Apple is accelerating work to integrate various health sensors into future AirPods generations, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
Writing for the weekly Power On newsletter, Gurman states that Apple is experimenting with different health sensors for AirPods, including measuring temperature, heart rate, and other “physiological measures.” While many of these efforts remain years away from a public release, a heart rate sensor remains the closest to launch commercially, which could debut as soon as the third-generation AirPods Pro.
The report warns that current heart rate data from prototype AirPods models are less accurate than that collected via the Apple Watch. However, the gap isn’t significant, with the company likely to fix any accuracy shortcomings before bringing the sensor to the AirPods.
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Integrating health sensors into AirPods is seen as a repositioning of the device into a fitness-oriented gadget, much like the Apple Watch. The company also hopes to offer more choices for customers who simply don’t like wearing watches yet want to remain health conscious.
Beyond integrating health sensors, Apple is also focused on launching camera-equipped AirPods within the next few years. As reported earlier, the device would heavily make use of AI to detect objects in the user’s environment and answer questions about them. The project is now seen as a renewed priority within the AirPods hardware team and would be one of the first devices built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence.
