You Don’t Need to Buy AirPods Pro 3 to Use the Live Translation Feature.
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Yesterday, Apple announced its newest flagship headphones: the AirPods Pro 3. The new earbuds look like a significant improvement over the previous Pro generation in a number of ways, including a built-in heart rate monitor and an updated shape.
But the feature that really got me was the live translation feature. Here’s how it works: When you’re talking to someone in a language you don’t understand, you hear a live translation of their words through your AirPods. Your headphones even boost noise cancellation to lower the speaker volume so you can focus on the translation. As you speak, your words are also translated in real time, just on your iPhone’s display. That way, the other person can understand you, too. If it works as Apple showed in its demo, it sounds like the future, and will undoubtedly be a reason for people to buy these headphones when they go on sale.
But here’s the thing: You don’t actually need AirPods Pro 3 to use the live translation feature. While Apple showed off the feature as part of the AirPods Pro 3 announcement, the company conveniently forgot to mention that owners of the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation can also take advantage of it. This is evident from Apple’s AirPods comparison tool : all three models support the live translation feature.
If you read the fine print, you’ll see why: The AirPods themselves don’t do the conversion. Instead, the feature relies on iOS 26 and Apple Intelligence . You’ll need an iPhone that’s compatible with both OSes (i.e. iPhone 15 Pro or later) and the latest AirPods firmware. As long as you have a compatible iPhone and AirPods with the right software, you’ll be able to use the feature.
Real-time translation isn’t the only new Apple feature that’s available on older devices. Yesterday, when Apple announced the new Apple Watch , the company touted new blood pressure alerts and sleep scores , making it seem like those features were exclusive to that watch. It turns out that blood pressure alerts are only available on Series 9 and later, and sleep scores are only available on Series 6 and later. I get that Apple wants to show that its newest features work on new devices, but that’s pretty misleading.