The feature, which allows iPhone and AirPods users talk to someone in another language with each person hearing or seeing their own native language in real time, was delayed due to EU regulations, Apple says
The feature, launched in the US and UK in September, allows iPhone and AirPods users to talk to someone in another language with each person hearing or seeing their own native language in real time during the conversation
It works on most recent AirPods models and supports English, French, German, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
For conversations with someone not using AirPods, a live transcription is displayed in the other person’s language on their iPhone.
Live Translation is integrated into Messages, FaceTime and the iPhone’s Phone calling app, but not external apps such as WhatsApp.
The Apple-only nature of the feature was at the heart of Live Translation’s delay in the EU, as new regulations on what giant ‘gatekeeper’ tech companies such as Apple have to abide by kicked in.
“While we are excited to be bringing Live Translation on AirPods to the EU soon, we are disappointed we had to delay the launch while we undertook additional engineering work to comply with European Commission rules that require Apple to provide other companies immediate access to our technology,” the company said in a statement.
”We remain deeply concerned that the European Commission’s aggressive interpretation of their rules is putting users at risk and is bad for innovation.”
The EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) says that ‘gatekeeper’ firms must allow certain levels of access to core service technology from rivals or smaller firms if asked.
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In order to meet the legal requirements, Apple created a new audio-routing API so that third-party apps and devices could manage multiple simultaneous audio paths in a way that was comparable to how the Apple feature works.
But this took a lot longer to do and Apple says that it can’t guarantee that it will engage in such extra work for every new service or feature.
“We’ve had to delay or water down features for Europe and in some cases, we won’t be able to ship them at all,” said Apple’s global marketing boss, Greg Joswiak, in a roundtable discussion on the issue attended by the Irish Independent in September.
“People are excited about [Live Translation]. But we [couldn’t] ship it in the EU. This is pissing off customers. It pisses us off. It’s not in our interest to deny features to our European customers. And this is not punitive. [Witholding features] is not something we’re doing to make a point. We hate it. We want to ship all of our great features to all of our users around the world.”
Live Translation is available when using AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 2, or AirPods 4 with ANC paired with an Apple Intelligence-enabled iPhone running the latest software.
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