At its annual iPhone launch event this week, Apple announced that its AirPods Pro 2 will soon work as a hearing aid.
Pending official sign-off from the US Food and Drug Administration and a software update, which is expected this fall, people with mild or moderate hearing loss will be able to use their AirPods as hearing aids. Signs of milder forms of hearing loss can be subtle, but Apple also announced a new clinical-grade hearing test people will be able to use to check their hearing at home.
The fact that most people with hearing loss will be able to use AirPods as hearing aids is a big deal. Hearing aids have been notoriously expensive and are often not covered by insurance. Other barriers such as people’s ideas about who hearing aids are for and the wave of stigma about using them, have complicated getting hearing aids in more people’s hands. While about 29 million US adults could benefit from using a hearing aid, many of them haven’t worn one. Untreated hearing loss has been associated with a myriad of health consequences, including social isolation, dementia and more.
While an extremely popular earbud doubling as a hearing aid device is a big deal, it’s also important to note that the hearing aid announcement wasn’t necessarily surprising. In late 2022, the FDA made it possible for hearing aids to be sold over-the-counter and without a prescription; this paved the way for tech companies such as Sony to enter a medical market that’s now stocking products at places like Walmart and Best Buy.
What’s more, AirPods Pros already include features and settings that may make it easier for people to listen to the world around them when they have trouble hearing in noisy environments. Plus, rumors shared by Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggested that the tech company would soon make a more formal move into the hearing health world.
Despite this, though, many people whose health could be improved by a hearing aid are still not getting 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 do think there’s a big component of expectations,” Ashby-Scabis told CNET in June of the less-than-ideal uptake of hearing aids. “You can walk into your local pharmacy and try on readers and find the ones that are clearer,” she explained, but the same isn’t necessarily true for hearing aids, which require some tweaking and trial-and-error adjustment.
People not only need to adjust to a new device, but their brain also needs to adjust to the fresh auditory experience they’d been going without, Ashby-Scabis explained. While AirPods can’t take away any auditory experience adjustments people will need to make, they may make mild improvements in hearing even easier to access for people who’ve been toggling and toying with Apple devices and settings for years.
This idea is “why I kind of love the idea of AirPods,” Ashby-Scabis said. “People can play with them.”
The quotes from audiologist Ashby-Scabis were provided in June, ahead of Apple’s hearing health announcements this week.
While we wait for the AirPods Pro 2 to officially transform into an over-the-counter hearing aid device, here’s what to know about the hidden features that can help people hear better.
Read more: Apple Announces Preliminary Insights From Its Hearing Study.
