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Here’s everything Apple just announced for 2024 and beyond

Apple iPhone 16 Pro finish lineup

Apple in 2024 (and beyond)

Apple just wrapped up an event at its Cupertino, California headquarters, where it introduced new versions of the iPhone, AirPods, and Apple Watch. Here is what Apple announced:

  • iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max
  • Apple Watch Series 10 with an updated design, a polished titanium option, and a new S10 chip
  • The Apple Watch Ultra 2 in satin black
  • AirPods 4 and updated AirPods Max in new colors and with USB-C charging
  • The first Apple Intelligence features for iPhone 16 will launch in beta next month

Apple introduces iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max

Apple today introduced iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, featuring Apple Intelligence, larger display sizes, new creative capabilities with innovative pro camera features, stunning graphics for immersive gaming, and more — all powered by the A18 Pro chip. With Apple Intelligence, powerful Apple-built generative models come to iPhone in the easy-to-use personal intelligence system that understands personal context to deliver intelligence that is helpful and relevant while protecting user privacy. Camera Control unlocks a fast, intuitive way to tap into visual intelligence and easily interact with the advanced camera system. Featuring a new 48MP Fusion camera with a faster quad-pixel sensor that enables 4K120 fps video recording in Dolby Vision, these new Pro models achieve the highest resolution and frame-rate combination ever available on iPhone. Additional advancements include a new 48MP Ultra Wide camera for higher-resolution photography, including macro; a 5x Telephoto camera on both Pro models; and studio-quality mics to record more true-to-life audio. The durable titanium design is strong yet lightweight, with larger display sizes, the thinnest borders on any Apple product, and a huge leap in battery life — with iPhone 16 Pro Max offering the best battery life on iPhone ever.

iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be available in four stunning finishes: black titanium, natural titanium, white titanium, and desert titanium. Pre-orders begin Friday, September 13, with availability beginning Friday, September 20.

Built for Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16 lineup harnesses the power of Apple silicon and Apple-built generative models to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. Apple Intelligence maintains the privacy and security of user data with Private Cloud Compute. This groundbreaking approach provides the ability to flex and scale computational capacity between on-device processing and larger, server-based models that run on dedicated Apple silicon servers — an extraordinary step forward for privacy in artificial intelligence. Apple Intelligence will be available as a free software update, with the first set of features rolling out next month in U.S. English for most regions around the world.

With systemwide Writing Tools, users can adjust notes or emails to be more friendly, more concise, or add a more professional tone to their writing; check for grammar, word choice, and sentence structure; and summarize selected text to make it more digestible. In the Notes and Phone apps, users can also record, transcribe, and summarize audio. When a recording is initiated while on a call in the Phone app, participants are automatically notified, and once the call ends, Apple Intelligence generates a summary to recall key points.

Apple Intelligence helps users prioritize with summarized notifications, along with Priority Messages in Mail, a feature that understands the content of emails and surfaces time-sensitive messages. Across a user’s inbox, summaries convey the most important information of each email instead of previewing the first few lines.

Siri becomes more deeply integrated into the system experience and gets a brand-new design with an elegant glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active. With richer language-understanding capabilities, communicating with Siri is more natural and flexible. Siri follows along when users stumble over their words, and maintains context from one request to the next. Users can type to Siri at any time, and switch fluidly between text and voice as they accelerate everyday tasks. Siri also now has extensive product knowledge to answer thousands of questions about features on iPhone and other Apple devices.

A redesigned Siri experience, coming with the first set of Apple Intelligence features, makes communicating with Siri more natural and flexible.

Additional Apple Intelligence features will roll out later this year and in the months following, including Image Playground, which allows users to create playful images in moments. Emoji will be taken to an entirely new level with the ability to create original Genmoji by simply typing a description, or by selecting a photo of a friend or family member. Siri will be able to draw on a user’s personal context to deliver intelligence that is tailored to them. It will also gain onscreen awareness to understand and take action with users’ content, as well as take hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps. And while using iOS 18 features like Siri and Writing Tools, users will be able to easily access ChatGPT from OpenAI.

An Incredibly Light and Durable Design with Larger Displays

The new Pro lineup features the thinnest borders of any Apple product and introduces larger display sizes: 6.3 inches on iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9 inches on iPhone 16 Pro Max — the largest iPhone display ever. The stunning Super Retina XDR displays with Always-On and ProMotion technologies help users accomplish more. Both models offer industry-leading durability with a strong, lightweight titanium design, as well as the latest-generation Ceramic Shield, which has an advanced formulation that is 2x tougher than glass on any other smartphone. The new mechanical architecture improves heat dissipation and efficiency for up to 20 percent better sustained performance. Along with the new internal design and advanced power management of iOS 18, larger batteries are optimized to offer a huge leap in battery life.

The strong and lightweight titanium design features larger Super Retina XDR displays — 6.3 inches on iPhone 16 Pro and 6.9 inches on iPhone 16 Pro Max — with ProMotion and Always-On technologies, as well as the latest-generation Ceramic Shield.

Introducing Camera Control

Camera Control — a result of thoughtful hardware and software integration — makes the pro camera system more versatile with an innovative new way to quickly launch the camera, take a photo, and start video recording. It has a tactile switch that powers the click experience, a high-precision force sensor that enables the light press gesture, and a capacitive sensor that allows for touch interactions. A new camera preview helps users frame the shot and adjust other control options — such as zoom, exposure, or depth of field — to compose a stunning photo or video by sliding their finger on the Camera Control. Later this fall, Camera Control will be updated with a two-stage shutter to automatically lock focus and exposure on a subject with a light press, letting users reframe the shot without losing focus. Additionally, developers will be able to bring Camera Control to third-party apps such as Kino, which will offer users the ability to adjust white balance and set focus points, including at various levels of depth in their scene.

Camera Control helps users stay immersed in the capture experience while they adjust controls, like dialing the depth of field and exposure.

Later this year, Camera Control will unlock visual intelligence to help users learn about objects and places faster than ever before. Users can click and hold Camera Control to pull up the hours or ratings for a restaurant they pass, add an event from a flyer to their calendar, quickly identify a dog by breed, and more. Camera Control will also serve as a gateway into third-party tools with specific domain expertise, like when users want to search on Google to find where they can buy an item, or to benefit from ChatGPT’s problem-solving skills. Users are in control of when third-party tools are used and what information is shared.

New Pro Creativity Across Photo, Video, and Audio

With iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, the world’s favorite camera gets even more powerful. Powered by A18 Pro, the upgraded camera system introduces a new 48MP Fusion camera with a faster, more efficient quad-pixel sensor and Apple Camera Interface, unlocking 4K120 fps video recording in Dolby Vision — the highest resolution and frame-rate combination ever available on iPhone, and a smartphone first. The quad-pixel sensor can read data 2x faster, enabling zero shutter lag for 48MP ProRAW or HEIF photos. A new 48MP Ultra Wide camera also features a quad-pixel sensor with autofocus, so users can take higher-resolution 48MP ProRAW and HEIF images when capturing uniquely framed, wider-angle shots or getting close to their subjects with macro photography. The powerful 5x Telephoto camera now comes on both iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, allowing users to catch the action from farther away, no matter which model they choose. iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max now take spatial photos in addition to videos to help users relive memories with remarkable depth on Apple Vision Pro.

Users can capture 4K120 fps in Slo-mo or Video mode, and adjust the playback speed after capture in the Photos app, including a quarter-speed playback, a new half-speed option for a dreamy effect, and a fifth-speed option that corresponds to 24 fps. When coupled with the new image signal processor (ISP) of A18 Pro, users can do frame-by-frame cinema-quality color grading for 4K120 fps in Dolby Vision. Users can also capture 4K120 fps ProRes and Log directly to an external storage device for efficient pro workflows.

iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max introduce 4K video at 120 fps in Dolby Vision, and the playback speed can be adjusted after capture in the new Photos app.

Both Pro models feature four new studio-quality mics that preserve true-to-life recorded sounds, and video can now be captured in Spatial Audio for immersive listening with AirPods, Apple Vision Pro, or a surround sound system. The iPhone 16 Pro lineup also introduces creative new ways to edit video sound with Audio Mix — allowing users to adjust their sound after capture to focus on the voice of the person on camera, make it sound like the video was recorded inside a professional studio, or position vocal tracks in the front and environmental noises in surround sound. With wind noise reduction, powerful machine learning (ML) algorithms reduce unwanted noise for better audio quality.

Next-generation Photographic Styles help users express their creativity and customize their photos by locally adjusting color, highlights, and shadows in real time. Styles also have a deeper understanding of skin undertones, so users can personalize how they appear in photos. Unlike filters, which often use a one-size-fits-all approach by adding a color to an entire scene, adjustments are applied to specific colors of a selected style. A wider set of styles offers more creative options for editing a photo’s aesthetic, and styles can be further personalized with an easy-to-use new control pad and intensity slider for simultaneous adjustments across tone and color. These adjustments can be rendered during live preview, applied after a photo is taken, or even reversed later.

Apple Intelligence takes the pro camera system to a new level. Coming later, Siri will be able to complete in-app requests and take action across apps, like pulling up a specific shot from a user’s Photos library and then applying an edit to the image in Darkroom. Siri can also help users fully utilize the wide range of photo and editing capabilities, such as asking how to adjust the blur in the background of a photo.

Industry-Leading Performance and Power Efficiency

The new A18 Pro chip is designed with industry-leading compute power to propel Apple Intelligence, ushering in a new era of pro performance. Built with second-generation 3-nanometer technology and featuring a new architecture with smaller, faster transistors, A18 Pro delivers unprecedented efficiency. The new 16-core Neural Engine is faster and more efficient than the previous generation, powering remarkable on-device performance for Apple Intelligence. A 17 percent increase in total system memory bandwidth — the highest ever in iPhone — enables faster experiences when using Writing Tools and Image Playground, and helps deliver astounding graphics. The bandwidth increase also benefits the 6-core GPU, which is up to 20 percent faster than the previous generation, driving graphics rendering for Apple Intelligence and stunning visuals for gaming. Hardware-accelerated ray tracing gets up to 2x faster for even more realistic light sources and reflections, and Game Mode in iOS 18 unlocks more consistent frame rates while making AirPods, game controllers, and other wireless accessories incredibly responsive. A new 6-core CPU is the fastest in a smartphone, with two performance cores and four efficiency cores that can run the same workload as the previous generation 15 percent faster while using 20 percent less power. Next-generation ML accelerators are optimized for Apple Intelligence, and save power by handling high-efficiency, high-throughput, and low-latency computations on the CPU without engaging the Neural Engine.

The faster new 6-core GPU in A18 Pro delivers stunning visuals for next-level gaming, benefitting games like Death Stranding.

A18 Pro enables Always-On and ProMotion technologies for an exceptional viewing experience on iPhone, as well as faster USB 3 speeds and ProRes video recording. A new ISP and video encoder process 2x the amount of data for faster video encoding and pro workflows.

Expanded Safety and Communication Capabilities

The iPhone 16 Pro lineup features innovative ways to stay connected and provides enhanced safety capabilities for peace of mind. Powered by the same groundbreaking technology as Emergency SOS via satellite, users are able to connect to the nearest satellite to send and receive texts, emoji, and Tapbacks over iMessage and SMS while outside cellular and Wi-Fi coverage. Messages via satellite in iOS 18 are end-to-end encrypted. Also new with iOS 18, Emergency SOS Live Video allows users to share a live video feed or photos with participating emergency dispatchers during an emergency call. Later this fall, Roadside Assistance via satellite — which connects users to a roadside assistance provider if they have car trouble while off the grid — expands beyond the U.S. to the U.K.

Better for the Environment 

iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max are designed with the environment in mind. As part of Apple 2030, the company’s ambitious goal to be carbon neutral across its entire carbon footprint by the end of this decade, Apple is prioritizing renewable electricity in manufacturing, and investing in wind and solar projects around the world to address the electricity used to charge all Apple products, including the iPhone 16 lineup. Today, all Apple facilities run on 100 percent renewable electricity — including the data centers that power Apple Intelligence.

To achieve Apple 2030, the company is also designing products with recycled and renewable materials. iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max feature more than 25 percent recycled content overall, including 100 percent recycled aluminum in the internal structural frame and 80 percent or more recycled steel across multiple components. The battery is made with 100 percent recycled cobalt and — in a first for iPhone — over 95 percent recycled lithium.4 The iPhone 16 Pro lineup also meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency, and is free of mercury and PVC. The packaging is entirely fiber-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal of removing plastic from its packaging by next year.

Pricing and Availability

  • iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be available in black titanium, natural titanium, white titanium, and desert titanium, in 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage capacities. iPhone 16 Pro starts at $999 (U.S.) or $41.62 (U.S.) per month, and iPhone 16 Pro Max starts at $1,199 (U.S.) or $49.95 (U.S.) per month.
  • iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max will be available in Macao, Vietnam, and 19 other countries and regions beginning Friday, September 27.
  • iOS 18 will be available as a free software update on Monday, September 16.
  • Apple Intelligence will be available as a free software update. The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in beta next month as part of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with more features rolling out in the months to come. It will be available on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, with device and Siri language set to U.S. English. Additional languages and platforms are coming over the course of the next year. Later this year, Apple Intelligence will add support for localized English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. In the coming year, Apple Intelligence will expand to more languages, including Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish.

Apple introduces iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus

Apple today announced iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, built for Apple Intelligence, the easy-to-use personal intelligence system that understands personal context to deliver intelligence that is helpful and relevant while protecting user privacy. The iPhone 16 lineup also introduces Camera Control, which brings new ways to capture memories, and will help users quickly access visual intelligence to learn about objects or places around them faster than ever before. The powerful camera system features a 48MP Fusion camera with a 2x Telephoto option, giving users two cameras in one, while a new Ultra Wide camera enables macro photography. Next-generation Photographic Styles help users personalize their images, and spatial photo and video capture allows users to relive life’s precious memories with remarkable depth on Apple Vision Pro. The new A18 chip delivers a huge leap in performance and efficiency, enabling demanding AAA games, as well as a big boost in battery life.

iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will be available in five bold colors: black, white, pink, teal, and ultramarine. Pre-orders begin Friday, September 13, with availability beginning Friday, September 20.

Built for Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16 lineup harnesses the power of Apple silicon and Apple-built generative models to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks. Apple Intelligence maintains the privacy and security of user data with Private Cloud Compute. This groundbreaking approach provides the ability to flex and scale computational capacity between on-device processing and larger, server-based models that run on dedicated Apple silicon servers — an extraordinary step forward for privacy in artificial intelligence. Apple Intelligence will be available as a free software update, with the first set of features rolling out next month in U.S. English for most regions around the world.

Apple Intelligence unlocks new ways for users to enhance their writing. With systemwide Writing Tools built into iOS 18, users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps. In the Notes and Phone apps, users can also record, transcribe, and summarize audio. When a recording is initiated while on a call in the Phone app, participants are automatically notified, and once the call ends, Apple Intelligence generates a summary to recall key points.

With systemwide Writing Tools, available with the first set of Apple Intelligence features, users can rewrite, proofread, and summarize text nearly everywhere they write.

Apple Intelligence helps users prioritize with summarized notifications, along with Priority Messages in Mail, a feature that understands the content of emails and surfaces time-sensitive messages. Across a user’s inbox, summaries convey the most important information of each email instead of previewing the first few lines.

Available with the first set of Apple Intelligence features, Priority Notifications in Apple Intelligence elevate what’s most important, and summaries help users scan stacked notifications to show key details right on the Lock Screen.

Siri becomes more deeply integrated into the system experience and gets a brand-new design with an elegant glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active. With richer language-understanding capabilities, communicating with Siri is more natural and flexible. Siri follows along when users stumble over their words, and maintains context from one request to the next. Users can type to Siri at any time, and switch fluidly between text and voice as they accelerate everyday tasks. Siri also now has extensive product knowledge to answer thousands of questions about features on iPhone and other Apple devices.

Coming with the first set of Apple Intelligence features, Siri becomes more natural, contextually relevant, and personal, with an elegant glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active.

Additional Apple Intelligence features will roll out later this year and in the months following, including Image Playground, which allows users to create playful images in moments. Emoji will be taken to an entirely new level with the ability to create original Genmoji by simply typing a description, or by selecting a photo of a friend or family member. Siri will be able to draw on a user’s personal context to deliver intelligence that is tailored to them. It will also gain onscreen awareness to understand and take action with users’ content, as well as take hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps. And while using iOS 18 features like Siri and Writing Tools, users will also be able to easily access ChatGPT from OpenAI.

A Beautiful New Design with Industry-Leading Durability

iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are beautiful and built to last. iPhone holds its value longer than any other smartphone thanks to its industry-leading durability, including the strong back glass, a water- and dust-resistant design, regular software updates, and the latest-generation Ceramic Shield with an advanced formulation that is 50 percent tougher than the first generation and 2x tougher than glass on any other smartphone.1 The internal design of iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus has been reengineered to allow for an even larger battery and to better dissipate heat, while making battery service easier. With the new internal design and advanced power management of iOS 18, the batteries are optimized to offer a big boost in battery life. Available in 6.1-inch and 6.7-inch display sizes, the Super Retina XDR display with OLED technology and the Dynamic Island offers an exceptional viewing experience.

The latest-generation Ceramic Shield has an advanced formulation that is 2x tougher than glass on any other smartphone.

The Action button comes to iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus, allowing users to easily access a variety of functions with just a press. Users can quickly open the camera, flashlight, or controls; switch between Ring and Silent; recognize music with Shazam; activate Voice Memos, Focus, Translate, and accessibility features like Magnifier; or use Shortcuts for more options. The Action button can also access in-app functionality, like helping a user unlock and lock their car with FordPass.

The Action button allows users to quickly access useful features. By default, it switches between Ring and Silent, or users can choose from a wide set of actions for even more convenience and versatility.

Introducing Camera Control

Camera Control — a result of thoughtful hardware and software integration — elevates the camera experience on the iPhone 16 lineup. It is packed with innovation, including a tactile switch that powers the click experience, a high-precision force sensor that enables the light press gesture, and a capacitive sensor that allows for touch interactions. Camera Control can quickly launch the camera, take a photo, and start video recording so users don’t miss the moment. A new camera preview helps users frame the shot and adjust other control options — such as zoom, exposure, or depth of field — to compose a stunning photo or video by sliding their finger on the Camera Control. Additionally, developers will be able to bring Camera Control to third-party apps such as Snapchat.

Later this year, Camera Control will unlock visual intelligence to help users learn about objects and places faster than ever before. Users can click and hold Camera Control to pull up the hours or ratings for a restaurant they pass, add an event from a flyer to their calendar, quickly identify a dog by breed, and more. Camera Control will also serve as a gateway into third-party tools with specific domain expertise, like when users want to search on Google to find where they can buy an item, or to benefit from ChatGPT’s problem-solving skills. Users are in control of when third-party tools are used and what information is shared.

New Camera Experiences

The powerful new camera system helps users capture both everyday moments and cherished memories like never before. The 48MP Fusion camera enables a 2x optical-quality Telephoto option, which is like having two cameras in one, so users can get closer to the subject to easily frame a photo. In addition to wider-angle shots, the new 12MP Ultra Wide camera with autofocus enables macro photography. The Ultra Wide camera also gathers up to 2.6x more light for higher image quality. Additionally, iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus now take spatial photos and videos to help users relive memories with remarkable depth on Apple Vision Pro.

Next-generation Photographic Styles help users express their creativity and customize their photos by locally adjusting color, highlights, and shadows in real time. Styles also have a deeper understanding of skin undertones, so users can personalize how they appear in photos. Unlike filters, which often use a one-size-fits-all approach by adding a color to an entire scene, adjustments are applied to specific colors of a selected style. A wider set of styles offers more creative options for editing a photo’s aesthetic, and styles can be rendered during live preview, applied after a photo is taken, or even reversed later.

Video can now be captured in Spatial Audio for immersive listening with AirPods, Apple Vision Pro, or a surround sound system. Both iPhone models introduce creative new ways to edit video sound with Audio Mix — allowing users to adjust their sound after capture to focus on the voice of the person on camera, make it sound like the video was recorded inside a professional studio, or position vocal tracks in the front and environmental noises in surround sound. With wind noise reduction, powerful machine learning (ML) algorithms reduce unwanted noise for better audio quality.

Powered by Apple Intelligence, users can search for specific photos in the Photos app using natural language, and search for specific moments in video clips. Additionally, the new Clean Up tool can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo without altering the subject.

Available with the first set of Apple Intelligence features, the Clean Up tool in Photos can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo without altering the subject.

A18: Next-Level Performance and Mobile Gaming

A18 delivers a huge leap in performance and power efficiency, and is built on second-generation 3-nanometer technology to further accelerate Apple Intelligence. An upgraded 16-core Neural Engine is optimized for large generative models and runs ML models up to 2x faster than the A16 Bionic chip.

The 6-core CPU is 30 percent faster than the A16 Bionic chip and faster than all the competition. It is also more power efficient and can run the same workload with 30 percent less power than A16 Bionic. The 5-core GPU is up to 40 percent faster and 35 percent more efficient than A16 Bionic to power stunning graphics performance for Apple Intelligence, and puts a powerful gaming device in users’ pockets. Now with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, games on iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus more accurately represent the behavior of light with up to 5x higher frame rates than with software-based ray tracing. Both models support the AAA games previously only available on iPhone 15 Pro, as well as new titles like Honor of Kings: World with an ultra graphics mode optimized for the iPhone 16 lineup, coming next year. Game Mode in iOS 18 delivers more consistent frame rates while making AirPods, game controllers, and other wireless accessories incredibly responsive. The efficiency of A18 and the device’s rearchitected internal design deliver up to 30 percent higher sustained performance for gaming while ensuring Apple Intelligence runs efficiently on iPhone.

The new 5-core GPU in A18 enables fast, efficient performance and stunning graphics for next-level mobile gaming, including AAA games like Honor of Kings: World.

Expanded Communication and Safety Capabilities

The iPhone 16 lineup features innovative ways to stay connected and provides enhanced safety capabilities for peace of mind. Powered by the same groundbreaking technology as Emergency SOS via satellite, users are able to connect to the nearest satellite to send and receive texts, emoji, and Tapbacks over iMessage and SMS while outside of cellular and Wi-Fi coverage.4 Messages via satellite in iOS 18 are end-to-end encrypted. Also new with iOS 18, Emergency SOS Live Video allows users to share a live video feed or photos with participating emergency dispatchers during an emergency call.5 Later this fall, Roadside Assistance via satellite — which connects users to a roadside assistance provider if they have car trouble while off the grid — expands beyond the U.S. to the U.K.

Better for the Environment 

iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are designed with the environment in mind. As part of Apple 2030, the company’s ambitious goal to be carbon neutral across its entire carbon footprint by the end of this decade, Apple is prioritizing renewable electricity in manufacturing, and investing in wind and solar projects around the world to address the electricity used to charge all Apple products, including the iPhone 16 lineup. Today, all Apple facilities run on 100 percent renewable electricity — including the data centers that power Apple Intelligence.

To achieve Apple 2030, the company is also designing products with recycled and renewable materials. iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus feature more than 30 percent recycled content overall, including 85 percent recycled aluminum in the enclosure and 80 percent or more recycled steel across multiple components. The battery is made with 100 percent recycled cobalt and — in a first for iPhone — over 95 percent recycled lithium.6 The iPhone 16 lineup meets Apple’s high standards for energy efficiency, and is free of mercury and PVC. The packaging is entirely fiber-based, bringing Apple closer to its goal of removing plastic from its packaging by next year.

Pricing and Availability

  • iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus will be available in ultramarine, teal, pink, white, and black in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB storage capacities. iPhone 16 starts at $799 (U.S.) or $33.29 (U.S.) per month, and iPhone 16 Plus starts at $899 (U.S.) or $37.45 (U.S.) per month.
  • Customers in more than 58 countries and regions, including Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Korea, Türkiye, the UAE, the U.K., and the U.S., will be able to pre-order iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus beginning at 5 a.m. PDT this Friday, September 13, with availability beginning Friday, September 20.
  • Apple Intelligence will be available as a free software update. The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in beta next month as part of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with more features rolling out in the months to come. It will be available on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, with device and Siri language set to U.S. English. Additional languages and platforms are coming over the course of the next year. Later this year, Apple Intelligence will add support for localized English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. In the coming year, Apple Intelligence will expand to more languages, including Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish.

Apple introduces Apple Intelligence for iPhone, iPad, and Mac

Helpful Writing Tools, Mail and notifications summaries, a more natural and flexible Siri, the Clean Up tool in Photos, and many more Apple Intelligence features roll out in the U.S., with additional English-language support coming later this year

Today, Apple announced that Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that combines the power of generative models with personal context to deliver intelligence that is incredibly useful and relevant, will start rolling out next month with iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with more features launching in the coming months. In addition, Apple introduced the new iPhone 16 lineup, built from the ground up for Apple Intelligence and featuring the faster, more efficient A18 and A18 Pro chips — making these the most advanced and capable iPhone models ever.

Apple Intelligence first launches in U.S. English, and will quickly expand to include localized English in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, and the U.K. in December, with additional language support — such as Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish — coming next year.

Getting Started with Apple Intelligence

Apple Intelligence is deeply integrated into iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, harnessing the power of Apple silicon to understand and create language and images, take action across apps, and draw from personal context to simplify and accelerate everyday tasks — all while protecting users’ privacy and security. Many of the models that power Apple Intelligence run entirely on device, and Private Cloud Compute offers the ability to flex and scale computational capacity between on-device processing and larger, server-based models that run on dedicated Apple silicon servers. The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available next month, delivering experiences that are delightful, intuitive, easy to use, and specially designed to help users do the things that matter most to them.

With Writing Tools, users can refine their words by rewriting, proofreading, and summarizing text nearly everywhere they write, including Mail, Notes, Pages, and third-party apps.

In Photos, the Memories feature now enables users to create the movies they want to see by simply typing a description. In addition, natural language can be used to search for specific photos, and search in videos gets more powerful with the ability to find specific moments in clips. The new Clean Up tool can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo — without accidentally altering the subject.

The Clean Up tool in Photos can identify and remove distracting objects in the background of a photo — without accidentally altering the subject.

In the Notes and Phone apps, users can record, transcribe, and summarize audio. When a recording is initiated while on a call in the Phone app, participants are automatically notified, and once the call ends, Apple Intelligence also generates a summary to help recall key points.

Apple Intelligence helps users prioritize and stay in the moment with summarized notifications across apps, Reduce Interruptions — a new Focus that surfaces only the notifications that might need immediate attention — as well as Priority Messages in Mail, which understands the content of emails and surfaces time-sensitive messages. Across a user’s inbox, summaries convey the most important information of each email instead of simply previewing the first few lines. Smart Reply in Mail provides users with suggestions for a quick response and identifies questions in an email to ensure everything is answered.

Priority Notifications surface what’s most important, and summaries help users scan long or stacked notifications to show key details right on the Lock Screen.

Siri becomes more natural, flexible, and deeply integrated into the system experience. It has a brand-new design with an elegant glowing light that wraps around the edge of the screen when active on iPhone, iPad, or CarPlay. On Mac, a user can place Siri anywhere on their desktop to access it easily as they work. Users can type to Siri at any time on iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and can switch fluidly between text and voice as they use Siri to accelerate everyday tasks. With richer language-understanding capabilities, Siri can follow along when users stumble over their words and can maintain context from one request to the next. In addition, with Siri’s extensive product knowledge, it can now answer thousands of questions about the features and settings of Apple devices. Users can learn everything from how to take a screen recording to how to easily share a Wi-Fi password.

Many More Features to Come

More Apple Intelligence features will roll out later this year and in the months following. Image Playground will allow users to create playful images in moments. Image Wand will make notes more visually engaging by turning rough sketches into delightful images. When a user circles an empty space, Image Wand will create an image using context from the surrounding area. Emoji will be taken to an entirely new level with the ability to create original Genmoji by simply typing a description, or by selecting a photo of a friend or family member. Siri will be even more capable, with the ability to draw on a user’s personal context to deliver intelligence that is tailored to them. It will also gain onscreen awareness, as well as take hundreds of new actions in and across Apple and third-party apps. Plus, users have the option to access ChatGPT’s broad world knowledge from several experiences within iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia, allowing users to access its expertise — as well as its image- and document-understanding capabilities — without needing to jump between tools.

An Extraordinary Step Forward for Privacy in AI

Apple Intelligence is designed to protect users’ privacy at every step. A cornerstone of Apple Intelligence is on-device processing, and many of the models that power it run entirely on device. To run more complex requests that require more processing power, Private Cloud Compute extends the privacy and security of Apple devices into the cloud to unlock even more intelligence. Private Cloud Compute marks a fundamental breakthrough in server-based intelligence. When using Private Cloud Compute, users’ data is never stored or shared with Apple; it is used only to fulfill their request. Independent experts can inspect the code that runs on Apple silicon servers to continuously verify this privacy promise and are already doing so.

In addition, for users who choose to access ChatGPT through Siri or Writing Tools, privacy protections are built in — their IP addresses are obscured, and OpenAI won’t store requests. Users can access ChatGPT for free without creating an account, and ChatGPT’s data-use policies apply for those who choose to connect their account.

Availability

Apple Intelligence will be available as a free software update. The first set of Apple Intelligence features will be available in beta next month as part of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1, with more features rolling out in the months to come. It will be available on iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, iPhone 16 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and iPad and Mac with M1 and later, with device and Siri language set to U.S. English. Additional languages and platforms are coming over the course of the next year.

Apple introduces Apple Watch Series 10

Apple today unveiled Apple Watch Series 10, featuring a refined design and bringing new capabilities to the world’s most popular watch that make it even more powerful, intelligent, and sophisticated. Apple Watch Series 10 is the thinnest Apple Watch yet — making it more comfortable than ever — and offers the biggest, most advanced display of any Apple Watch. It also features new sleep apnea notifications; faster charging; water depth and temperature sensing; plus new health and fitness insights and intelligence in watchOS 11.

Apple Watch Series 10 is available in both aluminum and titanium, in an array of stunning colors and finishes. Jet black is a new polished aluminum finish that is distinctively reflective and sleek, while new titanium cases — available in natural, gold, and slate — have a spectacular jewelry-like shine.

The new Apple Watch lineup can be pre-ordered today, with availability beginning Friday, September 20.

The Sleekest, Thinnest Apple Watch Yet

Apple Watch Series 10 is nearly 10 percent thinner than Apple Watch Series 7, Series 8, and Series 9, while offering all the advanced capabilities users love, adding new features, and maintaining all-day 18-hour battery life. An innovative metal back integrates the antenna into the housing of the device itself, combining the two layers into one. The back is perfectly matched in material, finish, and color to the rest of the case, making it appear like the device is made from a single piece of metal.

The new S10 SiP was engineered to achieve a thinner profile, and designed for performance, power efficiency, and intelligence. The S10 SiP and built-in 4-core Neural Engine allow for intelligent features users rely on every day, including the double tap gesture, on-device Siri, dictation, and automatic workout detection; important safety features such as Crash Detection and Fall Detection; and the updated Smart Stack, the redesigned Photos face, and the Translate app in watchOS 11.

In addition to being thinner, Apple Watch Series 10 is also lighter: Aluminum cases weigh up to 10 percent less than Series 9, and titanium cases weigh almost 20 percent less than stainless steel Series 9. The case also features more rounded corners and a wider aspect ratio, which contribute to a much larger display while only slightly growing the case to new 42mm and 46mm sizes.

Apple’s Largest, Most Advanced Wearable Display

The display on Apple Watch is central to every interaction, from viewing a notification, to taking a quick glance at workout metrics. Apple Watch Series 10 features the biggest and most advanced display of any Apple Watch.

The larger display offers up to 30 percent more active screen area than Apple Watch Series 4, Series 5, and Series 6, and up to 9 percent more than Apple Watch Series 7, Series 8, and Series 9. This improves readability and usability: In apps like Messages, Mail, or News, users can see an additional line of text or increase the font size without sacrificing content. The larger display also makes it easier to type a message, pause a workout, or enter a passcode.

Apple Watch Series 10 is the first Apple product to offer an innovative wide-angle OLED display, which optimizes each pixel to emit more light at wider angles. As a result, the display is up to 40 percent brighter than Series 9 when viewed from an angle, making it easier to read at a glance.

The wide-angle OLED display is also more power efficient, enabling a faster refresh rate when Apple Watch is in always-on mode, going from once a minute to once a second. As a result, users can now see a ticking seconds hand without raising their wrist on select watch faces.

New watch faces in watchOS 11 are designed to take advantage of the bigger display and faster refresh rate on Apple Watch Series 10. The Flux watch face features a bold graphic design that fills the screen with color second by second. The Reflections watch face features a distinctive shimmering dial that reacts subtly to user movements, and is designed to complement the highly reflective quality of the new titanium cases.

Featuring a distinctive shimmering dial that reacts subtly to user movements, the new Reflections watch face is designed to complement the highly reflective quality of the new titanium cases.

Faster Charging

The new metal back integrates a larger and more efficient charging coil, making Series 10 the fastest-charging Apple Watch ever, so it is easier than ever to use Apple Watch throughout the day as well as overnight. Fifteen minutes of charging provides up to eight hours of normal daily use, or eight minutes of charging powers up to eight hours of sleep tracking. Faster charging also means users can charge to 80 percent battery in about 30 minutes.

Insightful Sleep Apnea Notifications

The compact new design and faster charging of Apple Watch Series 10 make it even more comfortable and convenient to wear during sleep. Building on the intelligent health features already available to track key overnight metrics such as heart rate, respiratory rate, and wrist temperature, Apple Watch now offers a feature to help identify signs of sleep apnea.1

Sleep apnea is a potentially serious condition where breathing stops repeatedly during sleep. The condition, which is estimated to impact more than 1 billion people worldwide, goes undiagnosed in most cases. If left untreated, sleep apnea can have important consequences on health, including an increased risk of hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiac issues.

To detect sleep apnea, Apple Watch uses the accelerometer to monitor small movements at the wrist that are associated with interruptions in normal respiratory patterns, tracked by a new Apple Watch metric called Breathing Disturbances. While some of these disturbances are normal, they are important to track as they can be used to help understand restfulness of sleep and, when occurring frequently over multiple nights, may be associated with sleep apnea. Users can view their nightly Breathing Disturbances in the Health app, where they are classified as elevated or not elevated, and can be viewed over a one-month, six-month, or one-year period.

The new sleep apnea algorithm analyzes breathing disturbance data, so Apple Watch can notify a user if the data indicates consistent signs of sleep apnea. The notification will include the time period when potential sleep apnea occurred and educational materials on the importance of seeking treatment, along with a PDF providing three months of breathing disturbance data, notification details, and additional information to reference during a conversation with a healthcare provider.

The sleep apnea notification algorithm was developed using advanced machine learning and an extensive data set of clinical-grade sleep apnea tests. The feature was then validated in a clinical study — unprecedented in size for sleep apnea technology. In the clinical validation study, every participant identified by the algorithm had at least mild sleep apnea. The feature is expected to receive marketing authorization from the FDA and other global health authorities soon. Sleep apnea notifications will be available in more than 150 countries and regions this month, including the U.S., the EU, and Japan.

Depth and Temperature Sensing for Water Activities, and the New Tides App

Apple Watch is great for activities in and around the water, with a swim-proof design that has a 50-meter water resistance rating, automatic stroke detection, and lap counting — and now watchOS 11 introduces Custom Workouts for pool swims. A new depth gauge and water temperature sensor make Apple Watch Series 10 an even better companion when users are headed into the water.

The new depth gauge can measure down to 6 meters beneath the water’s surface, perfect for snorkeling and shallow diving, or playing in the pool, lake, or ocean. Additionally, the new water temperature sensor measures the temperature of the water once Apple Watch has been submerged. The built-in Depth app is highly legible for easy underwater visibility, displaying the time, current depth, water temperature, duration under water, and maximum depth — with the option to automatically activate as soon as Apple Watch is submerged. Water temperature is also displayed in workout metrics during Pool Swim and Open Water Swim workouts.

To help users plan and enjoy open water activities and stay aware of changing conditions, watchOS 11 introduces a new Tides app. Users can access seven rolling days of forecasted tidal information for coastlines and surf spots around the globe, including information on high and low tides, rising and falling tides, tide height and direction, and sunrise and sunset, all plotted against a timeline. Users can also view beaches near their location on a convenient map, and new complications show current tide information for their favorite spots or closest beaches at a glance.

The Oceanic+ app is now available for Apple Watch Series 10, with new features for snorkeling.2 Developed in partnership with Huish Outdoors, the app allows users to easily find popular snorkeling locations nearby; view information on conditions provided by the snorkeling community; and during a snorkeling session, see depth, water temperature, and more in a single view.

Audio Playback Through Speakers and Voice Isolation for Calls

Audio can now be played back through the built-in speaker on Apple Watch Series 10. Just like with phone calls, users can listen to audio from a range of apps — including Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, and Apple Books, and third-party apps — right from their Apple Watch.

Apple Watch Series 10 also uses a new voice isolation neural network running on the 4-core Neural Engine to suppress background noise during phone or FaceTime audio calls, so a user’s voice sounds crisp and clear on the other end of the line — even in noisy environments like a crowded restaurant, a city street, or a windy day outside.

Sophisticated New Aluminum Finishes and Polished Titanium

For the first time, Apple Watch is available in a polished aluminum finish, jet black, with a distinctively glossy, reflective shine. To achieve this, the aluminum case is polished using nano-particles and then undergoes a 30-step anodization process. Apple Watch Series 10 also comes in an updated rose gold aluminum, along with the popular brushed silver aluminum.

Additionally, Apple Watch Series 10 is available in an aerospace-grade polished titanium that replaces the stainless steel of previous generations. The new grade 5 titanium cases offer a spectacularly reflective, jewelry-like finish, while being almost 20 percent lighter than Apple Watch Series 9 in stainless steel. The titanium cases come in three stunning colors: natural, gold, and slate.

Last year, Apple Watch became Apple’s first carbon neutral product by dramatically reducing carbon emissions across the three biggest sources — materials, electricity, and transportation — and using high-quality carbon credits from nature-based projects to offset the small amount of emissions remaining. With the introduction of Apple Watch Series 10, made with 100 percent recycled aluminum or 95 percent recycled titanium in the case, customers now can choose a carbon neutral option of any Apple Watch in any material. This is an important step toward Apple 2030, Apple’s ambitious plan to be carbon neutral across its entire carbon footprint by 2030.

Featuring watchOS 11

In addition to the new Tides app, Apple Watch Series 10 features the powerful health and fitness insights and intelligent customization that come with watchOS 11, including:

  • The new Vitals app, which gives users a way to quickly view key overnight health metrics and gain better context when it comes to their health. When two or more metrics are out of their typical range, users can receive a notification, along with a message detailing how the changes in these specific metrics may be linked to other aspects of their life, such as elevation changes, alcohol consumption, or even illness.
  • Training load, an insightful new way to measure how the intensity and duration of workouts impact a user’s body over time, which can help users make informed decisions about their training each day.
  • Even more customizable Activity rings, offering users the ability to specify Activity ring goals by the day of the week, so the rings provide the right amount of motivation at the right moments. Users can also pause their rings for a day, week, month, or more without affecting their award streaks, allowing users to plan a rest day, care for an injury, or just take a day off.

watchOS 11 also features a more intelligent Smart Stack to help users quickly access important information, a redesigned Photos face that uses machine learning to help users curate their best photo options, the Translate app and Check In on Apple Watch, the ability to scroll through any app with the double tap gesture, summarized notifications powered by Apple Intelligence forwarded from iPhone,3 and more.

Lineup 

  • Apple Watch Series 10 is available in 42mm and 46mm sizes in the new jet black, the new rose gold, and a silver aluminum case, as well as new titanium in natural, gold, and slate.
  • Any Apple Watch Series 10 with a Sport Loop band, Braided Solo Loop, or updated Milanese Loop is carbon neutral.
  • Apple Watch Hermès is available in 42mm and 46mm sizes in silver titanium designed to match the stainless steel of previous generations.

Bands 

The Milanese Loop and Link Bracelet bands have been updated to perfectly color-match the new titanium cases of Apple Watch Series 10.

A new collection of Hermès bands draws on the house’s rich history in textiles and craftsmanship. Torsade is a cable-knit band inspired by nautical chains available in single and double tour versions in one of three bold colors. Twill Jump Attelage is a narrow, delicate single tour band with a contrasting edge and silky feel. Grand H is Hermès’s first metal band for Apple Watch, made with interlocking links of satin-finished stainless steel. It features two H-shaped links, removable links customers can use to adjust the size, and a traditional double butterfly closure.

Additionally, the Nike Sport Loop and Nike Sport Band are available in bold new colorways.

Pricing and Availability

  • Customers in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, India, Japan, the UAE, the U.K., the U.S., and more than 49 other countries and regions can pre-order Apple Watch Series 10 today, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 20.
  • Apple Watch Series 10 starts at $399 (U.S.).
  • Apple Watch SE is available starting at $249 (U.S.).
  • New Apple Watch bands will be available to order today from apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 20.
  • watchOS 11 will be available for Apple Watch Series 6 or later on Monday, September 16, and requires iPhone Xs or later running iOS 18. Not all features are available on all devices and in all regions.
  • Older Apple Watch bands, including 41mm and 45mm sizes, will be compatible with the new 42mm and 46mm cases, and all new 42mm and 46mm bands will be compatible with older Apple Watch models.
  • Three months of Apple Fitness+ and Apple Music are included for customers who purchase Apple Watch Series 10, Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Ultra 2, or a new Apple Watch Series 6 or later. course of the next year.

Apple introduces new health features

Apple today unveiled breakthrough sleep and hearing health features coming to Apple Watch and AirPods Pro 2 that further deliver on Apple’s commitment to health with experiences that enrich users’ lives. These new features expand across products, bringing informative and powerful ways to support users in their sleep and hearing health for conditions that impact billions globally.

Using an innovative new Breathing Disturbances metric, sleep apnea notifications come to Apple Watch, adding to the many ways Apple Watch acts as an intelligent guardian for users’ health. The sleep apnea notifications are expected to receive marketing authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other global health authorities soon, with availability this month in more than 150 countries and regions, including the U.S., the EU, and Japan.1

Apple is providing the world’s first all-in-one hearing health experience with AirPods Pro with active Hearing Protection,2 a clinically validated Hearing Test feature, and an over-the-counter Hearing Aid feature. The first-of-its-kind software-based Hearing Aid feature helps make access to hearing assistance easier than ever at an approachable price point. The Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features are expected to receive marketing authorization from global health authorities soon, and will be available this fall in more than 100 countries and regions, including the U.S., Germany, and Japan.

“At Apple, we believe that technology can help you live a healthier life, and we’re excited to enable incredible new health capabilities for serious conditions that affect billions of people around the world, while continuing to keep user data private,” said Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple’s vice president of Health. “With Apple Watch, we continue to offer our users the ability to uncover important health conditions with new sleep apnea notifications. And on AirPods Pro, powerful features put users’ hearing health front and center, bringing new ways to help test for and receive assistance for hearing loss.”

Sleep is an important area of health as it impacts a person’s overall physical and mental wellbeing. Sleep apnea is a prevalent disorder in which breathing momentarily stops during sleep, preventing the body from getting enough oxygen. The condition is estimated to impact more than 1 billion people worldwide, and in most cases, goes undiagnosed. If left untreated, it can have important health consequences over time, including increased risk of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cardiac issues.

Breathing Disturbances is an innovative new Apple Watch metric that uses the accelerometer to detect small movements at the wrist associated with interruptions to normal respiratory patterns during sleep. Every 30 days, Apple Watch will analyze breathing disturbance data and notify users if it shows consistent signs of moderate to severe sleep apnea so they can speak to their doctor about next steps, including potential diagnosis and treatment.

Because overall quality of sleep is important, Breathing Disturbances can also be used to assess restfulness of sleep. Breathing Disturbances can be influenced by alcohol, medications, sleep position, and more. Users can view their nightly Breathing Disturbances in the Health app, where they are classified as elevated or not elevated, and can be viewed over a one-month, six-month, or one-year period.

For more informed conversations with their healthcare providers, users can export a PDF that shows when sleep apnea may have occurred, three months of breathing disturbance data, and additional information. Educational articles are also available within the Health app to help users learn more about sleep apnea.

The sleep apnea notification algorithm was developed using advanced machine learning and an extensive data set of clinical-grade sleep apnea tests. The feature was then validated in a clinical study — unprecedented in size for sleep apnea technology. In the clinical validation study, every participant identified by the algorithm had at least mild sleep apnea.

“Empowering consumers everywhere to have the ability to reliably identify the presence of abnormal breathing patterns during sleep can help uncover a woefully underdiagnosed and serious medical condition such as sleep apnea,” said Sairam Parthasarathy, M.D., University of Arizona Health Sciences Center for Sleep, Circadian, and Neurosciences’s professor and director in Tucson, Arizona. “This is a major step forward in improving public health.”

Sleep apnea notifications and Breathing Disturbances add to a range of sleep health features for Apple Watch users. In addition to monitoring important overnight health metrics like heart rate and respiratory rate, Apple Watch also helps users meet their sleep goals and track their sleep over time.

The World’s First All-in-One Hearing Health Experience

Approximately 1.5 billion people around the world are living with hearing loss, according to the World Health Organization. Research has also identified links between hearing loss and impact on a person’s overall wellbeing, including dementia and social isolation.

To help users better understand their hearing health, Apple is introducing an end-to-end experience focused on prevention, awareness, and assistance.

Prevention

According to the Apple Hearing Study — a longitudinal, virtual public research study conducted in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Public Health and the World Health Organization — one in three people are regularly exposed to loud environmental noise levels that can impact their hearing. That can include common scenarios like taking the subway while commuting, mowing the lawn at home, attending a sporting event, and many more.

In order to help users prevent exposure to loud environmental noise while preserving the sound signature of what they’re listening to, Hearing Protection comes to AirPods Pro. The ear tips help to provide passive noise reduction, while the H2 chip helps to actively reduce louder, more intermittent noise at 48,000 times per second. On by default across all listening modes, Hearing Protection is helpful in a variety of loud settings. Plus, with an all-new multiband high dynamic range algorithm, sounds at live events like concerts remain natural and vibrant.

Awareness

Hearing loss often worsens gradually, leaving many people unaware that they may be living with the condition. Eighty percent of adults in the U.S. have not had their hearing checked in the last five years, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. To give users even more insights into hearing health, Apple is introducing an intuitive, clinical-grade hearing test based on the standard clinical approach called pure-tone audiometry that users can take themselves with their AirPods Pro and a compatible iPhone or iPad.

Users can take the convenient test in about five minutes from the comfort of their own home. The Hearing Test feature leverages advanced acoustic science and provides users with an interactive experience. When a user completes the test, they will see an easy-to-understand summary of their results, including a number representing hearing loss in each ear, a classification, and recommendations. The results, which include an audiogram, are stored privately and securely in the Health app, and can be shared with a healthcare provider to have more informed conversations.

The Hearing Test builds on learnings from the Apple Hearing Study and was developed using large-scale, real-world data. The feature was then validated against the clinical gold standard of pure-tone audiometry.

Assistance

Learning about hearing loss is a critical step to getting necessary assistance, which can often be challenging due to cost and access. Global research shows hearing loss often goes untreated. In fact, the Apple Hearing Study revealed that 75 percent of people diagnosed with hearing loss haven’t received the assistive support that they need.

AirPods Pro add an innovative over-the-counter Hearing Aid capability for users with mild to moderate hearing loss. Using the personalized hearing profile from the Hearing Test, this new feature seamlessly transforms AirPods Pro into a clinical-grade hearing aid. After setup, the feature enables personalized dynamic adjustments so users have the sounds around them boosted in real time. This helps them better engage in conversation, and keeps them connected to the people and environment around them. With the incredible audio quality of AirPods Pro, the user’s personalized hearing profile is automatically applied to music, movies, games, and phone calls across their devices, without needing to adjust any settings. Users can also set up the Hearing Aid feature with an audiogram created by a hearing health professional.

The Hearing Aid feature was clinically validated in a controlled, randomized study that evaluated the perceived benefit of the feature and its custom settings compared to an audiologist-assisted setup.

After taking the Hearing Test, the user’s hearing profile can also help to personalize the AirPods Pro listening experience for even more people, including those with little to no hearing loss who can still benefit from specific adjustments at individual frequencies. To help provide the best listening experience, Media Assist is an all-new feature that helps boost certain parts of speech on a phone call or instruments within a soundtrack to help an even broader population.

These features build on the hearing health tools Apple currently offers its users. For example, with the Noise app, Apple Watch users can enable notifications for when environmental noise levels might affect their hearing health. On iPhone, users can set a headphone volume limit where they can turn on Reduce Loud Audio and drag a slider to a preferred decibel level. Apple also offers additional accessibility features for users to customize settings to meet their hearing needs.

Additional features coming to Apple Watch, iPhone, and iPad include:

  • The new Vitals app on Apple Watch gives users a way to check in on their daily health status and view key overnight health metrics, like heart rate and respiratory rate, and gain better context when it comes to their health.
  • The Health app offers additional support for pregnant users to reflect changes in their physical and mental health during this important time. Users can view the current gestational age and log symptoms in Cycle Tracking. Apple Watch users can also receive recommendations to review features like high heart rate notifications.
  • Time spent journaling can be saved as mindful minutes in the Health app, and users can log their state of mind right in Journal.

Since launching the Health app in 2014, Apple has introduced meaningful features that focus on 18 areas of health and fitness across Apple Watch, AirPods, iPhone, and iPad. Apple is committed to empowering users on their health journey by building actionable features into the products they use every day that are grounded in science, and have privacy at the core.

Built with Privacy at the Core

Privacy is fundamental in the design and development across all of Apple’s health features. When a user’s device is locked with a passcode, Touch ID, or Face ID, all of their health and fitness data in the Health app — other than Medical ID — is encrypted. Any Health data backed up to iCloud is encrypted both in transit and on Apple servers. When using iOS, iPadOS, and watchOS with the default two-factor authentication and a passcode, Health app data synced to iCloud is encrypted end-to-end, meaning that Apple does not have the key to decrypt the data and therefore cannot read it.

Availability

  • Some features may not be available in all regions or all languages, or with all makes and models.
  • The sleep apnea notifications are expected to receive marketing authorization from the FDA and other global health authorities soon, with availability this month in more than 150 countries and regions, including the U.S., the EU, and Japan. The feature will be supported on Apple Watch Series 9, Apple Watch Series 10, and Apple Watch Ultra 2.
  • The Hearing Test and Aid features are expected to receive marketing authorization from global health authorities soon and will be supported with AirPods Pro 2 with the latest firmware when paired with a compatible iPhone or iPad, and will be available this fall in more than 100 countries and regions, including the U.S., Germany, and Japan.
  • The Hearing Protection feature is expected to be available in fall 2024 and will work with AirPods Pro 2 with the latest firmware when paired with a compatible iPhone, iPad, or Mac running the latest operating system. The feature will be available in the U.S. and Canada.

Apple introduces new AirPods 4 and hearing aid feature for AirPods Pro 2

Apple today announced a groundbreaking new lineup of AirPods models and features. The new AirPods 4 are the most advanced and comfortable headphones Apple has ever created with an open-ear design, and today, customers can choose between two distinct models: AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). AirPods Max now come in midnight, starlight, blue, purple, and orange, and offer USB-C charging for more convenience. This fall, AirPods Pro 2 will introduce the world’s first end-to-end hearing health experience, delivering active Hearing Protection,1 a scientifically validated Hearing Test, and a clinical-grade Hearing Aid feature.2

AirPods 4 and AirPods Max will be available to pre-order starting today, with availability in stores beginning Friday, September 20. New hearing health features will be available this fall for AirPods Pro 2 users in more than 100 countries and regions.

“With AirPods 4, customers can enjoy Active Noise Cancellation and the most advanced audio experience ever in an open-ear design,” said John Ternus, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Engineering. “And with a revolutionary update to the world’s best-selling headphones, AirPods Pro will deliver groundbreaking new capabilities — including Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features — to help more than a billion people affected by hearing loss.”

AirPods 4 Unveil an Industry-Defining Design

With incredible sound quality, up to 24-hour battery life with the charging case, and an iconic design, the original AirPods offered wireless convenience and seamless pairing with the Apple ecosystem of products. That experience gets even better with AirPods 4 and AirPods 4 with ANC, offering a brand-new fit and an array of powerful features and capabilities.

AirPods 4 are the best headphones Apple has ever created with an open-ear design, setting an entirely new benchmark for fit and comfort. The new design is built with an unparalleled data set that uses advanced modeling tools, like 3D photogrammetry and laser topography, to precisely map and analyze thousands of ear shapes and over 50 million individual data points in total. This process helped refine the design to deliver the most comfortable AirPods ever with one shape that naturally fits even more users around the world.

Delivering a massive improvement in sound quality, AirPods 4 feature an entirely new acoustic architecture, low-distortion driver, and high dynamic range amplifier, and add Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking for the most immersive media experience. With the H2 chip, AirPods 4 unlock intelligent audio experiences only Apple silicon can deliver, such as Voice Isolation, enabling clearer call quality no matter the environmental conditions, and Siri Interactions, allowing users to simply nod their head yes or gently shake their head no to respond to Siri announcements. For even more control, AirPods 4 also feature a new force sensor on the stem to play or pause media and mute or end calls with a quick press. Thanks to the H2 chip, AirPods 4 are also great for gaming, delivering low wireless audio latency and excellent voice quality when chatting with teammates and other players, including support for 16-bit, 48kHz audio.

For additional convenience, the charging case now offers USB-C charging and is more than 10 percent smaller in volume than its predecessor — all while still delivering up to 30 hours of battery life.3 In addition to a USB-C charging cable, customers that choose AirPods 4 with ANC can charge using an Apple Watch charger or Qi-certified charger, and at just 50mm wide, the charging case is the smallest in the industry with wireless charging capabilities.

AirPods 4 Bring ANC to an Open-Ear Fit

For the first time, AirPods 4 bring ANC to an open-ear design with an additional model. With upgraded microphones, the power of the H2 chip, and advanced computational audio, AirPods 4 with ANC help to reduce environmental noise like airplane engines, city traffic, and more. Working across hardware and software to deliver the most natural listening experience, AirPods 4 with ANC also introduce intelligent features like Transparency mode to keep users aware of their environment; Adaptive Audio, which dynamically blends Transparency mode and ANC based on the conditions of a user’s environment; and Conversation Awareness, which lowers the user’s media volume when they start speaking to someone nearby.

AirPods Max Get Five New Colors

AirPods Max are available in five beautiful new colors, including midnight, starlight, blue, orange, and purple, and offer complementary finishes alongside other Apple products like Mac and iPad. Additionally, AirPods Max now feature USB-C charging capabilities, making them more convenient than ever to charge at home or on the go.

AirPods Pro 2 Introduce the World’s First All-in-One Hearing Health Experience

Approximately 1.5 billion people around the world are living with hearing loss, according to the World Health Organization. Building on years of work in hearing health — including the Noise app on Apple Watch, headphone audio levels with iPhone, hearing accessibility features, and the Apple Hearing Study — Apple is introducing an end-to-end experience focused on prevention, awareness, and assistance.

Prevention

According to the Apple Hearing Study, one in three people are regularly exposed to loud environmental noise levels that can impact their hearing. That can include common scenarios like taking the subway while commuting, mowing the lawn at home, attending a sporting event, and many more. In order to help users prevent exposure to loud environmental noise while preserving the sound signature of what they’re listening to, Hearing Protection comes to AirPods Pro. The ear tips help to provide passive noise reduction, while the H2 chip helps to actively reduce louder, more intermittent noise at 48,000 times per second. On by default across all listening modes, Hearing Protection is helpful in a variety of loud settings. Plus, with an all-new multiband high dynamic range algorithm, sounds at live events like concerts remain natural and vibrant so users don’t miss a beat.

Awareness

Apple is also introducing a scientifically validated Hearing Test feature with AirPods Pro and a compatible iPhone or iPad, expanding the ability for users to quickly check their hearing from the comfort of their home in minutes. The test is simple to take, utilizes a standard clinical approach called pure-tone audiometry, leverages advanced acoustic science, and provides users with an interactive experience. When a user completes the test, they will see an easy-to-understand summary of their results in a personalized hearing profile for AirPods Pro, which is stored privately and securely in their Health app. Users can also share these results with their healthcare providers for more informed conversations.

The Hearing Test feature is simple to take and enables users to check their hearing from the comfort of their home in minutes.

Assistance

“Hearing health is an essential part of our overall wellbeing, yet it can often be overlooked — in fact, according to the Apple Hearing Study, a staggering 75 percent of people diagnosed with hearing loss go untreated,” said Sumbul Desai, M.D., Apple’s vice president of Health. “We’re thrilled to provide breakthrough software features with AirPods Pro that put users’ hearing health front and center, bringing new ways to help test for and receive assistance for hearing loss.”

AirPods Pro also add an innovative, over-the-counter Hearing Aid capability for users with mild to moderate hearing loss. Using the personalized hearing profile from the Hearing Test, this new feature seamlessly transforms AirPods Pro into a clinical-grade hearing aid. After setup, the feature enables personalized dynamic adjustments so users have the sounds around them boosted in real time. This helps users better engage in conversation and keeps them connected to the people and environment around them. With the incredible audio quality of AirPods Pro, the user’s personalized hearing profile is automatically applied to music, movies, games, and phone calls across their devices without needing to adjust any settings. This first-of-its-kind software-based Hearing Aid feature brings users the ability to fine-tune their experience at any time, making access to hearing assistance easier than ever at an approachable price point. Users can also set up the Hearing Aid feature with an audiogram created by a hearing health professional. Both the Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features are grounded in science and were validated through rigorous scientific studies. The Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features are expected to receive marketing authorization from global health authorities soon, and will be available this fall in more than 100 countries and regions, including the United States, Germany, and Japan.

After taking the Hearing Test, users can also use their hearing profile to personalize the AirPods Pro listening experience. This benefits even more people, including those with little to no hearing loss, who can take advantage of specific adjustments at individual frequencies. To help provide the best listening experience, Media Assist is an all-new feature that helps boost certain parts of speech on a phone call or instruments within a soundtrack to help an even broader population.

Better for the Environment

AirPods are designed to minimize their impact on the environment. The new AirPods 4 design includes the use of 100 percent recycled rare earth elements in all magnets and 100 percent recycled gold in the plating of multiple printed circuit boards. The case also uses 100 percent recycled tin in the solder of the main logic board and 100 percent recycled aluminum in the hinge. AirPods 4 are free of potentially harmful substances such as mercury, BFRs, and PVC. In a first for AirPods, 100 percent of the packaging is made using fiber-based materials, bringing Apple closer to its goal of completely removing plastic from all packaging by 2025. Additionally, Apple reduced the packaging volume by more than 30 percent compared to the previous generation, which helps decrease emissions from shipping and move closer to Apple’s commitment of becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

Pricing and Availability

  • Customers can now pre-order AirPods 4 for $129 (U.S.) from apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in the U.S. and more than 58 other countries and regions, with availability beginning Friday, September 20.
  • Customers can now pre-order AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation for $179 (U.S.) from apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in the U.S. and more than 58 other countries and regions, with availability beginning Friday, September 20.
  • New hearing health features will be available this fall for AirPods Pro 2 customers in a free software update when paired with iPhone or iPad running iOS 18 or iPadOS 18.
  • AirPods Pro 2 are available for $249 (U.S.) from apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app today. 
  • Customers can now pre-order AirPods Max with USB-C charging for $549 (U.S.) from apple.com/store and in the Apple Store app in the U.S. and more than 60 other countries and regions, with availability beginning Friday, September 20.
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