The camera AirPods are not coming this year

Supply chain problems and unfinished software pushed them to 2027, two days after a demo video leaked out of macOS.

By iDeviceAug 20, 4:28 PM CTUpdated Aug 23, 9:30 AM CT3 min read

What will the AirPods Ultra have?

Does it work with my phone? It works with an iPhone only. There is no Android app.
How good is the camera? Yes, it has a camera. Outlets report this, but it is not officially confirmed.
Can people tell when it is recording? Yes, a light comes on. People around you can see when the camera is running. Outlets report this, but it is not officially confirmed.
Can it see and answer questions about what I am looking at? Yes, it can see what you are looking at and answer about it. Outlets report this, but it is not officially confirmed.

MY IDEVICE

Apple has taken the camera-equipped AirPods off its 2026 release schedule and now expects them in 2027, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. The company had planned to introduce them this year and employees were testing them internally through the spring. Supply chain problems and unfinished software are what pushed the date out. Two versions are in development. B790 is the pair in the demo video, an AirPods Pro 3 with sensors and AI features added, and B798 is a newer generation of AirPods Pro built around the same cameras.

Monday's macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate carried a finished demo video for the earbuds, which is why the leak read as a September product at all. The video shows a man holding a book up for the camera to read the title. The cameras in it are low resolution and scan what is around the wearer rather than taking photographs or recording video, and Apple has said nothing about any of it.

Update, Aug 23, 9:30 AM CT: One mistake merging test branches, rather than a stray feature flag, is how the camera AirPods video reached macOS, according to AppleInsider.

Update, Aug 21, 10:34 AM CT: A second passive camera mode captures at 320 by 320 and can fire without the wearer asking, on ambient speech or a change in posture, per 9to5Mac.

Update, Aug 21, 7:03 AM CT: Code in macOS Tahoe 26.7 puts one camera in each AirPod, with processed stills just above a megapixel and on-device person detection, per The Mac Observer.

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The AirPods 5 codenames leaked out of macOS 26.7

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B868M and B868E sit one increment above the shipping AirPods 4, splitting the next generation into a plain pair and one with active noise cancellation. No date came with them.

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The unannounced camera AirPods already have a demo video

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Apple's macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate carries the video, an error string from the camera, and codenames for two separate camera AirPods.

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Infrared sensors in both earbuds, low resolution, feeding Siri what you look at. An LED comes on when it reaches the cloud.

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Tap your iPhone to the machine and AirPods Pro 3 supply the pulse. Without the earbuds in, the workout does not start at all.

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Gurman says a second AirPods project called B790 is further along than the camera model B798. He did not say what makes them different.

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