New AirPods With Powerbeats Pro 2's Heart Rate Monitoring Feature Still 'Months Away'

After months of teasers and leaks, the Powerbeats Pro 2 were finally announced by Apple today. A key new feature built into the Powerbeats Pro 2 is heart rate monitoring, and that functionality is expected to expand to AirPods in the future.

AirPods Pro 3 Heart Rate Tracking Feature
When both Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds are placed in the ears, and heart rate monitoring is active, Apple says LED optical sensors pulse at over 100 times per second to measure heart rate via blood flow. The feature integrates with popular fitness apps to collect data during workouts and sync it to the Apple Health app on the iPhone.

The feature is based on the Apple Watch's heart rate sensing technology. If someone is wearing both Powerbeats Pro 2 and an Apple Watch, Apple says apps will default to using Apple Watch heart rate data, and it will likely be the same for future AirPods.

In his coverage of the Powerbeats Pro 2 announcement today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated that new AirPods with heart rate monitoring are "still many months away" from launching. The feature is likely to be available on the AirPods Pro 3, which are currently expected to launch in late 2025 at the earliest.

Related Roundup: AirPods Pro
Related Forum: AirPods

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Top Rated Comments

JohnRckr Avatar
7 months ago
Can’t wait for the AirPods!
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
F23 Avatar
7 months ago
useless feature when you have an apple watch but cool to have for the rare group of ppl who exercise without ANY fitness tracker & still care about recording metrics lol
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexandr Avatar
7 months ago
I'll wait, can't see myself buying Beats.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Student of Life Avatar
7 months ago

Apples release strategy is endlessly perplexing these days
Not really. The Beats are released now so workout people and Android users can buy them up. Later in the year for the holidays watch the new AirPods Pro 3 come out, no need to cannibalize sales by released it so close to the Beats version.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rychiar Avatar
7 months ago
Apples release strategy is endlessly perplexing these days
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
infomofo Avatar
7 months ago
It's so strange- I had assumed from the way they described it that this heart rate sensor would be additive to the apple watch sensor and they might get a more accurate reading by having both. The fact that it's not used if you have both an apple watch and AirPods means its not really very useful for me personally as I'm rarely wearing my AirPods without my apple watch at the same time, particularly if i'm exercising.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)