Apple Watch have the application Walkie-Talkie to automatically contact your contacts. A similar feature came to the HomePods a few months ago. This function allowed the contact between different HomePods in the same location. The mechanism is very similar to interphones, which is why the tool was baptized as Intercom. Following in the footsteps of the Apple Watch and the HomePod you will likely Apple brings the Intercom feature to AirPods thanks to a patent published a few days ago by the US Patent and Trademark Office.
Intercom inside the AirPods, a feasible possibility
A wireless communication device establishes voice communication between a supported user and a selected remote device that supports another user over a point-to-point wireless ad hoc network link. […] Selection can be based on user interaction with device specified by particular remote device. User interaction may include interaction with a graphical representation of the particular remote device displayed on a graphical user interface.
This is the basic description of patent 16/908552 registered by Apple with the US Patent and Trademark Office. Under the name of point-to-point communication system, The Big Apple shows the viability of the Intercom function in headphones such as the AirPods.
The patent shows how there are situations in which two interlocutors have problems when having a conversation. Sometimes there are environmental noises or due to external circumstances these people have to maintain a certain safety distance. That is why Apple believes a system that allow communication between interlocutors In the purest Walkie-Talkie style of the Apple Watch or HomePod Intercom.
The operation of the tool would be simple and the graphical interface shown is similar to the way of sharing files in AirDrop. Although it is true that Apple subtly criticizes the amount of time we invest in calling a user, it is also true that it ensures the need for such a function in people's lives. Nevertheless, we cannot guarantee that this function will arrive definitively since patents are registered but may never see the light of day.