Apple is close to launching a pair of AirPods with built-in cameras, and if the leaks are right, we could be looking at the company’s first proper AI wearable as soon as September this year.
A short demo clip discovered inside the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate shows a man holding a book up to the cameras in his AirPods, and Siri responds by identifying it and offering to save it for later. Simple enough on the surface but it hints at something much bigger in Apple’s pipeline.
So what are these AirPods Cameras for exactly?
The cameras aren’t for taking photos or video. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, they act more like eyes for Siri: low-resolution sensors that feed visual information about your surroundings into Apple Intelligence in real time. Point them at a menu and ask what’s good. Walk into a room and ask what that object is. Get turn-by-turn directions that reference actual landmarks you can see, not just street names.
There’s also a small LED that lights up when visual data is being processed which is Apple’s nod to the privacy concerns that have trailed devices like Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses.
Apple has reportedly been working on two versions of the product under code names B798 and B790. The B798 model slipped to 2027, but 9to5Mac reports the B790 variant has already surfaced in iOS 27 beta code and is on track for a launch this year, potentially alongside the iPhone 18 event in September.
The delay that held both versions back? Siri itself. The smarter, AI-native version of Siri is set to debut in iOS 27, and Apple apparently wasn’t willing to ship AI-dependent hardware without AI-ready software to back it up. That’s actually a good sign.
I haven’t used Meta’s Ray-Bans or any other AI wearable yet, but I’ve been watching this space closely. And honestly? Camera AirPods are the first product in this category that I’m quite curious about, mostly because they slot into hardware I’d already be wearing.
That’s the key difference between this and, say, the Humane AI Pin or a pair of weird smart glasses you’d never take out in public. AirPods are already normalised. Nobody thinks twice when they see you wearing them. Adding a camera to something that’s already invisible in everyday life is a much smarter entry point than strapping a new piece of hardware to your face, plus you can’t record people with them.
That said, I want to see this actually work before I get excited. Apple Intelligence has had a rocky track record like features that were announced, delayed, quietly downgraded. If the camera AirPods ship with half-baked Visual Intelligence, they’ll be a novelty at best. The promise is there. The execution still needs to be proven.
Apple AirPods with Cameras – Australian Pricing and Availability
No AU pricing or availability date yet. Apple hasn’t confirmed anything officially, and the September launch window is still based on supply chain leaks and code strings. That said, if it follows Apple’s usual pattern, AU availability should come with or shortly after the global launch. Expect a premium price tag; these won’t be the cheapest AirPods in the lineup.
