Rumor: water-resistant AirPods coming this year; ’Hey, Siri’ support coming later

Apple is planning water-resistant AirPods with “Hey, Siri” support for later this year, according to Bloomberg, quoting unnamed “people familiar with the matter.”

The AirPods update (AirPods 2?) will purportedly arrive later in 2018 and let you call up Apple’s digital assistant without physically tapping the headphones by saying “Hey Siri.” However, the water-resistant version won’t arrive until next year and will be designed to survey splashes of water, but not submerging.

Chances this rumor is true, according to the Sellers Research Group (that’s me): 90%. Apple will continue to update its wireless speakers as it does with all its products, so these changes make sense.