With iOS 26 and Apple Intelligence, you can bridge the gap between languages and broaden your linguistic horizons—even if you don't have the latest AirPods.

You can now download iOS 26. The free update was announced at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and the tech giant announced the software's release date on Sept. 9, the same day it unveiled the iPhone 17 lineup and the iPhone Air. The iOS 26 update brings a new Liquid Glass design, call screening and more to your iPhone.

Apple's Live Translation feature, unveiled during its AirPods Pro 3 announcement, is expanding to older models including AirPods 4 with

As 9to5Mac reports, Apple's new Live Translation feature will be extended to AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods 4 with ANC. During the keynote, Apple demoed the feature on the new AirPods Pro 3, but didn't mention compatibility with earlier earbuds. The wider support was mentioned in the footnotes of a press release.

If you have battery anxiety about your AirPods, Apple is throwing you a bone in iOS 26 with notifications that tell you when your wireless earbuds are fully charged. Perhaps more helpfully, it will also tell you when your case needs to be juiced up so you don’t leave the house with dead AirPods.

Apple has delivered on its promise to release iOS 26 today, and as expected, it boasts a host of new functionality.