Apple is equipping a range of upcoming devices, including the next AirPods Pro, with a camera to imbue them with incremental AI features, thereby hoping to halt Meta's relentless ascendancy in the wearable AI segment.
Apple's next AirPods Pro, which might launch as early as this year, would come equipped with a camera
According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple has been working for quite a while on an innovative design for its AirPods Pro, aiming to equip the bespoke earbuds with a camera.
According to Gurman, the new AirPods Pro might launch as early as this year, and complete a troika of AI-powered devices, which include smart glasses and an AI pendant, to take on Meta's early lead with its Ray-Ban smart glasses.
Do note that the prolific Apple-geared analyst, Ming Chi-Kuo, tipped all the way back in 2024 that IR camera-equipped Apple AirPods Pro were in the offing.
Moreover, Apple received a patent in July 2025 for leveraging cameras - akin to the Face ID's dot projector - in proximity detection and 3D depth mapping use cases, which obviously has tantalizing applications for the rumored earbuds.
As we noted recently, a neat little theory has made a connection between Apple's acquisition of Q.ai and the rumored IR-equipped AirPods Pro, positing that the IR camera would allow the new earbuds to accurately grasp the user’s silent speech/whispers by analyzing micro facial movements, leveraging Q.ai tech in this process.
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