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iOS 26.2 Expands Live Translation on AirPods to EU

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Apr 12, 2001
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The upcoming iOS 26.2 update for iPhone makes the Live Translation on AirPods feature available in the EU, according to Apple. The news was also reported by various publications, including the German blog Macerkopf.

AirPods-Live-Translation.jpg

Live Translation allows you to understand someone who is speaking a different language than you. For example, if you speak English, and someone is speaking to you in French, Siri can tell you what they are saying in English through your AirPods.

The feature works best when both participants in a conversation are using Live Translation on AirPods. If you are talking with someone who is not wearing AirPods, you can display a live transcription in the other person's language on your iPhone.

Live Translation is available on the AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 2, and higher-end AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. The feature launched in the U.S. and select other countries with iOS 26, but it was not available in the EU until now, as Apple said it needed additional time to ensure compliance with the EU's Digital Markets Act.

The feature can be used in the EU starting with the first iOS 26.2 beta, which was seeded to developers earlier today. A public beta of iOS 26.2 will soon follow, and Apple said the update will be released to all users in December.

In addition to compatible AirPods, users need an iPhone 15 Pro or newer with Apple Intelligence turned on and Apple's Translate app installed.

As of iOS 26.1, Live Translation on AirPods supports the following languages:
  • English (U.S.)
  • English (U.K.)
  • French (France)
  • German (Germany)
  • Portuguese (Brazil)
  • Spanish (Spain)
  • Chinese — Simplified (China)
  • Chinese — Traditional (China)
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Italian
iOS 26 also has a built-in Live Translation feature in the Messages, Phone, and FaceTime apps, with no AirPods required.

Article Link: iOS 26.2 Expands Live Translation on AirPods to EU
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/11/04/ios-26-2-expands-live-translation-on-airpods-to-eu/
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  • Like
Reactions: sos47
They will sue Apple in a couple for years for making this technology only available for iPhones. ….. Actually it would be good if it could be used with people who has Android devices
 
I just updated to the 26.2 beta 1, and I must say, the Translation Feature with the AirPods Pro 3 is truly remarkable.
I haven’t had the opportunity to try it in Europe before.

I can think of countless situations where friends / family could have greatly benefited from such a feature.

Thank you, Apple, for not being such a jerk and allowing the feature to be available in Europe as well.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Happy_John
rictus007 said:
They will sue Apple in a couple for years for making this technology only available for iPhones. ….. Actually it would be good if it could be used with people who has Android devices
Click to expand...
Any competitive advantage of Apple is a disadvantage for other companies so, of COURSE it’s anti-competitive!
 
  • Disagree
Reactions: Lyrics23
Cool, but I’m really looking forward to when Live Translation covers European languages I don’t already have a basic functional knowledge of. Don’t get me wrong, the update and EU functionality is great, but give me Slavic (and Uralic) languages, because they’re the ones that cause me difficulty in life. I can already get by in French, Spanish and Italian, and Germanic languages are already normal daily life.
 
I tried this feature in Germany at the weekend during a tour to a brewery.

Unfortunately it was a group tour so the audio wasn’t picking up clearly. When it did, the translation was too slow to be of any use.
 
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ForkHandles said:
I tried this feature in Germany at the weekend during a tour to a brewery.

Unfortunately it was a group tour so the audio wasn’t picking up clearly. When it did, the translation was too slow to be of any use.
Click to expand...
That’s not really the use case it’s designed for. It’s been billed as very much a “one to one” listen and reply tool.
 
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ProbablyDylan said:
So they could have done that earlier. They just didn't want to. Good to know.
Click to expand...

Why do you jump to that turn of events vs. something like "they withheld the feature because they thought it would be in violation if they didn't give it to competitors (or withheld it out of an abundance of caution), once they announced the feature, EU told them "you're good, you don't have to share that with your competitors" and so then they released it.

Honest question. What does Apple get from withholding it for two months other than bad press? You think Apple is making decisions that cost them money out of spite?
 
surferfb said:
Why do you jump to that turn of events vs. something like "they withheld the feature because they thought it would be in violation if they didn't give it to competitors (or withheld it out of an abundance of caution), once they announced the feature, EU told them "you're good, you don't have to share that with your competitors" and so then they released it.

Honest question. What does Apple get from withholding it for two months other than bad press? You think Apple is making decisions that cost them money out of spite?
Click to expand...
Yes. Spite, but also future leverage. But know it’s the point where the leverage from with holding a feature is worth less than the loss of reduced sales. Apple wants to sell lots of AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 3 as Christmas presents in the EU. Withholding features damages that, and were entering the pre-Cheitmas building season.

It’s no coincidence that this feature becomes available immediately after Halloween / All Saint’s Day.
 
ProbablyDylan said:
Yes.
Click to expand...
Absolutely. But not now, because Christmas present buying season has started, and Apple wants to sell a load of APP3s as Christmas presents. Spite has a quantifiable value, and Christmas present sales make a profit above that value.

If there’s one thing Apple is good at, it’s accurately quantifying value. Before Christmas season, withholding Live Translation in the EU as a bargining chip was a good proposition. But not in the pre-Christmas season. Which we’re now in.

And, sadly, there’s a lot (not all, but a lot) of US-based commenters on this forum who are not great at understanding the bigger picture or the tech world beyond the US border.

The USA has two main lingua franca: Spanish and English. The EU has far more: English, French, Spanish, German, probably and Portuguese, at at least one Slav language. Russian is still far more widely known, (almost everyone in a central / Eastern EU country above a xertain age learnt it, but is out of favour for obvious reasons), so Polish (as it is the next most widely spoken Slavic language in the EU, even if it is horrendously difficult).

Given this, Live Translation is a more valuable feature to EU buyers than US buyers. Withholdinging was clearly a decision based on spite / leverage.
 
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  • Disagree
Reactions: surferfb
Happy_John said:
Absolutely. But not now, because Christmas present buying season has started, and Apple wants to sell a load of APP3s as Christmas presents. Spite has a quantifiable value, and Christmas present sales make a profit above that value.

If there’s one thing Apple is good at, it’s accurately quantifying value. Before Christmas season, withholding Live Translation in the EU as a bargining chip was a good proposition. But not in the pre-Christmas season. Which we’re now in.

And, sadly, there’s a lot (not all, but a lot) of US-based commenters on this forum who are not great at understanding the bigger picture or the tech world beyond the US border.

The USA has two main lingua franca: Spanish and English. The EU has far more: English, French, Spanish, German, probably and Portuguese, at at least one Slav language. Russian is still far more widely known, (almost everyone in a central / Eastern EU country above a xertain age learnt it, but is out of favour for obvious reasons), so Polish (as it is the next most widely spoken Slavic language in the EU, even if it is horrendously difficult).

Given this, Live Translation is a more valuable feature to EU buyers than US buyers. Withholdinging was clearly a decision based on spite / leverage.
Click to expand...

If a major company’s executives tried to tank revenue over spite, someone in the chain would leak, object, or escalate. Especially at a company like Apple, where product decisions are methodically justified in writing. They’d get sued by shareholders, the board would have to investigate, it’d be a PR nightmare.

Seriously, what’s more likely: Apple is cautious around a law that’s poorly written with tons of grey area an that has already been selectively used to declare that Apple’s inventions belong to everyone and could result in massive fines if Apple is willfully violating it.

OR

Tim Cook risks his reputation and career to withhold a feature for TWO MONTHS for no reason other to prove a point and then immediately caving without any return.

Come on.

I’m coining it Cook Derangement Syndrome. A lot of MacRumors posters have it bad!
 
surferfb said:
If a major company’s executives tried to tank revenue over spite, someone in the chain would leak, object, or escalate. Especially at a company like Apple, where product decisions are methodically justified in writing. They’d get sued by shareholders, the board would have to investigate, it’d be a PR nightmare.

Seriously, what’s more likely: Apple is cautious around a law that’s poorly written with tons of grey area an that has already been selectively used to declare that Apple’s inventions belong to everyone and would result in massive fines.

OR

Tim Cook risks his reputation and career to withhold a feature for TWO MONTHS for no reason other to prove a point and then immediately caving without any return.

Come on.

I’m coining it Cook Derangement Syndrome. A lot of MacRumors posters have it bad!
Click to expand...
Stop ranting. Nothing about the DMA changed. The only thing that changed was Apple’s claim that they couldn’t offer Live Translation to EU users “because of DMA”. But now, magically, they can. Just in time for Christmas.

2 + 2 =4
 
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Happy_John said:
Stop ranting. Nothing about the DMA changed. The only thing that changed was Apple claim that they couldn’t offer Live Translation to EU users “because of DMA”. But now, magically, they can. Just in time for Christmas.
Click to expand...

Couldn’t possibly be they talked to the EU after they announced the feature and were given assurances they didn’t have to let others use it despite the text of the DMA (emphasis mine)

The gatekeeper shall allow providers of services and providers of hardware, free of charge, effective interoperability with, and access for the purposes of interoperability to, the same hardware and software features accessed or controlled via the operating system or virtual assistant listed in the designation decision pursuant to Article 3(9) as are available to services or hardware provided by the gatekeeper.
Click to expand...

Nope, couldn’t possibly be that. Literally no one, and definitely not any lawyers, would construe a feature where “the phone’s OS takes input from headphones, translates it into another language, and sends the translation back to headphones” as “a software feature accessed or controlled by the OS” that other headphone manufacturers must be given access to.

It definitely makes more sense that it’s a conspiracy to do a terrible job of proving a point then folding immediately, thereby showing their hand is weak AND risk shareholder lawsuits and SEC investigations if it ever came out. Yep. That’s definitely it. My apologies for looking at things rationally and “ranting” by pointing out that a conspiracy theory, like most conspiracy theories, makes no sense if you stop to think about it for a minute.

CDS!
 
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