Did you know Apple Airpods measure your respiratory rate just by listening to you breathe

When most people use their AirPods, they’re using them for their audio input — they listen to a podcast, a phone call, some music. A new study from Apple’s Machine Learning Institute took a different tack and found what was useful in an AirPod wearer’s audio output, or at least one aspect of it.

The study suggests that AirPods are capable of keeping track of a user’s respiratory rate by monitoring the sound of their breaths in the AirPods’ microphones, a prospect that has huge implications in the realm of wearable health products. Typically, tracking diseases and conditions that affect respiratory health require in-person consultations, but AirPods offer an option to track individuals’ breathing remotely.