AirPods Pro 3 could be a huge upgrade if Apple has cracked heart rate tracking

It’s been more than two years since Apple launched the AirPods Pro second generation and only a brief mid-cycle update has come since, mainly to boost the charging case.

Considering the first generation landed in 2019, that’d potentially put an AirPods Pro 3 on deck for a potential 2025 release. And, according to reporting this weekend from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the update might be worth the wait.

In his weekly Power On newsletter, the seasoned Apple reporter said Apple is hard at work on making the erstwhile earphones range into more of a health tracking device.

This started in earnest with the addition of a hearing test for AirPods that arrived this autumn and this potentially continue with the next generation hardware. In his weekly Power On Newsletter, Gurman suggested the tech isn’t far and could be ready for the next major release of the hardware.

“The main work right now is getting the AirPods to reliably measure a user’s heart rate. Though the Apple Watch already does this, the feature could be a selling point for people who don’t like wearing watches or just want a backup fitness tracker.

“The capability could be ready for the next-generation AirPods Pro, which are in early development. In Apple’s testing, heart-rate data is more accurate on the watch than AirPods, but the earbuds aren’t terribly far off.”

Gurman says this is only the beginning for a “slew” of features that measure health metrics. That also includes temperature sensing.

Elsewhere, the Bloomberg report also says “Apple is figuring out a way to cram cameras into the earbuds” to help boost Apple Intelligence. Apple has revived this project after being dormant for a couple of years but it’s “now seen as a priority for the teams within Apple’s AI and AirPods hardware development groups.”

Interesting.