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Kuo: AirPods Pro 3 Coming Soon, But Bigger Upgrade Arriving Next Year

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Apple plans to release AirPods Pro 3 this year, according to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

AirPods-Pro-3-Heart-Rate-Tracking-Feature.jpg

All signs point towards Apple unveiling the AirPods Pro 3 during its iPhone 17 event on Tuesday, September 9. However, Kuo did not provide a specific timeframe beyond the second half of 2025, which lines up with previous rumors.

Kuo did not mention any new features that are planned for the AirPods Pro 3. However, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman recently reported that the AirPods Pro 3 will likely have the same heart rate monitoring feature that Apple introduced on the Powerbeats Pro 2 earlier this year, along with a significantly smaller charging case.

When both Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds are placed in the ears, and heart rate monitoring is active, Apple says LED optical sensors pulse at over 100 times per second to measure heart rate via blood flow. The feature integrates with popular fitness apps to collect data during workouts and sync it to Apple's Health app on the iPhone.

The feature is based on the Apple Watch's heart rate sensing technology. If someone is wearing both Powerbeats Pro 2 and an Apple Watch, Apple says apps default to using Apple Watch heart rate data, and that will likely apply to the AirPods Pro 3 too.

Beyond heart rate monitoring, it is likely that the next AirPods Pro will feature improved sound quality, increased active noise cancellation, design changes, and more.

AirPods Pro 2 debuted at the iPhone 14 event in September 2022, and they were updated with a USB-C charging case and a few other tweaks in September 2023.

While there will have been at least a three-year gap between the launches of the AirPods Pro 2 and the AirPods Pro 3, the wait for AirPods Pro 4 might be significantly shorter. Kuo said that Apple plans to update the AirPods Pro again next year, with a "more significant" hardware upgrade: at least one tiny infrared camera.

Kuo previously said AirPods with infrared cameras could recognize hand gestures, and provide an enhanced spatial audio experience with Apple's Vision Pro headset.

"For example, when a user is watching a video with Vision Pro and wearing this new AirPods, if users turn their heads to look in a specific direction, the sound source in that direction can be emphasized to enhance the spatial audio/computing experience," he said.

AirPods Pro 4 next year sounds quite ambitious, though, so we will see if that actually happens.

Article Link: Kuo: AirPods Pro 3 Coming Soon, But Bigger Upgrade Arriving Next Year
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2025/09/07/airpods-pro-3-this-year-per-kuo/
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  • Like
Reactions: Tommyinnit
Here we go with the tutti-frutti, phoney-baloney, plastic banana, good time, rock-n-roll Apple PR leaks to build hype: "Apple discovered, literally as they were about to package the AirPod Pro 3s that the big update with an IR camera just wasn't quite ready to be a game-changer that takes the Apple Vision Pro to a whole new level, so they had to pull the AirPod Pro 3s. But, not to worry, because Apple is hard at work and has discovered the secret. Stay tuned, because Apple has something special in store with the AirPod Pro 4!"

Folks, this is classic Apple. They tease some feature with "leaks," and then don't include it, to show how bleeding edge they are. In reality, they are implementing what they learned with the original HomePod: don't add too much or there is no clear upgrade path.

Although they made the same mistake with the Apple Vision Pro, it was a low volume product, so there was less risk. Not so with the world's most popular AriPods!
 
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Reactions: titanium69, rlewisphilly, Mikeyde1989 and 3 others
Apple could introduce O2 monitoring on the earbuds. I double Maximo would go after them again since this isn’t another watch or a wearable.
 
jz0309 said:
That just does not make any sense at all, 4 years between 2 and 3 and then 1 year between 3 and 4? Nope.
Click to expand...
This kind of thing would only happen if Apple wanted to introduce something kinda urgent like USB-C, which they did already with the Pros 2 and we indeed got the OG in 2022 and the USB-C in 2023.
 
The APP4 would not improve Spatial Audio for the Vision Pro because the Vision Pro already has the sensor suite. It will instead bring the Vision Pro spatial experience to the AirPods for other use cases. AirPods recenter after 5 seconds or so because they're estimating pitch / tilt / yaw with gyro data. IR camera would resolve this. You can listen to spatial tracks in Vision Pro with APP2 USB-C and they don't automatically recenter.
 
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Reactions: rxp and jacquesvfd
This has got to be a joke?

I've found the whole AirPods Pro 3 rumour cycle extremely tedious and irritating! None of the rumours make sense and many of them are just downright disappointing.

I hope Apple can surprise with these, and certainly hope they don't make next week's new model (if they materialise) outdated as soon as next year.
 
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Reactions: novagamer, LoveToMacRumors and nortonandreev
If this is true it will be like that terrible time they introduced iPad 3 in March 2012, only to release the iPad 4 that same year in November, completely discontinuing iPad 3 after just 7 months of availability.

They really did iPad 3 buyers dirty back then and it would be similar if a fourth generation AirPods Pro come out next year after the third this week, as rumoured in this article.
 
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Reactions: _Mitchan1999
This actually makes sense. Apple has done it before and they'll do it again. There haven’t been substantial rumors about any actually cool new APP3 features, so it’s logical that they’ll probably get the boring physical changes this year, and save the futuristic internal upgrades for next year’s iPhone and new AVP. This is great though, I can save my money for another year! Hoping the AW11 is similarly lame and now with these new iPhone mini rumors for 2026, I have no need to even get the iPhone Air as what I really want is a smaller iPhone again! Thanks Tim Apple!
 
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jacquesvfd said:
Well, yes, technology does indeed get better at time marches ahead.
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It's atypical for AirPods Pro though.

The APP2s were identical to the APP1s in design, with only incrementally different features - USB-C, lanyard case, slightly better noise cancelling, pressure/swipe control on stems... but they've been pretty much the same product for 6 years.

They are well overdue a significant refresh and upgrade of both features and design IMO. And you most certainly would not expect them to change significantly again for multiple years beyond that.

If Apple end up releasing APP3s this week which have a fractionally smaller case without a button, identical bud/stem design and tiny additional software features, it will be disappointing. I'll get them anyway, as mine are showing their age, but it'll be very disappointing and they won't really feel like an upgrade.

After waiting this long that's going to be a bit ****.
 
The overly iterative nature of Apple’s upgrades is really getting old. Will easily skip what they release year. Very disappointed in what Cook is doing to Apple.
 
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Reactions: Ralfi
Yeh.

Ku I’d saying two things:

1) AirPods Pro 3 will be announced next Tuesday, and they’ll be exactly what the majority of other rumors gave been saying.

It’s very unlikely he’s wrong, but that’s not that impressive to agree with the general consensus

2) AirPods Pro 4!!! In six months!!!

APP3 haven’t even been released yet. It doesn’t sound very sensible if Apple do this, I ever they, but Kuo saying this now is just kiteflying.
 
Joseph C said:
It's atypical for AirPods Pro though.

The APP2s were identical to the APP1s in design, with only incrementally different features - USB-C, lanyard case, slightly better noise cancelling, pressure/swipe control on stems... but they've been pretty much the same product for 6 years.

They are well overdue a significant refresh and upgrade of both features and design IMO. And you most certainly would not expect them to change significantly again for multiple years beyond that.

If Apple end up releasing APP3s this week which have a fractionally smaller case without a button, identical bud/stem design and tiny additional software features, it will be disappointing. I'll get them anyway, as mine are showing their age, but it'll be very disappointing and they won't really feel like an upgrade.

After waiting this long that's going to be a bit ****.
Click to expand...
Better sound, better ANC, better mix quality. If APP3 delivers that, then they won’t be disappointing, and it will feel like a proper upgrade. Those tie in to AirPod’s core uses.

The other features and changes are mostly “nice, but. It that important to me”

Live translation, if effective, would be amazing, but surely that is fundamentally driven by your phone, so it should come to other AirPods?
 
MayaUser said:
"Kuo said that Apple plans to update the AirPods Pro again next year"
Not a chance...only if these airpods pro 3 are just like Airpods max with almost nothing new
So Kuo is wrong
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He may be wrong but never put it past Apple to do something like this...they've done it before and they will do it again.
 
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Reactions: _Mitchan1999
Joseph C said:
If this is true it will be like that terrible time they introduced iPad 3 in March 2012, only to release the iPad 4 that same year in November, completely discontinuing iPad 3 after just 7 months of availability.

They really did iPad 3 buyers dirty back then and it would be similar if a fourth generation AirPods Pro come out next year after the third this week, as rumoured in this article.
Click to expand...
Or the time they released the 2018 MacBook Pro hot "Dinner Plate" edition only to release an updated version later that year...
 
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