During the AirPods Pro 3 announcement this week, Apple unveiled the Live Translation feature, which is powered by Apple Intelligence AI suite and enables users to talk to each other even if they don"t speak the same language. While many users around the world might be eager to test the Live Translation capability, European users are dropped from the availability list.
According to Apple"s feature availability webpage, Live Translation with AirPods won"t be released to users located in the EU. "Live Translation with AirPods is not available if you are in the EU and your Apple Account Country or Region is also in the EU," Apple states.
The lack of availability of this feature for European users is attributed to the laws and regulations of the European Union. EU regulations, such as the Artificial Intelligence Act and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), prevent Apple from offering Live Translation with AirPods in the region unless the feature meets specific legal requirements.
The EU regulator may want to inspect the Live Translation feature and evaluate its compliance with privacy laws before allowing it to be released to the public. It remains uncertain when Apple will be able to release Live Translation with AirPods to its European customers, though the company may have already begun discussions with EU authorities.
Apple"s Live Translation feature currently supports English (UK, U.S.), French (France), German, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish (Spain), and the iPhone maker is preparing to add support for Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (simplified) later this year.
Besides AirPods Pro 3, Live Translation works on AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation and AirPods Pro 2 with the latest firmware. The feature also requires pairing with an Apple Intelligence–enabled iPhone running iOS 26 or later. Apple is expected to release iOS 26 and the new firmware updates on September 15.