Apple could be working on five AirPods upgrades – may even announce them next week

Apple's annual developer event, WWDC, starts on Monday – and that means we'll finally get to see the next versions of Apple's operating systems, including iOS 26.

It also looks like that particular OS upgrade is going to bring some worthwhile improvements to the AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2.

The updates won't be available to everybody immediately – they'll be made available to developers first so that they can update their apps. But we'll get the chance to play with iOS 26 when the public beta launches, most likely at the end of the summer, and then there will be the official release around the iPhone 17 launch in September.

It could be good news for owners of all manner of Apple devices, and that includes AirPods.

Apple's iOS 26 AirPods upgrades: what to expect

According to 9to5Mac, there are five key features in development, and at least some of them could be mentioned by Apple during Monday's keynote.

The first and most interesting new feature is expanded gesture recognition.

Apple added gesture recognition to the AirPods 4 and AirPods Pro 2 last year, enabling you to accept or decline calls with a nod and a shake, and developers are reportedly working on additional gestures, including one that'll extend the Conversational Awareness volume reduction when you're talking.

AirPods are also said to be getting sleep detection to turn themselves off when you doze. It's unclear whether this will be a solo feature, though – it may use the Apple Watch sleep detection feature.

If you miss being able to control your camera shutter with your headphones, Apple is apparently bringing it back too. That means you'll be able to take photos by squeezing the stem, in much the same way you'd take a photo using the volume controls on the wired EarBuds.

And finally, it's claimed that there will be an improved version of Audio Mix with a new microphone mode for studio quality voice recording, and better pairing for classrooms where multiple people will be sharing the same iPad.

We'll find out more this coming Monday.