Apple announced its latest phones today. Given we’re Android Police, we watched the reveal through a certain lens. We were on the lookout for both feature announcements that we could smugly say Samsung or Google’s products did first, but also for genuine innovations that might inform the Android experience’s evolution going forward. We got both.
Apple didn’t announce anything that’ll change an Android user’s life today, but it did introduce some features we’d like to see make their way to our ecosystem of choice sooner than later. Here are five announcements that caught our attention.
The Apple Watch gets an AOD upgrade
Source: Apple
In addition to new phones, Apple announced the Apple Watch Series 10. It has a bigger screen, faster charging, and thinner chassis than previous generations. Those are all solid improvements, but they’re also the kind we’d expect from a generational refresh.
But the new Apple Watch also comes with a small, unexpected upgrade. While previous Apple Watch models and all Wear OS watches (including the new Pixel Watch 3 ) update their AODs once per minute to conserve power, the Apple Watch Series 10 refreshes its AOD once per second, meaning watch faces can feature an animated second hand that’s always visible and always accurate. Hardly a paradigm shift in the wearable tech space, but having an animated second hand at all times will make the Apple Watch Series 10 slightly better for telling time, and just a little nicer to use generally.
Apple also says its new watch comes with a “wide-angle OLED” display that’s easier to see from an angle than typical OLEDs are. All the better for checking the time without shaking your wrist to fully wake the display.
And sleep apnea detection
Source: Apple
The Apple Watch Series 10 is picking up sleep apnea detection in a post-launch update. The feature hasn’t yet received FDA clearance, but Apple says it’s “expected to be available later this month.” Samsung beat Apple to the punch here, offering FDA-approved sleep apnea detection on its Galaxy Watch 7 that was released earlier this year. But while all Wear OS watches offer some form of sleep tracking, and many (for example, the OnePlus Watch 2R ) can detect snoring, FDA-cleared sleep apnea monitoring is still a rarity in wearables.
Given all the major players are increasingly targeting feature parity in their equivalent product lines, the Apple Watch picking up full-fledged sleep apnea monitoring should be a shot in the arm that spurs Android OEMs to pursue FDA clearance for sleep apnea monitoring. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the feature ship on the Pixel Watch 4 next year.
AirPods 4 come in an ANC variety
Source: Apple
Apple also announced a refresh of its base-model AirPods today, with a bit of a twist. The AirPods 4 come with expected upgrades, like a charging case that offers both USB-C and Qi charging. But interestingly, Apple’s releasing two pairs of AirPods 4: a standard model, plus a pricier version that comes with ANC. The standard version is $129, the ones with ANC go for $179.
Standard AirPods still feature a hard plastic design that doesn’t fully seal your ear canal from external air, so noise-cancelling functionality is a surprising addition. Without the tight seal of a silicone or foam ear tip, a lot of external noise can make it into your ear, even using ANC; 2020’s bean-shaped Samsung Galaxy Buds Live featured an open design with ANC, and the effect there was underwhelming. It’ll be interesting to see if Apple can pull it off — if it can, you can bet we’ll be seeing more open-style earbuds with ANC from other manufacturers soon.
AirPods Pro 2 are becoming OTC hearing aids
Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 will soon function as over-the-counter hearing aids. While the functionality is still pending FDA approval, Apple says that, when paired with a device running iOS 18, AirPods Pro 2 will offer OTC hearing aid functionality informed by a self-administered hearing test completed using the earbuds and an iPhone.
Over-the-counter hearing aids are a relatively new product segment, and while they’re typically considerably more affordable than prescription options, options can still cost hundreds of dollars — Sennheiser’s OTC hearing aids, for example, retail for a cool $1,000. AirPods Pro 2 cost $249 at MSRP and are often available for less. Ideally, more manufacturers will follow Apple’s example here, building hearing aid functionality into their standard earbud offerings.
iPhone 16 and 16 Pro come with a camera button
Source: Apple
The newest iPhone models come with a hardware button dedicated to camera controls. Pressing the camera control button opens the camera app; pressing it when the camera is open snaps a photo. The button is touch sensitive, so functions like zooming in and out or swapping between camera modes can be mapped to sliding your finger up and down the length of the button. Two-stage shutter functionality to hold focus on a subject with a half-press is apparently coming in a post-launch update.
Outside Sony’s increasingly esoteric Xperia phones, you won’t find hardware camera buttons on any Android flagships today. Whether we need them in the first place is up for debate — I take a lot of photos with my phone, and I don’t feel like I’m missing much using a software shutter button. Still, there’s a good chance Android manufacturers will follow suit on this one. I wouldn’t be entirely surprised to see a camera button on the Galaxy S26 in a couple years.
There wasn’t anything to make you want to jump ship
We always think it’s valuable to keep a weather eye on what Apple’s doing. Even if we’re not carrying iPhones, a lot of people are; to an extent, as the iPhone goes, so goes the smartphone industry.
For most Android users, Apple’s latest hardware event probably didn’t feature any wow, I need that moments — I know I won’t be trading my Pixel 9 Pro in for an iPhone 16. But with some smart, low-key improvements — hearing aid functionality on the AirPods Pro 2, a faster AOD on the Apple Watch 10, and a versatile camera button on the latest iPhones — Apple’s injecting some interesting ideas into the personal tech sphere. It’ll be interesting to see how Android OEMs respond in the coming months and years.
