Developer Ali Tanis just launched RidePods, the first iPhone game that turns Apple's AirPods into a wearable motion controller. Instead of tapping screens, players steer a motorcycle through traffic by simply tilting their heads while wearing compatible AirPods. The free game represents a fascinating glimpse into hands-free mobile gaming, even if the execution feels more like a proof of concept than a polished experience.
The gaming industry just got its first taste of truly hands-free mobile controls, and it's coming from an unexpected source. Apple's AirPods have quietly become motion controllers thanks to developer Ali Tanis, who reverse-engineered the Spatial Audio feature to create something entirely new for iOS gaming.
RidePods - Race with Head launched this week as a free download, requiring nothing more than compatible AirPods and subtle head movements to play. The concept is deceptively simple: steer a motorcycle through endless traffic by tilting your head left and right. But the technical execution reveals how Apple's hardware ecosystem is quietly enabling new interaction paradigms.
The game works exclusively with AirPods that support Spatial Audio - including AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, and third and fourth-generation regular AirPods. These models pack accelerometers and gyroscopes that normally track head position for immersive audio experiences. Tanis tapped into this sensor data to create responsive gaming controls that feel surprisingly natural.
"I had to reverse engineer the Spatial Audio feature to make this work," Tanis announced on Y Combinator, though Apple does provide official developer access to headphone motion data for fitness and accessibility applications.
The gaming experience itself remains fairly basic. Players navigate a motorcycle down what appears to be an endless straight highway, dodging oncoming traffic with head tilts. There's no steering wheel physics or complex track layouts - just pure reaction-based gameplay that responds to your neck movements. The graphics occasionally glitch, with roads disappearing mid-game, and the motorcycle seems locked to a perfectly straight path.
But here's where it gets interesting: the controls actually work remarkably well. Testing with both AirPods Pro and AirPods Max revealed surprisingly nuanced responsiveness to even subtle head movements. The bike responds to micro-adjustments, and you can even play with just a single AirPod earbud for an added challenge. Advanced users can disable Automatic Head Detection in their AirPods settings to use the earbuds as handheld controllers, though this requires much more precise movements.
