatic sleep pause, camera control, audio mixture and broader class support.
The gestures of the head were added to Airpods Pro 2 and Airpods 4 last year: it can reject calls (and some other notifications) with a shaking of the head or nod to accept them. Now, Apple is apparently working on additional gestures, including one that will extend the volume adjustment of conversation awareness, a way that reduces audio when talking.
Apple has also been working to detect when you sleep while listening to your airpods. However, it is not clear if this will only be an airpods/iPhone function, or if it will require the sleep detection function of the best Apple watches.
The third feature is one of those “I cannot believe that they did not do it years ago”: control the shutter of their camera with the stem of its airpods, as you can do with volume control in Earpods.
Audio Mix, which was introduced with the iPhone 16, is also being improved: 9TO5MAC understands that there will be a new microphone mode of “study quality” that will make Airpods more attractive to the “small full -size Lavaliers microphones.”
Last but not least, there will be improved support in the classroom that is easier to have multiple Airpods users who connect to the same iPAD eliminating part of the friction in the current pairing system.
We are likely to listen to at least some of these characteristics on Monday, June 9, although, of course, that does not necessarily mean that it will definitely reach iOS 26: after the Smart-Siri debacle, we are not giving anything for granted until it really is there on our iPhones.
