Apple announced three major new hearing health features for the AirPods Pro 2 in September, including clinical-grade hearing aid features, a hearing test and more robust hearing protection. All three will launch next week with the release of iOS 18.1 and could represent a game-changer for hearing health awareness. Apple is quickly transforming the world's most popular earbuds into an over-the-counter hearing aid.
This also means that we will soon be entering an era where we will have to adapt to people wearing earbuds at all times. There is a perception that it is impolite to leave your earbuds on while talking to other people. The transparency mode on many of today's earbuds sounds completely natural and lifelike, yet I find myself constantly taking my earbuds off to show someone they have my undivided attention. This mindset needs to change when popular earbuds pull double duty as hearing aids. It's a powerful way to reduce the stigma that is all too common around hearing aids, but this change will take time.
Over the last few days I've been able to check out Apple's hearing health features. At times the experience was emotionally intense. As someone who practically grew up with a Discman and an iPod strapped to my hip, I've attended countless concerts over the decades. Also, I haven't seen an audiologist since about 2018. This is anything but unusual; According to Apple, 80 percent of adults in the United States have not had a hearing test in at least five years. Running a test directly on your iPhone is a surefire way to improve this trend.
Prevention: hearing protection
Did you know that there are people who have already replaced earbuds with AirPods Pro at concerts? Until this fall, Apple had never endorsed such a use case or promoted its earbuds as hearing protection devices. The company knew people were doing this but remained silent on the issue.
That has now changed. With iOS 18.1 and the upcoming AirPods firmware update, the AirPods Pro 2 offer hearing protection at all times in the areas of noise cancellation, transparency and adaptive audio modes. There is no “concert mode” or specific setting to toggle. You can think of this as an extension of the loud noise reduction option you already have. Hearing protection is enabled by default, and Apple says that “an all-new multi-band, high dynamic range algorithm” helps preserve the natural sound of concerts and other live events.
Which listening mode you use for concerts depends on your personal preferences. I've found that adaptive audio works well because it allows you to adjust whether you prefer more noise cancellation or more passthrough. But some hearing protection is also active in full transparency mode. The greater the noise cancellation applied, the longer you can stay in relatively noisy environments.
There are limits to the performance of the AirPods Pro 2; Apple hearing protection is not intended for extremely loud, sudden noises such as gunshots, fireworks, or jackhammers. Continuous noise above 110 dBa is also too much for the earphones. Some clubs and concerts may well exceed this limit, so be aware.
Awareness: the Apple hearing test
You need a quiet place for the Apple hearing test. Before you begin, your iPhone will perform a quick analysis of the earbud fit and ambient noise to make sure you're ready to go. All of these hearing health features are calibrated for Apple's stock silicone tips. So if you use third-party aftermarket attachments (including foam), there is no guarantee of the optimal listening experience. Once the test begins, simply tap the screen when you hear one of the three beeps.
There are a few important things you should know about Apple's hearing test. For one thing, it's designed to be impossible to predict or outsmart. The test can play any frequency at any time, so no two are the same. Apple tests your left ear first, and here's something I wish I'd known beforehand: It is completely normal heard nothing at all for several seconds. In those moments when five, six, or even ten seconds went by without an obvious sound sequence, I began to feel quite uneasy.
My best advice is not to wonder if you should Listen to something at a specific moment and instead just focus on the sounds coming at you. Some can be incredibly weak. There are visual cues to let you know that the test is continuing even in silence – the most obvious being a large circle that animates on the screen throughout the process. (You'll also notice a progress bar for each ear that fills as you take.)
I took the test twice, several days apart, and my results for both ears fall under “little to no hearing loss.” Since I just turned 40, I accept that. But I also learned that my left ear has definitely lost a bit more over the years than my right, which I never noticed in everyday life.
The slight difference between my two tests is exactly the margin Apple expects for people who take it multiple times. The results are saved in the Health app, where you can export individual tests (or all) as a PDF. This is what one of my charts looks like:
You can also import graphs from tests you have taken with a hearing care professional. This data is used to configure the hearing aid function.
Apple's listening test only takes about five minutes, but it felt like a long Five minutes for me and everyone else I let try it. This is also probably because many of us haven't done this in too long. The second time wasn't nearly as stressful. I can definitely imagine the hearing test going viral on TikTok and other social media, which seems like a great thing for general awareness. Hearing loss is incredibly common: According to the World Health Organization, 1.5 billion people worldwide live with it to some degree.
Assistance: AirPods as hearing aids
For people ages 18 and older with mild to moderate hearing loss, AirPods Pro 2 can now serve as a clinical-grade hearing aid. Once activated, you can also enable a “Media Assist” setting that uses your hearing test results to optimize the sound of music, phone calls and video content.
In the settings menu, you can use sliders to fine-tune the gain, tone, and balance of the hearing aid function. These options can also be accessed from Control Center on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Just as you can swipe a finger across the stem of the AirPods Pro 2 to adjust the volume, you can also use the same gesture to control the gain when Hearing Aid Mode is active. You can only use the hearing aid function in transparency mode. Apple's instructions for the hearing aid feature note that it takes time (weeks in some cases) for customers to fully adjust to the sound.
The ability to use Apple's $250 earbuds as a hearing aid is a big deal for those who can take advantage of the opportunity. But they won't be suitable for everyone. People with more severe hearing loss still need to look for other solutions. And the biggest downside with the AirPods Pro 2 is battery life: They can last about six hours with the hearing aid on, which can't compete with what you get from many OTC and prescription hearing aids.
But this is a big milestone – and it seems inevitable that Samsung, Google and other tech heavyweights will follow Apple's lead fairly quickly. I'm all for it, even if it seems strange that hearing aid functionality has become the newest aspect of ecosystem engagement. We've long lamented the loss of the headphone jack. With advances like these and the fact that earbuds are helping to improve the quality of life for so many people, we're finally starting to see a worthwhile impact.
Photography by Chris Welch / The Verge