It's looking like we won't see a new version of the AirPods Max this year, but predictions still dictate that there could indeed be AirPods Pro 3 at Apple's iPhone 17 launch event on Tuesday.
Apple last updated its flagship AirPods Pro buds in 2022 and released two all-new versions of Apple's open earbuds -- the AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Canceling -- at last year's iPhone 16 event. While there's no guarantee we'll get the AirPods Pro 3 this year, Apple has announced a new model of AirPods every year since 2019 (I'm counting 2023's AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C as a new model), and the Pro line is due for an upgrade.
Here are the latest AirPods Pro 3 rumors and what improvements I'd like to see for Apple's flagship noise-canceling earbuds.
Read more: Everything We Expect to Be Announced at Apple's iPhone 17 September Launch Event
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Rumored AirPods Pro 3 release date
In February MacRumors spotted a post on X from a tipster called Kosutami, who said Apple was planning to launch the AirPods Pro 3 and AirTag 2 in May or June of this year. The "tip" seemed pretty dubious, and sure enough, it was. Now it's become clear that the more likely scenario is that the AirPods Pro 3 will arrive at the same time as the iPhone 17 in September. That's when Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, who's usually a more reliable Apple whisperer, predicts they'll be announced. He's also said the AirPods Pro 3 will have a new design and feature heart-rate monitoring like Apple's new Beats Powerbeats Pro 2.
Read more: Best wireless earbuds of 2025
More recently, MacRumors contributor Steve Moser dug into iOS 26 Beta 1 and discovered that its underlying code references AirPods Pro 3 alongside existing AirPods models. "AirPods Pro 3 must be coming soon," Moser posted on X. "Unfortunately, I couldn't find any other references or hints as to what new features they might have."
That said, on June 9 at WWDC 2025, Apple did announce some new features for the AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) that will officially launch this fall but are available to try now for beta testers if you have a developer's account (public betas are coming soon). These new features include studio-quality audio recording and camera remote features.
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