Apple launched the new AirPods Pro 3, promising a bunch of improvements including a flashy Live Translation feature. But it turns out you don’t actually need to upgrade just to try out the new translation stuff.
Live Translation is also available through a software update for AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. However, there is a slight gotcha …
If you have compatible AirPods, that’s only half the story, as the feature does not run natively on the AirPods itself. It actually relies on the connected iPhone to function.
That means you also need to have an iPhone 15 Pro or newer, running iOS 26, in order to use Live Translation. It specifically requires iPhone 15 Pro or later because the translation feature is powered by Apple Intelligence.
Even if you have AirPods Pro 3, you also need a relatively new iPhone for this feature to work. Compatible models include iPhone 15 Pro, the iPhone 16 series, the iPhone 17 series, and iPhone Air.
Live Translation is also limited to select languages. At launch, you’ll be able to use it with English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish. Later this year, with the release of iOS 26.1, Apple will expand the list of supported languages to include Italian, Japanese, Korean and simplified Chinese.
If you have new enough AirPods and an up-to-date iPhone, you can activate Live Translation by pressing on the stems of both AirPods at the same time. You can also access the feature through a new ‘Live’ tab that appears in the Translate app on iPhone.
With Live Translation active, the AirPods microphones listen for foreign language speech during conversation. The device translates that into your language, and plays it back to you in your headphones.
Obviously, unless both people are wearing AirPods with the latest software, this only really facilitates a one-sided conversation.
However, Apple has a solution for that too. You can use your iPhone display to show a transcript of your translated speech to the other person. That means you hear what they are saying translated through your AirPods, and they can read your response in their native language.
The translation models are downloaded to your phone’s local storage, which means that the feature can run entirely offline without an active network connection.