Cameras in AirPods may arrive as soon as AirPods Pro 4, according to a new report

• Cameras may arrive as early as AirPods Pro 4
• IR cameras will reportedly assist unspecified Apple Intelligence features
• Inclusion in AirPods 5 and AirPods Max seems unlikely, to us

We’ve been hearing tales of AI camera-equipped AirPods for many months now, and the predicted launch date has been swinging forward and back for a while: it’s 2027! It’s 2026! It’s 2027 again! But a new report suggests that there’s a more solid timeline now, and that the cameras might arrive in the AirPods Pro 4 and perhaps the AirPods 5 too.

That “might” is doing a lot of heavy lifting, however. It comes in a report by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman who says that now the AirPods Pro 3 are done and dusted, Apple is working on the next generation and the H3 chip to power them and add new AI features. And as part of that, Apple has been “exploring the idea of embedding cameras in the device.”