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NetEase Youdao Launches OpenPods, AI Agent Earphones for iPhone Users

NetEase Youdao unveils OpenPods, the first Agent earphones for iPhone, integrating recording, translation and AI-powered transcription.

AI News Feed · 2026-08-28 14:36

At the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference, the earphones were featured on China Central Television and drew long queues of visitors; many foreign attendees gave a thumbs-up after trying them. The new release aims to close the gap in sound capture for workplaces and daily communication, allowing users to record phone calls or video conferences by pressing a physical button on the earbuds, with no need to unlock the phone and no notification tone. The charging case functions as a standalone recording unit, with a built-in microphone, speaker and storage for offline meetings; it can also play two-way Chinese-English interpretation loudly when needed.

For cross-language conversations, callers can speak their own languages while the earphones provide real-time two-way translation, and voice cloning keeps the translated speech in the original speaker's timbre. Two people can each wear one earbud for face-to-face dialogue, and live streams or lectures without subtitles can be displayed with near-real-time bilingual captions. More than 20 languages and dialects, including Cantonese and Shanghai-accented Mandarin, are supported at launch, with additional languages planned over the air.

After a recording is finished, OpenPods automatically generates transcripts, structured summaries, action items and mind maps, along with speaker separation and technical term correction. An Ask AI feature allows users to ask follow-up questions, with answers referencing the original audio for verification. Recordings and text are accumulated into a personal knowledge base around projects and clients, so one-click commands can summarize, write emails or translate.

The open-ear earbuds weigh 7 grams each and use smart noise reduction for clear capture in noisy environments. Total battery life extends to 32 hours, supporting all-day mobile work. A NetEase Youdao representative said the goal is not simply to record sound but to move sound information through the entire loop of capture, understanding, organization and retrieval, making voice a true productivity tool.