Apple’s next AirPods have leaked in an official video from the tech giant itself. And they have a feature we have never seen in a pair of wireless earbuds before: a camera.
The AirPods with a camera have been rumoured for a while now. This leak suggests they will launch alongside the iPhone 18 Pro at the Apple event rumoured for 9th September.
The camera enables a feature called Visual Intelligence, which is basically capturing images to store for later. The video shows a wearer holding up a book to remember for later. The Siri voiceover says:
“With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes savable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later.”
Here is your first look at AirPods with Cameras in action using Visual Intelligence.This video file came from macOS 26.7 RC pic.twitter.com/yo7RI4MCeuAugust 18, 2026
The video was found within the latest version of Apple’s desktop operating system, macOS Tahoe, that Apple has just released for public testing. It was spotted by 9to5Mac.
You can also see the new AirPods in question. They look very similar to the AirPods Pro 3, although the stems are slightly thicker.
You can’t see the cameras in the AirPods. But given Apple’s privacy-first focus, they would probably light up to alert anyone in the vicinity that they are being filmed or photographed.
There is no word on what – if any – sound improvements the new AirPods might bring, or whether they would simply be the standard AirPods Pro 3 with an added camera. But we shouldn’t have to wait long to find out.
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