Why AirPods Could Be the Hearing Aid People Actually Use

During the annual iPhone launch event this week, Apple announced that the AirPods Pro 2 will soon be able to be used as hearing aids.

Pending regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a software update expected this fall, people with mild to moderate hearing loss will be able to use their AirPods as hearing aids. Signs of milder hearing loss can be subtle, but Apple also announced a new clinical hearing test that people can use to test their hearing at home.

The fact that most people with hearing loss can use AirPods as hearing aids is a big deal. Hearing aids are notoriously expensive and often not covered by insurance. Other barriers, such as ideas about who hearing aids are for and the wave of stigma surrounding their use have made it complicated to get hearing aids into the hands of more people. While approximately 29 million American adults could benefit from using a hearing aid, many of them have not worn one. Untreated hearing loss has been linked to a numerous health consequencesincluding social isolation, dementia and more.

While an extremely popular earplug that doubles as a hearing aid is a big deal, it’s also important to note that the hearing aid announcement wasn’t necessarily a surprise. In late 2022, the FDA made hearing aids available over-the-counter and without a prescription; this paved the way for tech companies like Sony to enter a medical market that now sells products in places like Walmart And Best buy.

Additionally, AirPods Pros already include features and settings that can make it easier for people who have difficulty hearing in noisy environments to listen to the world around them. Plus, rumors shared Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggested that the tech company would soon make a more formal move into the hearing care world.

Despite this, many people whose health could benefit from hearing aids still don’t get them. According to Tricia Ashby-Scabis, senior director of audiology practices at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, many people who bought OTC hearing aids have returned them.

“I think there’s a big component of expectations,” Ashby-Scabis told CNET in June about the less-than-ideal acceptance of hearing aids. “You can go to your local drugstore and try out readers and find the ones that are the clearest,” she explained, but the same isn’t necessarily true for hearing aids, which require some adjustment and trial-and-error fitting.

Not only do people have to get used to a new device, but their brains also have to get used to the new auditory experience that they’ve been missing, Ashby-Scabis explained. While AirPods can’t eliminate the auditory adjustments people have to make, they could make mild improvements to hearing even more accessible to people who have spent years switching and fiddling with Apple devices and settings.

That idea is “why I like the idea of ​​AirPods so much,” Ashby-Scabis said. “People can play with them.”

The quotes from audiologist Ashby-Scabis were provided in June, prior to Apple’s hearing health announcements this week.

While we wait for the AirPods Pro 2 to officially become an over-the-counter hearing aid, we’re here to tell you what you need to know about the hidden features that can help people hear better.

Read more: Apple announces preliminary insights from its hearing research.

AirPod Pro features that are (already) helping people hear better

Ashby-Scabis told CNET in June that she owns a pair of AirPods, has heard about the improved hearing features at conferences, and has experimented with some of the features.

She is impressed, also by the Live Listening Feature which lets you use your iPhone or iPad as a directional microphone to pick up specific sounds in noisy environments, adding a more intentional element to hearing. (This works with AirPods, as well as some Beats devices.) Conversation Boost for AirPod Pro is another feature that helps you focus on the person talking in front of you. Trouble hearing people talking in noisy environments is often one of the first signs of mild or moderate hearing loss.

“That’s something we always encourage with more traditional prescription hearing aids,” Ashby-Scabis said. “We still try to get people to choose accessories that can zero in on certain people in certain situations.”

You’ll need a pair of AirPods Pro 2 to take full advantage of Apple’s hearing features, both existing and planned for this fall. To take full advantage of Apple’s hearing assistance features on your AirPods, you’ll want to enable Transparency mode, which is somewhat like a hearing aid in that it fine-tunes the sounds of your environment to your particular hearing.

You can switch with Transparency mode by going to Institutions on your iPhone or iPad. Then select Accessibility > Audio & Visual then select Headphone adjustments. From there you can select Custom audio settings and even upload audiogram or hearing test results, making it as personal as possible. Transparency Mode is enabled, you can further customize this under Headphone Adjustments and Enable Call Amplification or play with the Amplification setting.

Even small changes, such as changing the clarity of speech or making it sound sharper, can help people who have some hearing loss.

“I think that clarity boost can really make a difference for those people who are starting to lose some of the high frequencies,” Ashby-Scabis said. “And it helps them pick up those consonants and gives them a little bit more clarity in speech.”

Read more: 10 Tips to Reduce Your Risk of Hearing Loss

How do AirPods Pro 2 compare to hearing aids?

To date, there has been very limited research showing that AirPods Pro perform as well as a basic hearing aideven if they still beaten by more premium modelsThere is a wide range of hearing aids, ranging from personal and unregulated sound amplification products, which are intended for situations where you want louder sounds, to OTC hearing aids for mild or moderate hearing loss and prescription hearing aids.

AirPods Pro 2 may be a much more affordable option for many who could benefit from a hearing aid. For example, AirPods Pro 2 currently hover just above $200. And while it’s a far cry from the average Price tag of $4,000+ With most prescription hearing aids, a good pair of over-the-counter hearing aids still costs at least a few hundred dollars.

Like other over-the-counter hearing aids, AirPods Pro 2 are not for everyone with hearing loss. Over-the-counter devices are not intended for children with hearing loss or adults with severe hearing loss. People experience pain or other ear symptoms In addition to hearing loss, you should consult a doctor or audiologist before purchasing a hearing aid.

According to Ashby-Scabis, it has been a feat to get hearing health taken as seriously as other aspects of health. But she says the public and the medical community are increasingly aware of how hearing can affect our health, from cognitive effects to physical conditions that can also be linked to hearing ability.

“That doesn’t mean the hearing loss is causing the health problems, but untreated hearing loss often leads to depression and social isolation,” Ashby-Scabis said. “You see people withdrawing, they becoming more sedentary — it can have such an impact on someone’s overall health.”