Future AirPods will boast new health features, including heart rate monitoring and temperature sensing, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
Gurman’s comments come in his Power On newsletter, released this weekend. Gurman said the heart rate technology could be ready for the AirPods Pro 3, which are in “early development.”
When hearing-related features debuted for the AirPods this year, it marked the beginning of a new era for the device. Just as the Apple Watch gradually gained health capabilities during the past decade, AirPods will see the same thing happen over the coming years. The company currently has teams experimenting with a variety of enhancements, including temperature sensing, heart-rate monitoring and technology that tracks a slew of physiological measures.
The main work right now is getting the AirPods to reliably measure a user’s heart rate. Though the Apple Watch already does this, the feature could be a selling point for people who don’t like wearing watches or just want a backup fitness tracker. The capability could be ready for the next-generation AirPods Pro, which are in early development. In Apple’s testing, heart-rate data is more accurate on the watch than AirPods, but the earbuds aren’t terribly far off.
AirPods capable of monitoring heart rate would allow more customers to access this health and fitness feature, without the need for an Apple Watch.
Gurman also repeated that Apple has plans to add small cameras to future AirPods to enable unspecified AI-powered features.
