Apple AirPods may be used to spy on conversations, but please don’t

By Aaron Mamiit Published January 13, 2019

Apple’s AirPods are being misused to spy on conversations through a feature that was not meant to enable eavesdropping through the wireless earbuds.

The iOS 12 update, which Apple released last September, added the Live Listen feature to the AirPods. Previously reserved for hearing aids certified under the Made for iPhone hearing aid program, Live Listen allows the iPhone to be used as a directional microphone and the AirPods as hearing aids, in situations such as in a noisy restaurant.

Recommended Videos

To activate the feature, users will need to go to the Control Center menu under Settings, tap Customize Controls, and then tap the plus sign next to the Hearing icon to add it to the Control Center.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Apple added Live Listen to the AirPods to help users with minor hearing issues. However, some people are talking about abusing the feature to listen in on others.

https://twitter.com/arnoldcrndo/status/1083024882655477761

The viral tweet on how to use Apple’s AirPods as an eavesdropping device by a user who goes by the handle @arnoldcrndo has been retweeted over 50,000 times and has received over 152,000 likes. The process is fairly simple — users just have to activate the Live Listen feature, leave their iPhone near the people they want to spy on, and listen to the conversation from another place through their AirPods.

The Twitter user then adds that the Live Listen feature may be used as walkie talkies, and also to cheat in schools as another person communicates the answers to the AirPods-wearer taking a test.

The Live Listen feature of the AirPods being used for anything other than its intended purpose is likely something that Apple does not want to happen, moreso for spying when the company has been very vocal about protecting user privacy.

Users on Twitter and Reddit have expressed concern over the AirPods being used to eavesdrop on others, but raised the issue of the awkwardness of having to leave your iPhone with other people, which may be a sign that something is up.

It is unclear if Apple is already aware of the situation, and if it will do something about it. Perhaps have the iPhone play a sound regularly to alert people that the Live Listen feature is activated?

Topics

Contributor

Aaron received an NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was four years old, and he has been fascinated…

Mobile

Is the Apple Watch in trouble?

Someone wearing an Apple Watch Ultra 2, showing the Modular Ultra watch face.

Warning signs may be starting to flash yellow for Apple, at least when it comes to wearables, including the Apple Watch and AirPods. According to a report from IDC, a market intelligence company, worldwide shipments of wearables grew by 8.8% year over year, but Apple specifically is down by 18.9%. This includes a 19.1% decline in Apple Watch shipments and an 18.8% decline in wearable audio products like AirPods and Beats.

In second place after Apple, we have Xiaomi, which had 43.4% year-over-year growth and seems ton have recovered nicely from the 16% decline in the first quarter of 2023. It's followed by Huawei in third. Global growth seems largely driven by smaller and lesser-known manufacturers with more budget offerings, with bigger names like Samsung slipping to fourth place.

Mobile

We finally know when Apple may release a second-gen AirTag

Person holding an Apple AirTag.

It’s been three years since Apple last released the AirTag, and we’re finally seeing our first rumors about a second generation of the tracker. According to Bloomberg, Apple is preparing a new AirTag, currently codenamed B589, and is conducting tests with manufacturing partners in Asia.

This AirTag 2 isn’t expected to arrive until mid-2025, so there’s still quite a bit of time before we get concrete information. This timeline for the AirTag second-gen aligns with the news last year from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who reported that mass production of the AirTag 2 was delayed until 2025. Kuo expected production to start in the fourth quarter of 2024 for a 2025 launch.

Mobile

Dear Apple, I don’t care how thin the iPad Pro is

Official photo of the 2024 iPad Pro.

Apple revealed the next generations of the iPad Air and iPad Pro last week during its Let Loose event. This week, the first wave of new iPads will arrive in stores and reach consumers worldwide.

Though we got a new 13-inch iPad Air in addition to the regular 11-inch size, the real star of the show was the iPad Pro. Now both the 11-inch and 13-inch models are equipped with a new tandem OLED Ultra Retina XDR display and the blazing-fast M4 chip, and the 1TB and 2TB models have a new nano-texture option for a matte finish display to reduce glare.