AirPods 2 Might Take Some Design Inspiration From the Apple Watch Series 4

Apple seems to think it struck a chord with consumers when it pivoted the Apple Watch Series 4 to the consumer health market. Now the company is reportedly trying to recreate this success in one of 2019’s most anticipated product launches.

Details about the AirPods 2 have already started bubbling to the surface, and have most recently indicated that the earbuds might come with all-new health-tracking and fitness monitors along with the expected expanded Bluetooth capabilities.

This is according to trademark filings in Europe and Hong Kong spotted by Apple Patently on November 3 which state that the AirPods have been classified as wellness devices. As for its new Bluetooth capabilities, a separate certification from the Bluetooth Special Interests Group unearthed by MySmartPrice indicates the devices will soon get Bluetooth 5.0 for better connectivity range and the ability to wirelessly transfer more data.

AirPods 2: New Health Features

So what will Apple’s healthy new AirPods be able to do? Additional heart-rate sensors, for example, would allow the AirPods to push more data to users’ iPhones. This may be a swipe at some of the AirPods copy cats that have been optimized for workouts. This may also enable the new AirPods to double as a fitness tracker in their own right.

The last we heard about potential AirPod fitness-tracking was from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman in June. In a report he detailed that the next generation AirPods would including biometric sensors like a heart-rate monitor, which would make it incredibly similar to the Apple Watch Series.

This also falls into some longstanding patterns. The first sign that the Bluetooth buds could receive health-related upgrades was all the way back in 2017 in a patent filed to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The documentation was titled “Earbuds with biometric sensing.” It would seem that their launch date is inching closer.

Apple continues to dominate the consumer tech market with its original AirPods, even though they were released almost two years ago. Most recently, Best Buy reported that the earbuds were its best-selling item in October.

If two-year old tech is still flying off the shelves, Apple may not be in too much of a rush to push out an upgrade. But once they do, expect a host of health-focused upgrades that possibly resemble the features recently launched with the Apple Watch Series 4.