European Union Apple users will not have access to Apple’s new Live Translation feature for AirPods when it becomes available next week, most likely due to the strict regulations forced upon it by European Union regulators.
Apple’s feature availability webpage says “Live Translation with AirPods is not available if you are in the EU and your Apple Account Country or Region is also in the EU.” While Apple doesn’t provide the reasons behind the restriction, European Commission legal and regulatory restrictions are the most likely culprits.
The EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) both impose strict requirements for how speech and translation services are offered. EU regulators will likely want to study how Apple’s Live Translation feature works, and how that will impact privacy, consent, data-flows, and EU user rights. Apple will also need to be sure that its system fully complies with those rules before enabling the feature on EU Apple accounts.
Apple debuted its Live Translation feature alongside its AirPods Pro 3 announcement at its Tuesday event. Live Translation is powered by Apple Intelligence and allows users to conduct a conversation in real time with people speaking in another language and then hear translations through your AirPods Pro 3. The user can respond by simply speaking naturally in their native language, and their words will appear in the other person’s language on their iPhone screen. If both conversants are using AirPods Pro 3, they can each speak in their own language and hear translations via their AirPods.
In June, Apple announced that European Union users might miss out on new features, saying it would be forced to choose to omit features from iPhones sold in the EU rather than comply with these “deeply flawed rules.”
“In the end, these deeply flawed rules that only target Apple — and no other company — will severely limit our ability to deliver innovative products and features to Europe, leading to an inferior user experience for our European customers,” said Apple.
