AirPods with Cameras: Suspended or Still Coming? What iOS 27 Beta Code Reveals for Buyers (2026)

July 3, 2026 delivered one of the strangest contradictions in Apple leak history. In the morning, reliable leaker Kosutami posted a single word about Apple's camera-equipped AirPods project: "Suspended." Hours later, developer Sam Henri Gold found active dual-camera code in iOS 27 beta 2 referencing a device codenamed B790— sitting right next to AirPods Pro 3 in Apple's device registry. So which is it? Are camera AirPods dead, or more alive than ever?

What Was Apple Building with Camera AirPods?

Apple's camera AirPods project aimed to embed small infrared cameras into the stems of future AirPods. The cameras would capture environmental context — a restaurant menu, a product barcode, a landmark — and pass that visual data to Apple Intelligence for real-time AI responses through Siri. Imagine looking at a plant and asking Siri to identify it, or glancing at a foreign-language sign and getting an instant translation whispered into your ear.

The feature would position AirPods as a discreet AI wearable competitor to Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses, which already offer camera-based AI through Meta AI. But where Ray-Ban Meta's camera is visible and primarily designed for photo/video capture, Apple's approach would be subtler — small IR sensors for AI context, not social media content creation. Earlier reports placed the project in advanced testing with a potential late 2026 timeline.

Why Would Apple Suspend the Project?

Kosutami didn't elaborate, but several factors make a suspension plausible:

• Privacy backlash: Meta faced intense criticism for facial recognition code found in Ray-Ban glasses and ultimately had to remove it. Apple may be preemptively avoiding the same controversy.
• Component costs: The global memory crisis has pushed chip prices up 20-30%, making it harder to hit Apple's target price point for a mass-market product.
• Regulatory uncertainty: The EU AI Act and US state-level biometric laws create a patchwork of regulations around camera-equipped wearables that Apple would need to navigate.
• Apple's culture: Apple routinely suspends and resumes projects over multi-year development cycles. The original Apple Watch took over three years from concept to launch.

What Does the iOS 27 Beta Code Actually Show?

Developer Sam Henri Gold discovered references to device codename B790 in iOS 27 beta 2. The code processes dual camera image streams labeled "left" and "right," suggesting stereo vision capability. The codename sits between B788 (AirPods Pro 3) and B798(the codename Bloomberg's Mark Gurman previously identified as "AirPods Ultra"). The code lives within Apple's Intelligence framework, confirming it's tied to AI features rather than standalone photography.

The key takeaway: Apple is actively writing softwarefor a dual-camera AirPods device. Software teams don't write and ship code for cancelled hardware — they archive it. The presence of B790 in a shipping beta strongly suggests at least one camera-AirPods variant remains in active development, even if a different variant was suspended.

Can Both Reports Be True?

Yes — and this is the most likely explanation. Apple commonly runs parallel hardware prototyping tracks. The "suspended" project could be one implementation (say, visible cameras in AirPods Pro stems) while B790 represents a different approach (IR sensors in a new "AirPods Ultra" form factor). Apple killed the less promising variant and continues developing the other. This pattern is well-documented: Apple ran at least three Apple Watch prototypes simultaneously before settling on the final design.

The naming convention supports this theory. B790 is a separate codenamefrom B798 ("AirPods Ultra"), suggesting two distinct camera-equipped devices were in development. Suspending one while continuing the other is standard Apple practice.

Should You Wait for Camera AirPods or Buy Now?

Buy now. Even if the AirPods Ultra project continues uninterrupted, a consumer launch is unlikely before mid-2027 at the earliest. That's at least 12 months away. In the meantime, the AirPods Pro 3 at $199 deliver excellent noise cancellation, Conversation Awareness, heart-rate monitoring, and will gain major new features via iOS 27 including custom 9-band EQ and GymKit heart rate broadcasting.

If AI-powered visual context is what you want now, Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses already do this. Ask Meta AI to identify what you're looking at, translate text, or describe a scene — all through the glasses' built-in camera. The Ray-Ban Meta starts at $379. Compare all audio wearables in our earbuds guide and smart glasses comparison.