Camera AirPods surface in Apple’s own code
Apple appears to have leaked its camera-equipped AirPods itself, through a video tucked inside the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate. The earbuds are said to carry a camera that feeds low-resolution imagery to Apple’s long-delayed AI Siri assistant, which then describes what the wearer is looking at through a function called Visual Intelligence. The hardware was first tipped by a Bloomberg reporter in May.
Key Takeaways
- A demo video inside the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate shows AirPods feeding a camera view to Siri, which identifies a book and saves it for later.
- The cameras are not visible in the footage, and the earbuds resemble current AirPods Pro apart from a noticeably thicker stem.
- Codenamed B790, these appear separate from another camera AirPods project, B798, reportedly planned for 2027.
What the video shows
The clip is short. A man wearing AirPods asks Siri to remember the book he is currently checking out. Siri’s voiceover replies: “With Visual Intelligence, your world becomes saveable. See something you like? Just ask me to save it for later.”
Nothing in the footage reveals the cameras themselves. The earbuds look close to the current AirPods Pro, with a slightly thicker stem as the only clear physical difference.
Other references in the same release candidate point to the setup process for Visual Intelligence on the earbuds, and to a warning that appears when hair covers the AirPods and blocks the sensor’s view.
How the camera would work
This is not a camera in the ordinary sense. Reports indicate the sensors are not intended for taking photographs or recording video. They supply a live low-resolution view of the wearer’s surroundings so the assistant can interpret and answer questions about what is in front of them, hands-free.
The practical difference is meaningful. A wearer would not need to pull out a phone and point it at something to get an answer, which is the friction that has limited visual AI features on handsets so far.
The privacy question
There are concerns, and they are not unreasonable. A low-resolution view of the world is still a view of the world, and anything worn on the head that watches continuously functions as a surveillance device regardless of image quality. That will put some buyers off.
Reports suggest the earbuds may carry some form of indicator showing when the cameras are active. That would be the minimum for a wearable of this kind. The comparison drawn most often is to camera glasses, a category already attracting criminal complaints from digital rights groups in Europe over bystander consent.
What September could bring
The demo’s presence in a release candidate suggests these are close to announcement. Apple’s iPhone 18 event is expected next month, which would be the natural stage.
The B790 models may differ from another camera-equipped AirPods project, codenamed B798, which was expected in 2027 according to a separate report. Some accounts suggest B790 could launch as a new top-tier product positioned above the current AirPods Pro rather than replacing it, though Apple has said nothing.
A wearable category feeling its way forward
The same release candidate reportedly exposed a much wider product pipeline, including identifiers tied to the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, a foldable iPhone, updated MacBook Pro and iMac models, a new home hub with a display and a home security camera. That breadth suggests a substantial hardware refresh over the next two months. It also underlines how thoroughly a routine security update can undo months of secrecy, and the clip circulating publicly within hours left Apple no realistic way to walk it back.
The strategic context is Siri. Apple delayed camera AirPods once already, reportedly waiting until an intelligence-upgraded assistant was ready to justify them, and the company has since moved toward letting users choose which underlying model drives Siri and its writing tools, a shift covered alongside the iOS 27 compatibility split.
Competitors have been building the same bet from the other direction, with eyewear partnerships pairing assistants with cameras rather than starting from audio. There is also a supply question sitting underneath the launch calendar, since component shortages have pushed prices up across the device market, and one account of the leak suggests the standard iPhone 18 could slip toward spring 2027 as a result. That the leak arrived in a build shipped mainly for security fixes is a small irony worth noting.
Written by Vytautas Valinskas
