Yes, you can get AirPods updates early in July's iOS 26 public beta. No, you probably shouldn't
Apple's optional download will drop in July to make your AirPods beta, but are you sure you want to risk it?
- Studio-quality audio recording and camera remote will be in public beta
- The public beta will be available in July 2025
- Apple doesn’t recommend installing betas on devices you rely upon
Since the early days of iOS, there's been a frustrating delay between the big reveal at WWDC and the final version arriving in September (usually): we get to see fun new things and then have to wait for what feels like forever to actually get them – including on upgrades promised to AirPods.
Good news! Apple has promised to let you play with the new AirPods features in July 2025 for the first time. There is a catch, though: it'll be part of the iOS/iPadOS/macOS public beta, so you shouldn't expect the fully polished final versions, and it's not a wise idea to install the beta software on your devices you rely on every day. So while you can get early access, you probably shouldn't.
The new features are studio-quality audio recording and camera remote. Apple says the former is for singers, podcasters, interviewers and other content creators and will deliver much better sound quality in recordings, in phone calls, in FaceTime and in third-party apps that use Apple's CallKit framework. It should also improve dictation accuracy, especially in noisier environments.
Camera remote is exactly what it sounds like: it enables you to trigger the Camera app's (or compatible third-party app's) shutter by squeezing the AirPods stem to take a photo or start a video recording.
Public betas are better
The new features are for AirPods 4, AirPods 4 with ANC and AirPods Pro 2, and require an iPhone capable of running iOS 26 – which is most of the relatively recent ones, as iOS 26 will be available for phones going back to the iPhone 11.
If you're really keen to experiment with the new features, you can get the developer beta of iOS 26 right now at developer.apple.com; all you need is a developer account. The public beta will follow in July, which doesn't require a developer account.
But both options aren't a good idea for most of us, I think. From the feedback I'm seeing online from early adopters, iOS 26 is still quite far from being finished, and Apple very specifically urges people not to install developer betas on their main devices.
The public beta is a safer option, but there are still the usual caveats about beta software being unfinished – so there may be app incompatibilities, weird bugs, display glitches and other frustrations.
In a worse-case scenario, they can even brick your devices, making them completely unusable – but these are risks you'll agree to take when you sign the agreement to try the beta software. It's probably not worth the risk to get clearer calls a few months early.
