Your AirPods Might Be Getting a Simple Yet Useful New Feature

Apple already announced the “coolest of the cool” new features coming to your AirPods — specifically, the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 models — when iOS 26 rolls out next month.

The headliners include a new “Camera Control” feature that lets you use the AirPods stem as a shutter button and remotely take photos with your iPhone’s camera. Also, a new “Sleep Auto-Pause” feature will automatically pause your music when you fall asleep.

But, as spotted by some keen-eyed observers currently running the developer beta of iOS 26, Apple looks to be gearing up to upgrade those same AirPods in a small yet useful way that it hasn’t officially announced yet.

A charging case upgrade

Gear Patrol

As spotted by X user Minimal Nerd (@minimalnerd1) and reported by 9to5Mac, the developer beta of iOS 26 gives the charging case of the AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 a neat little upgrade. Specifically, it adds a new indicator light color.

To date, the little light on your AirPods charging case has been able to show two colors. When it needs to be charged or is currently charging, it displays orange (or amber). When it’s fully charged, it displays a green light.

Well, the new software update shows a third color, yellow, which indicates the case is currently charging. This means that, for the first time, your AirPods charging case light will be able to distinguish between “charging” and “needs to be charged.”

Like I said, it’s a small new feature — and, admittedly, it could be difficult to differentiate the orange/amber and yellow in certain lighting — but it’s neat and kind of useful.

Photo by Tucker Bowe for Gear Patrol

When’s it coming?

Of course, just because it appears in the developer beta doesn’t mean it’ll come to the public beta — which is out now, but continues to be updated — or the official release of iOS 26. But we’re optimisic.

If the new yellow charging light indicator is a new feature of iOS 26, it’ll definitely come to the AirPods 2 and AirPods 4 models. As for older models (or even the USB-C AirPods Max), that’s not yet exactly clear.

iOS 26 will officially be released in September alongside Apple’s iPhone 17 announcements. At that point, we’ll know for sure.

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