When I was younger and in my world-exploration days, my biggest fear was that I wouldn’t be able to get help from someone in a foreign country if I was in trouble. Whether that situation would arise because I needed an ambulance or because I was simply lost and couldn’t find my way back to my hotel, that fear prevented me from traveling to new places. But that fear could soon be allayed by the new AirPods Pro 3 and its live translation feature.
Apple isn’t the first company to offer such a service — in fact, the original Google Pixel Buds came out with semi-live translation back in 2017 — but Apple appears to have all the kinks worked out for real, live one-to-one conversations. The kind I feared I’d need in an emergency situation when traveling abroad.
AirPods Pro 3 live translation: how does it work?
The eponymous feature was announced at the Apple Awe Dropping Apple event where we got to see a video of it in action.
In the video, an English-speaking woman was buying flowers from a Spanish-speaking woman, neither of whom spoke the other’s language. Once the AirPods Pro 3’s live translation feature was turned on — done by holding both stems of the AirPods — the AirPods used their active noise cancellation to turn down the ambient audio while translating nearby conversations in real-time.
When both users have AirPods Pro 3 in their ears, you don’t even need to pull out an iPhone — conversations are translated simultaneously in both sets of earbuds.
When the two greeted one another, the English-speaking woman was able to hear what the shopkeeper was saying in English in her earbuds while the shopkeeper was able to see what the shopper was saying by looking at her iPhone screen.
When both users have AirPods Pro 3 in their ears, you don’t even need to pull out an iPhone — conversations are translated simultaneously in both sets of earbuds, leveraging your iPhone while it's in your pocket.
The problem with translation in earbuds up to this point
I’m not claiming that Apple’s the first one to come up with this feature. As I said earlier, Google has been trying to make live-translation work since 2017, while other companies like TimeKettle have built their reputation on bespoke translating earbuds.
Unfortunately, neither are great.
When I tried to use the Pixel Buds’ live translation feature when it first came out, I had a nearly impossible time understanding a native Spanish-speaking family member.
When I tried to use the Pixel Buds’ live translation feature when it first came out, I had a nearly impossible time understanding a native Spanish-speaking family member. The translation required us to talk slowly and annunciate clearly; otherwise, the translation would fail mid-sentence. It didn’t inspire much confidence that I could take them overseas to reliably help out should I get into a medical emergency.
I haven’t tried the TimeKettle earbuds personally, but what I’ve heard from users isn’t great. On the TimeKettle M3 Amazon product page, buyers say that the translations are inaccurate 50% of the time and they can’t keep up with the conversation. At this point, the bar for live translation in earbuds is pretty low.
Real-world tests will be the ultimate arbiters of quality
What Apple showed today is promising, but it was a pre-shot video and not a live demo. How the AirPods Pro 3 perform in real-world circumstances will make or break this feature.
International travel will never be the same
The picture Apple is painting for the AirPods Pro 3 right now is an almost Star Trek-like universal translator — something no company has yet to pull off for the mass market in a pair of $249 earbuds.
I’m certainly skeptical, but if the AirPods Pro 3 can truly re-enact what we witnessed in that video, then we’re finally getting the killer app I’ve waited more than a decade for — and international travel will never be the same.
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