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Apple accidentally reveals what its camera-equipped AirPods can do
Aug 18, 2026 — 4:42 AM ET
- Apple’s camera-equipped AirPods have surfaced in macOS Tahoe 26.7, giving us the clearest hint yet at how the rumored hardware could work.
- The cameras could power Visual Intelligence, letting Siri recognize things around you, answer questions about them, and save information for later without reaching for your iPhone.
- The AirPods, internally known as B790, could launch as early as September, potentially alongside the iPhone 18 Pro lineup and foldable iPhone Ultra.
We’ve been hearing about Apple putting cameras inside AirPods for a while, but we finally have a much better idea of what you might actually do with them. With its September hardware event now less than a month away, evidence of the unusual earbuds appears to be piling up. This time, Apple itself may have accidentally given us our clearest idea yet of what those cameras will actually do.
MacRumors spotted a short video tucked inside the macOS Tahoe 26.7 release candidate that appears to demonstrate Visual Intelligence working through AirPods. In the clip, a person is holding a book, allowing the AirPods’ camera to recognize what’s in front of them. Siri can then save information about the object for later.
That sounds simple, but it could make AirPods considerably more useful away from your phone. Imagine walking past a restaurant and asking Siri to remember it, spotting a book at a store and saving the title for later, or looking at something unfamiliar and asking what it is — all without pulling your iPhone out of your pocket.
The software also directly mentions setting up Visual Intelligence with AirPods, making this look like more than a generic concept Apple is experimenting with. The feature even includes a warning: if your hair covers the AirPods, Apple can alert you that the earbuds need a clearer view of your surroundings. That detail gives us a good clue about how much the feature could depend on unobstructed cameras.
As Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman previously mentioned, the camera-equipped AirPods are internally known as B790. Now, MacRumors reports that references to B790 also appear elsewhere in macOS Tahoe 26.7, alongside mentions of several other unreleased Apple products.
Gurman has previously suggested that the new AirPods could arrive as early as September. If that timing holds, they could share the stage with Apple’s upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max, along with the company’s much-anticipated foldable iPhone Ultra.
Of course, putting cameras in something you wear in your ears is bound to raise plenty of privacy questions. But from a usefulness standpoint, the idea is starting to make much more sense. Instead of cameras being there to take photos or videos, they could essentially give Siri a pair of eyes, letting it understand whatever you’re looking at. And if Apple can make that experience quick enough to feel natural, these could end up being one of the more interesting AirPods upgrades we’ve seen in years.
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