Live Translation with Apple’s AirPods Won’t Be Available in the EU

The Live Translation on AirPods feature that Apple announced alongside its new AirPods 3 earlier this week won’t be coming to the EU at launch. The company quietly announced the news on a support page detailing the regional availability of iOS 26 features (via TechCrunch).

“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 stated. Live Translation will be supported on the new AirPods Pro 3, the older AirPods Pro 2, and the cheaper AirPods 4, and the feature will also require a recent iPhone that supports Apple Intelligence.

It’s not immediately clear why the Live Translation on AirPods won’t be available in the EU. However, Apple may well be concerned about the feature’s compliance with local privacy laws such as GDPR, as well as other EU tech regulations such as the Digital Markets Act.

Apple is still blocking some features such as iPhone Mirroring on macOS in the EU over concerns about the European Commission requiring the company to make it work with Android phones. For the same reason, Apple won’t make iPhone Live Activities and its Phone app available for Mac users in the EU when macOS 26 Tahoe launches on September 15.

Live Translation on AirPods seems to be a really useful feature that all people in the Apple ecosystem could benefit from. At launch, it will be available in English, French, German, Portuguese, and Spanish, and Apple already said that support for Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) will be coming before the end of the year. Unfortunately, users in the EU will have to wait.