Today the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a patent application from Apple that relates to a possible future version of AirPods that introduces magnetically attached ear tips.

 

AirPods: Magnetic Ear Tip Attachment with Polarity

Apple's patent application pertains to the improvement of earphone  designs. For example, some embodiments pertain to in-ear earphones that include an ear tip that is removably coupled to the earphone housing by first and second sets of magnets such that ear tip can only be attached to the device housing in a single orientation.

Other embodiments pertain to an in-ear earphone that includes ear tip with a stability feature at a bottom portion of the ear tip in order to provide a more secure fit of the ear tip within a user's ear.

The in-ear headphone can include a magnetic alignment system that functions to magnetically couple and align the ear tip relative to the device housing so that the ear tip can only be attached to the device housing in a single orientation. The magnetic alignment system can include a first set of magnets coupled to the device housing and a second set of magnets coupled to the deformable ear tip that cooperate with the first set of magnets.

The first magnet can have a first polarity at its outer surface and the second magnet can have a second polarity at its outer surface opposite the first polarity.

The second set of magnets can include third and fourth magnets, each of which has an outer surface facing the speaker housing. The third magnet can have a first polarity at its outer surface and the fourth magnet can have a second polarity at its outer surface opposite the first polarity. Each magnet in the first set of magnets can be a cylindrical magnet.

Each magnet in the first set of magnets can be an arcuate magnet. Each magnet in the second set of magnets can be an arcuate magnet.

Each magnet in the first and second set of magnets can be a rare earth magnet.

In various implementations, the deformable ear tip can include an inner ear tip wall extending between the ear interfacing end and the attachment end; a deformable outer ear tip wall sized and shaped to be inserted into an ear canal and extending from the ear interfacing end toward the attachment end of the ear tip. The anchor can include a leaf spring coupled to the inner ear tip wall. The anchor can be a rigid plastic structure co-molded with the inner ear tip wall. The anchor can be made from the same material as the outer ear tip wall. The inner ear tip wall, outer ear tip wall and anchor can be a monolithic structure. The anchor can be coupled to the inner ear tip wall and extend away from the inner ear tip wall toward the outer ear tip wall. The anchor can be coupled to the outer ear tip wall and extend away from the outer ear tip wall towards the inner ear tip wall.

Apple's patent FIGS. 3 and 4 below illustrate possible future AirPods with magnetically attachable ear tips in two styles of magnets. 

For full details, review Apple's patent application 20240073576.