Your AirPods Will Be More Powerful With iOS 27

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With major iOS releases, Apple typically upgrades AirPods’ capabilities. With iOS 26, the company launched Live Translation, which is a convenient way to understand what someone is telling you in a different language. Now, with iOS 27 just around the corner, AirPods owners, especially those with the latest AirPods Pro 3, will be able to enjoy several new features that will make their earbuds a lot more powerful, like a dedicated EQ profile, Siri AI, better integration with GymKit and Apple Watch, and more.

To get the new features, users will have to download iOS 27 and a new firmware update that will be made available around the same time later this fall. Even if you have iOS 27 beta downloaded, you won’t see all the clever things your AirPods can do if you don’t update to its beta firmware.

Once you do, though, the first feature you’ll likely want to try is the upcoming Custom EQ. With this functionality, users can finally personalize AirPods sound by tweaking the lows, mids, and highs. This is something available in most third-party earbuds and headphones, and Apple is finally bringing it to its own audio products.

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Although Apple is still far from turning AirPods into a standalone AI device, these earbuds will be able to take advantage of Siri AI whenever a compatible iPhone with Apple Intelligence is around. There are several features iPhone users will experience with Siri AI in iOS 27, including being able to ask the assistant whatever you want. For the first time, Siri has access to world knowledge, so it can tell you about recipes, places to visit, and even help you with a random question. The personal assistant is also more conversational, so responses will have a bit more personality. More important than that, Siri AI understands personal context, so it can help you with something very specific without you ever looking at your phone.

Besides that, AirPods Pro 3 are getting more powerful with iOS 27 thanks to a new GymKit integration. With this integration, you’ll be able to tap your iPhone into a treadmill and choose if you’re going for an Indoor Walk or Indoor Run. Your AirPods will send heart-rate data to the treadmill, while the GymKit integration on your iPhone supplies distance, pace, elevation, and caloric data. This integration is a great tool for those without an Apple Watch. Nevertheless, AirPods Pro 3 users will get accurate data from their workouts by combining these two accessories and having the iPhone as the ultimate health hub.

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With iOS 26 and watchOS 26, Apple started to allow Apple Watch owners with an U2 chip to locate other iPhone users with this second-generation ultrawide-band chip. Then, with the release of AirTag 2, Apple expanded this capability, as Apple Watch users can also conveniently track those items. Now, with watchOS 27, Apple is integrating several Find My apps into one, which is more convenient to locate friends, devices, and items. It also enables Precision Finding on Apple Watch to locate AirPods Pro 3, so customers don’t even need to have their phones to find their earbuds around the house.

Last but not least, Apple is tweaking the interface of AirPods settings. Besides the new EQ feature, users will see more-detailed information about how they’re using their AirPods; several tabs with different sections where they can learn more about audio, hearing health, control and gestures; Live Translation; accessibility; and more. Users also get information about the earbuds model and integration with Apple apps, and can test the acoustic seal of Pro models. With all of that, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Apple is readying a standalone AirPods app, as it did for the Apple Watch and Apple Vision Pro.