AirPods Pro 3 Add Heart Rate Sensing, Real-Time Translation, and Sensor Fusion for Workouts

• AirPods Pro 3 add heart rate tracking, motion sensing, and workout support across 50 activity types.
• Live Translation uses Apple Intelligence to enable real-time, on-device conversations across five languages.

Apple’s new AirPods Pro 3 push the earbuds beyond audio, adding new features for sensing, translation, and fitness tracking. Powered by Apple Intelligence, the update includes a redesigned design built to support movement, workouts, and in-person communication.

The new device now supports heart rate tracking, adding a new layer of sensing to the company’s wearable platform. Using infrared light and motion sensors, the earbuds can monitor workouts across 50 activity types when paired with an iPhone. A redesigned fit and IP57-rated water resistance improve stability during movement.

The earbuds also introduce Live Translation, a beta feature powered by Apple Intelligence. It enables users to speak naturally and hear real-time translations in five supported languages. When both participants are wearing AirPods, active noise cancellation reduces ambient speech to make translations easier to hear. iPhone can also display live transcriptions in the other person’s preferred language.

These updates extend Apple Intelligence to new use cases, using real-time sensor data from the body and environment. Features like Workout Buddy and Live Translation run on-device, combining heart rate, motion, and location inputs with personalized models on iPhone.

🌀 Tom’s Take:

AirPods Pro 3 inches closer to becoming a wearable capable of physical AI, an intelligent, body-worn system that sees, senses, and responds. With multimodal sensing (heart rate, motion, and audio), real-time interaction, and AI running on connected Apple devices, this update marks a meaningful step forward, even if the progress is still incremental.

Source: Apple