Live Translation Doesn’t Require AirPods Pro 3, But You Do Need This

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On September 17, 2025

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The new iPhones, AirPods, and Apple Watches grabbed most of the headlines at Tuesday’s Apple event, so a helpful update to some older AirPods might have escaped your attention.

As 9to5Mac reports, Apple’s new Live Translation feature will be extended to AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with ANC. During the keynote, Apple demoed the feature on the new AirPods Pro 3, but didn’t mention compatibility with earlier earbuds. The wider support was mentioned in the footnotes of a press release.

“Live Translation with AirPods works on AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation and AirPods Pro 2 and later with the latest firmware when paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone running iOS 26 and later,” Apple says. Apple Intelligence is available on the iPhone 15 Pro or later running iOS 26, which rolled out on Monday.

Another caveat: At launch, Live Translation will not be available for those who live in the EU, though Americans who travel there will be able to use it.

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To start the translation, just tap the earbuds. This will lower the speaker’s volume and begin translating their language into your own. When you need to respond, speak in your preferred language and show the other person your iPhone display with the translation, or read the translation out loud yourself. If you both have compatible AirPods and iPhones, you can speak to each other back and forth.

Live Translation is currently in beta and supports English (UK, US), French (France), German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Spain). Later this year, Apple will add Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified), as well as support for phone calls via the Phone app and FaceTime. (Google demoed a similar feature for phone calls while unveiling the Pixel 10 phones last month.)