Apple is finally bringing custom EQ settings to AirPods in iOS 27

Apple’s 2026 Worldwide Developers Conference keynote wasn’t expected to be a particularly audio-focused event, and sure enough, we didn’t hear about any new hardware on the way. But even without anything like that, we still managed to get some tantalizing news about fresh functionality coming to our existing earbuds, as iOS 27 gets ready to bring custom equalizer settings to your AirPods.

During the keynote stream, Apple only ever so briefly touched on the new AirPods custom EQ settings, but that’s more than enough to whet our appetite:

Apple only appears to be giving us a very basic set of EQ controls, with options to adjust the intensity of highs, mids, and low-frequency tones, but without a lot finer-grained control. We’d love at least a set of “advanced” sliders for a little more precision there, but considering the alternative, perhaps we should be happy that we’re finally getting an option like this at all.

So far, the best option iOS users have had at a system level has been Apple’s Headphone Accommodations. While the settings in this accessibility feature were largely designed to improve users’ ability to hear speech, it was possible to take advantage of them if you favored a more treble-heavy output than you’d get by default.

What we haven’t heard yet, though, is any mention of custom EQ settings for third-party audio devices. Apple’s releasing its first iOS 27 beta for developers today, ahead of a public beta getting started next month, so hopefully it won’t be long at all before we get some hands-on details about exactly what’s supported here — and just how well Apple’s long-overdue AirPods EQ actually works.