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Gurman: AirPods to Gain Hearing Health Features Over the Next Two Years

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Apple's AirPods could gain more prominent hearing health features in the next year or two, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.

airpods-pro-conversation-boost.jpg
Apple's Conversation Boost feature on the AirPods Pro.​

In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that he believes Apple will "upgrade the AirPods to become a health tool in the next year or two," adding "the ability to get hearing data of some sort."

Apple has already added several hearing-focused features to the AirPods in recent years such as Live Listen and Conversation Boost, but Gurman noted that such features are not yet FDA approved or designed to serve as a hearing aid replacement. Given Apple's health objectives, he expects AirPods to take on these sorts of functions "more officially" in the near future.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously highlighted the company's intention to add biometric health monitoring capabilities to future AirPods models. Apple patent filings have described an earbud-based fitness monitoring system that integrates an advanced biometric sensor to detect physiological metrics including temperature, heart rate, perspiration levels and more, through skin contact and via built-in motion sensors. Apple's vice president of technology, Kevin Lynch, has also hinted that AirPods could be a source of additional health data in the future.

New hearing health capabilities would not necessarily be contingent on new AirPods being released, since current models already contain speakers and microphones to support such features, and they could be pushed to existing devices via a firmware update.

Article Link: Gurman: AirPods to Gain Hearing Health Features Over the Next Two Years
 
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https://www.macrumors.com/2023/03/12/gurman-airpods-to-gain-hearing-health-features/
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MacRumors said:


Apple's AirPods could gain more prominent hearing health features in the next year or two, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.


airpods-pro-conversation-boost.jpg


Apple's Conversation Boost feature on the AirPods Pro.​

In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman said that he believes Apple will "upgrade the AirPods to become a health tool in the next year or two," adding "the ability to get hearing data of some sort."

Apple has already added several hearing-focused features to the AirPods in recent years such as Live Listen and Conversation Boost, but Gurman noted that such features are not yet FDA approved or designed to serve as a hearing aid replacement. Given Apple's health objectives, he expects AirPods to take on these sorts of functions "more officially" in the near future.

Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has previously highlighted the company's intention to add biometric health monitoring capabilities to future AirPods models. Apple patent filings have described an earbud-based fitness monitoring system that integrates an advanced biometric sensor to detect physiological metrics including temperature, heart rate, perspiration levels and more, through skin contact and via built-in motion sensors. Apple's vice president of technology, Kevin Lynch, has also hinted that AirPods could be a source of additional health data in the future.

New hearing health capabilities would not necessarily be contingent on new AirPods being released, since current models already contain speakers and microphones to support such features, and they could be pushed to existing devices via a firmware update. The third-generation AirPods Pro may not arrive until 2025.

More to follow...

Article Link: Gurman: AirPods to Gain Hearing Health Features Over the Next Two Years
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Hearing aid, the AirPods already has, is fine. I would never use biometric headphones.
 
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I stream audio (podcasts, music, teleconferences, audio from my Mac at work) to my hearing aids literally, all day. Once in a while I put in my AirPods and it SOUNDS way better… but the battery life & the external microphones don’t give me what I need. I’d LOVE to be able to replace the aids with AirPods, at least some of the time.
 
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I hope that Apple will keep the APP’s ‘good listening experience reputation’ as its core. I also want longer battery. The APP2 is an absolutely stellar functioning piece of engineering feat.
 
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I’m ready for it. I already use AirPods Pro as hearing aid replacements. They work OK… but they could be better in obvious ways. I’m actually rather surprised Apple has been so slow to roll this out since they’d been one of the parties who petitioned the FDA to approve over-the-counter hearing aids. I’d especially appreciate if Apple were to “lift the veil (of secrecy)” a bit and at least announce officially if they’re planning on bringing these features to current models, that would be greatly appreciated by the hearing-impaired community. Need to balance the infamous “secrecy” with their commitment to the community!

One thing they absolutely NEED is a mechanism to troubleshoot AirPods on the iPhone. My impairment is worst in my left ear, and my left AirPod microphone has—apparently—been malfunctioning the past few months. But I didn’t know it, I just assumed my hearing was getting worse (which happens, unfortunately). And thanks to how the automatic microphone switching feature works, seemingly randomly folks I spoke to on the telephone would say my voice was “quiet” or “breaking up”, but with cellular and Bluetooth and earpieces, that’s not an indicator. And, like I said, it seemed random. It was until I really started paying attention to which ear I was putting AirPods into first that I tracked it down to the left mic. And by then my AppleCare had expired, though it had been ongoing for over 3 months, probably longer. Why couldn’t Siri/iOS have alerted me when using that the input from one microphone was substantially degraded over the other?? The OS had all the data, could have. Should have. Except that would be inconvenient for Apple’s bottom line. When I called Apple Support, they had no ability to troubleshoot the microphones and speakers on the iPhone, I had to suggest using Voice Memos… which I’d thought of on-the-fly while on the phone with them. That’s pretty bad. The alternative was for me to drive an hour to the closest Apple Store, but with no guarantee they could troubleshoot them. (I figured that really meant it was a trip whereby they could try to convince me to just buy another pair.) (Also found out that the external mic on my iPhone 12 mini was bad. On which AppleCare had just expired also. Sigh. Explains why “Hey Siri” had been working like crap for the past several months.)
 
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ScooterComputer said:
One thing they absolutely NEED is a mechanism to troubleshoot AirPods on the iPhone. My impairment is worst in my left ear, and my left AirPod microphone has—apparently—been malfunctioning the past few months. But I didn’t know it, I just assumed my hearing was getting worse (which happens, unfortunately). And thanks to how the automatic microphone switching feature works, seemingly randomly folks I spoke to on the telephone would say my voice was “quiet” or “breaking up”, but with cellular and Bluetooth and earpieces, that’s not an indicator.
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You can set the AirPod mics to left-only or right-only in settings. If you do that, it's easy to check if either has a problem using Voice Memo. And that setting also serves as a workaround when one of the mics is indeed broken. I had to do that with two pairs already, unfortunately. I don't know how the AirPods could reliably detect there's a problem by themselves, though maybe they could.
 
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Mine told me I have been listening too loud the past 7 days and needed to turn it down. I would like a setting called as loud as safe. I would want it louder but I get it, too much and I am killing my hearing but I like to turn it up.
 
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Put them in noise cancelation mode, go into a quiet room, and turn on the tone test.
 
haven't we seen these rumors like 2 years ago? throwing things at the wall again ... something will stick ...
 
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