Your Apple AirPods might one day be able to read your body temperature, enhance your hearing, and monitor your posture (as if we needed another reminder that we're slouching).
The company behind the iPhone and the wearable health and wellness gadget Apple Watch is reportedly studying ways to make its bluetooth AirPods into a health device of their own, reports The Wall Street Journal, according to related documents and individuals familiar with the plans.
What isn't clear is whether Apple is developing "specific new hearing-aid features for AirPods or wants to market the earbuds' existing hearing-improvement features as hearing aids," writes the Journal; such an expansion does, however, make clear the company's desire to add health and wellness features to devices other than the Apple Watch.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
The company is reportedly already creating an AirPods prototype to take the wearer's core body temperature from inside their ear, per the documents reviewed by the Journal. And when it comes to posture monitoring, "the AirPods would lean on the motion sensors in the earbuds" and then alert users to stop slouching.
Notably, serving as a hearing aid could "signifcantly expand" AirPods' reach, and help the many individuals who suffer from hearing impairment that's less severe and thus left untreated, the Journal writes. The company's higher-end AirPods Pro already offer some hearing-improvement features.
Don't get your hopes up yet, however — the proposed changes and features have no concrete rollout timeline; in fact, those familiar with the plans warned there is a chance they may never be rolled out at all. Read more at The Wall Street Journal.
