According to a report from EDN Electronic Design News, Twitter user @lipilipsi shared images and videos of wireless earbuds that closely resemble AirPods. The visuals indicate that the front of the earbud casing integrates an OLED touch screen, suggesting a more advanced design compared to AirPods.

The video shows that upon opening the case lid, the display screen activates. Users can choose options for noise control, locate their earbuds, select equalizer presets, and lock the screen. The display screen also shows the battery levels of each AirPod, current time, and Bluetooth connectivity status.

According to X's profile, @lipilipsi is based in Shenzhen, China. Some internet users indicate that these AirPods with integrated OLED touch screens are products from Huaqiangbei.

The concept of earbuds with built-in touch screens can be traced back to a patent application filed by Apple as early as 2021.

The patent states: "By configuring an interactive user interface on the headphone case, users can control operations related to wireless headphones, enhancing the practicality of the headphone case and improving user control over the wireless headphones."

Apple envisions controlling Apple Music through the headphone case using a capacitive touch screen with a graphical user interface (GUI), along with haptic feedback, allowing users to control audio playback, adjust volume, favorite songs, and interact with music in other ways—similar to what we see with the imitation devices here.

The patent argues that by integrating an interactive touch display in this manner, it "reduces or eliminates deficiencies associated with user control of wireless headphones."