AirPods: Apple will notify you in future when the battery is (almost) empty
Frequent users of Apple's earbuds and over-ears know the problem: Empty AirPods when you leave the house. iOS 26 has an antidote.
Apples AirPods Pro.
(Image: Apple)
There are few things more annoying for audio enthusiasts than earbuds and headphones that have run out of charge before mobile use. Although Apple's AirPods can be charged quickly in their charging case, the AirPods Max do not have one. What's more, most people want to listen immediately and not wait. With iOS 26 (and probably also macOS 26 and iPadOS 26), Apple has now made a small but useful change: You get charging notifications for Apple's audio devices.
Please charge; otherwise empty
In practice, this means that so-called battery reminders or “charging notifications” are available on request: Once activated in the Battery section, iOS will then notify you that it is “time to charge your AirPods”. This means you no longer have to manually switch to the battery overview, which is available as a widget or in the menu bar on the Mac. When you receive the notification, connect your AirPods to the charger (or place them on a charging mat) and charge them. This means that discharged earbuds or over-ears should no longer occur.
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Apple seems to be doing this quite intelligently, as beta testers of the current developer pre-release version of iOS 26 report: Notifications appear, for example, when you plug your iPhone into the charger in the evening. This allows you to supply both devices with power at the same time. But notifications also appear during the day as soon as the AirPods fall below a certain battery level. It is still unclear whether Apple will also implement the feature for Beats brand products and/or audio devices from other manufacturers. It is already technically possible to transmit the battery level via Bluetooth, as headphones from Sennheiser or Sony do.
Always new features
The new function shows once again that Apple is gradually expanding the functionality of devices once they have been purchased. For example, new firmware has added gesture recognition to the AirPods, which allows you to respond to calls by shaking or nodding your head. AirPods and Beats also have a new sleep detection feature.
In iOS 26, it is also possible for the first time to manually trigger firmware updates for the AirPods, another long-awaited function. Currently, there is no Apple-sanctioned way to do this, so many users are waiting longer for the update.
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