Europe, the bloc with 24 official languages and 287 spoken in total, won’t get Apple’s Live Translation with AirPods feature for now. “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,” the company said on its iOS feature availability page. No reason was given, but it may have to do with the EU’s strict rules around artificial intelligence and how it impacts privacy.
If that’s the case, Apple may be waiting for the EU to approve or examine the feature before implementing it in the region. The AI Act is most strictly applied to “high-risk use cases” involving the potential for discrimination or violation of users’ privacy. To that end, the EU may want to ensure that date stored when using the app is kept securely and locally in the bloc.
Apple’s phrasing about availability seems to indicate that it will work for North American and other users visiting the bloc and possibly vice-versa. Only users with an Apple Europe account who are also in Europe won’t be able to access the feature.
Live Translation lets users with AirPods communicate naturally with speakers of other languages. If the other party also has AirPods, the conversation is translated and heard by both people. If you’re speaking with someone without AirPods, speech is translated onto your phone where it can be either be read or heard by the other party.
Live Translation was first introduced at WWDC as part of iOS 26 and unveiled as a key feature for the AirPods Pro 3 during Apple’s “Awe Dropping” event on Tuesday. It will work on iPhone 15 and later devices running Apple Intelligence, and be available with the AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 once iOS 26 arrives on September 15.
Right now, Live Translation supports real-time translation between English, French, German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish. However, Apple plans to add Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) support later in 2025.
