iOS 26 feature that turns off headphones when you fall asleep isn’t limited to AirPods

At the WWDC25 keynote, Apple announced a new AirPods feature that would enable the headphones to pause when they sense that their wearer has fallen asleep. But it’s now been discovered that the function is a little more versatile than that suggests.

A contributor to the tech site MacRumors has discovered code that indicates the feature is tied to iOS 26, rather than the AirPods line specifically, and suggests that it will work on Apple’s Beats headphones too. A good thing, since the Beats line-up is broader than the AirPods one and, in the form of the $70 Beats Flex and $80 Beats Solo Buds, boasts two options far cheaper than even the most basic AirPods.

Once you’re running iOS 26, a new option to “Pause Media When Falling Asleep” will appear (and should be enabled by default, although this can be toggled in the Settings app once headphones are connected). With this feature activated, any audio that’s playing through your headphones will pause when you drift off, saving your place in a podcast or playlist. It will also shut off your headphones and thereby preserve battery life.

Apple has not yet revealed how headphones are able to sense when the wearer is asleep, nor have any clues to this been discovered in beta code. One pair of Apple headphones, the Powerbeats Pro 2, has the ability to monitor heart rate, which would likely be enough, but none of the other models do. In fact, the monitor and sensor arrays vary widely across the Beats and AirPods ranges, so it’s hard to see how one method could be applied to all of them. We don’t expect the feature to extend to third-party headphones, but hopefully Apple will provide more clarity soon.

The new feature is part of the new iOS 26 iPhone software update, but to use it you’ll also need to update your headphones with new firmware as well. For AirPods this can be a slightly mystifying process.