Apple announced in its keynote speech at the WWDC 2026 Developers Conference held today that AirPods will soon gain a custom EQ (equalizer) function, allowing users to further adjust the sound performance of the headphones according to their personal preferences.
According to reports, this new capability will be launched with Apple’s next-generation software platform update. Users can manually adjust the sound output in the system and are no longer limited to the fixed audio configuration gears previously provided by AirPods. Custom EQ supports fine adjustment of different frequency bands, including low frequencies, mid frequencies, and high frequencies, to make the listening experience more suitable for personal preferences. For example, appropriately boosting low frequencies can make music more powerful, while boosting high frequencies can help improve the clarity of vocal and instrument details.
Currently, AirPods already supports adaptive audio, personalized spatial audio, and dialogue perception. The newly added custom EQ will further provide more detailed sound adjustment space on this basis. Apple has not yet detailed the specific interface form and compatible model range of this feature in this announcement, but judging from the release background, customized EQ will be pushed to supported AirPods products as part of a system-level update, including multiple existing and upcoming models.