I wasn't panicking, just stating an opinion. I should have said it's no where near as accurate as a professional hearing test, poor wording on my part
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iOS 18.1: Take a Hearing Test With AirPods Pro 2
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I have rather profound hearing loss in my left ear and moderate in my right. I have used hearing aids for years now and significantly challenged without them. For phone calls, etc, I still find that AirPods provide a significantly better hearing experience than my $6K hearing aids, so I was really interested to see what the results would be with the test. It was the very first feature of 18.1 that I tried.
The Pros:
The Pros:
- The hearing test was accurate, showing serious hearing loss in my left ear and moderate in my right.
- When compared to no hearing assistance, the AirPods most definitely improve my hearing capacity.
- I can use the AirPods seamlessly between phone calls, in-person conversation, and general normal situations without having to remove hearing aids in order to put in AirPods for a phone call.
- The downfall of hearing aids in my experience is the sound quality when streaming calls, music and other entertainment. AirPods excel in those areas and create a much better experience for movies, music, et.
- Price! Did I mention price? < $200 when on sale vs $6K+ is a remarkable difference!
- The AirPods do not amplify to the same degree as my audiologist's prescribed hearing aids, and while great on call quality, when it comes to general listening needs, they still fall short of my hearing aids.
- Due to battery life, I would have to switch AirPods multiple times throughout the day in order to get the same usefulness as my hearing aids which typically provide about 3 days worth of use from the small button cell batteries (I opt for those vs rechargeable due to the nature of my work and schedule).
- From an appearance perspective, when I am meeting with people, most will still interpret the wearing of AirPods as rude, impersonal and distracting, as they will likely not understand the hearing assistance capacity until it catches on more. Even my wife the first time I tried them out in conversation at home said, "Would you please take those out so that we can talk?"
Health / Browse / Hearing / Hearing Test Results / (scroll to the bottom and select “Show ALL data” / Swipe left on the test you want to delete.
Careful to select “show ALL data” and NOT “show MORE data”
As someone who has extensive knowledge and experience in the field of audiology, I would not trust this hearing test feature. In fact I wouldn't go near it with a 10 foot pole. Hearing loss is not a simple matter, there are different kinds of hearing loss with different causes and different prescriptions.
I started losing my hearing many years ago, which resulted in me being prescribed with high power Phonak hearing aids. My hearing continued to decline to the point where hearing aids no longer helped me. Today I use cochlear implants for profound sensorineural hearing loss and they work much better for me than hearing aids.
A proper diagnosis of hearing loss involves not only audio testing, but also includes a physical examination of the outer and middle ear as well as bone conduction testing. All of these tests need to be properly performed in a soundproof audiological room. And, with any other proper medical intervention, a personal face-to-face interview is required with a trained physician. And, everyone should be getting their hearing properly tested in a audiology setting/booth every year anyway.
Apple really needs to stop adding medical features to their products, there are too many variables that could produce too many false positives/negatives as well as the possibility of overlooking an underlying disease.
I started losing my hearing many years ago, which resulted in me being prescribed with high power Phonak hearing aids. My hearing continued to decline to the point where hearing aids no longer helped me. Today I use cochlear implants for profound sensorineural hearing loss and they work much better for me than hearing aids.
A proper diagnosis of hearing loss involves not only audio testing, but also includes a physical examination of the outer and middle ear as well as bone conduction testing. All of these tests need to be properly performed in a soundproof audiological room. And, with any other proper medical intervention, a personal face-to-face interview is required with a trained physician. And, everyone should be getting their hearing properly tested in a audiology setting/booth every year anyway.
Apple really needs to stop adding medical features to their products, there are too many variables that could produce too many false positives/negatives as well as the possibility of overlooking an underlying disease.
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It is a pretty clumsy thing. I tried it about 10 times in an absolutely 100% quiet room. The initial setup declared it as ok and quiet. Then it does only one ear, claiming a loud environment and aborting at 90%. Not even moving and breathing as calm as possible.
100% failure here.
100% failure here.
Well, yes, maybe, perhaps.
But Apple is not claiming to diagnose any particular type of hearing loss.
They just offer a tool to check the degree of hearing loss, if conducted in accordance with the instructions, as approved by the FDA and other international health bodies.
What you do with these results is up to you, but it would probably be a good idea to consult an audiologist if the Apple tool tells you that you have any significant degree of hearing loss.
As for Apple needing to stop adding medical features, I very emphatically disagree.
I have been able to show ECG traces to my cardiologist by capturing the symptoms as they occurred. This saved us loads of money and time by not having to wear a Holter monitor for days/weeks at a time.
The ECG and heart monitoring of Apple Watches are life savers, so, no sorry but I disagree with you.
Apple can add as many health features as they want and they will get my support and, likely, my money.
I find this to be the case in professional testing as well.
My hearing loss is unilateral cookie bite loss and has been there probably all my life, but I only started wearing a HA in 2001/2002. My tinnitus was primarily left ear and, sadly, not only sounds like constant tones, but also beeping, which I am sure jacks up my pro and now Apple hearing tests. Now that I have tinnitus perceived in both ears I have been meaning to get back in for a real test, so my impression that the Apple test is lacking has given me the final push to make an appointment. I do not enjoy the reality that true HAs will set me back several thousand each as I am vain enough that BTE just isn't for me.
I've been diagnosed with hearing loss and was prescribed hearing aids in 2007. I have my hearing tested regularly by a professional audiologist and have new prescription hearing aids every 3 years. Even with the hearing aids, I can really struggle to speech, if people speak quietly or in loud environments.
The Apple hearing test says that I have 19dBHL in left ear and 25dBHL in right ear, which it classifies as "Little to No Loss". I'm quite surprised by this result and I see that other people here with hearing loss are also finding that Apple thinks that their hearing is OK.
Maybe try Mimi Hearing Test and share results? Where I am I don't have Apple Hearing Test, using Mimi Hearing Test my left ear is 15dBHL, right is 24dBHL, and definitely my right ear is buzzing all the time.
Given the cost to buy in for top of the line devices such as Phonak’s Infinio Sphere I90 aids (which really do seem groundbreaking by getting close to the Holy Grail of achieving speech recognition in noise), anything that encouraged the industry to sharpen its game has to be good. Equally the near ubiquity of people using earbuds does something to ease people’s self consciousness about using a ‘hearing aid’. Be good to see greater efforts across the consumer tech sector to drive this latter point - Apple are to be applauded for this (and I’m sure the point about shifting more AirPods probably doesn’t hurt the bottom line).
How long ago did you see your audiologist?
I suspect if your hearing aid is “pretty old”, so is your audiologist assessment?
It would be good to compare what you get in a professional assessment.
I would also repeat the test a few times to ensure you didn’t press “thinking” you’ve heard the beeps, even when in fact you really didn’t.
One thing I am suspicious about aI that it seems to me the beeps are all equally spaced and therefore the test would be easy to fool (Perhaps).
I got "Little to no hearing loss" for both ears, which quite surprised me, I could hear the tones near the start but at the mid-point it felt like I was missing loads with just the occasional tone being audible! Pretty cool test, it's a shame they've locked it away from most of the world without needing to use a workaround to reach it.
1. No, Apple is not claiming to diagnose hearing loss.. but you and I both know that is what people will assume.
2. Apple just offers a tool to check hearing loss? No, that is absolutely false, this feature does not in any way provide an accurate hearing test. Take some time to study audiology, as I have, and you will see that I am right.
3. Everyone should be consulting with an audiologist and an ENT physician on a yearly basis anyway.. regardless of this AirPod feature.
4. OTC (over-the-counter) hearing aids and medical hearing aids prescribed by an audiologist are two completely different devices. Do some research on OTC versus prescribed hearing aids. Apple probably sought FDA approval because it's easier to obtain rather than going through an audiologist organization. An audiologist certification program probably would have laughed Apple out the door.
I was unaware I had any hearing loss, it wasn't until I had a proper test done that I found that my hearing loss was so bad that I required high-powered hearing aids.
I reiterate, this AirPods hearing test feature is in no way a proper hearing exam. I love my Apple products, but this AirPod hearing test feature is nothing more than a party trick.
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This feature is not a proper hearing test and should be avoided entirely. Everyone should be getting their hearing properly tested with an audiologist, along with an ENT consultation, every year.
I last saw my ENT and audiologist summer 2022 when I started perceiving my tinnitus in both ears and he sent me in for an MRI to try and figure out "why" I had unilateral loss. No schwannoma or anything else, but did turn up an unrelated meningioma that caused a flurry of activity. Now that that has settled down I have been needing to get back in for another test and figure out how much a new pair will cost as my cure ITE Widex is maybe 10 years old at this point and I (stupidly) stopped wearing it when I started WFH 100% 7 years ago.
I took the test and it tells me I have no hearing loss (which is a joke since I can't hear people talking when they're sitting right next to me sometimes).
I turned on the hearing aid features and found that not only do they not work for me, but they actually make the TV and people's voices so muffled that all I can hear are my own breathing, some muted voices from the neighbors talking in their back yard (with my doors and windows closed, no less), and other "ambient" sounds around me.
They basically do the opposite of what I would expect a hearing aid to do – they amplify things I would rather not hear at all and completely remove voices. I've tried adjusting every setting and nothing seems to work (or even change).
I turned on the hearing aid features and found that not only do they not work for me, but they actually make the TV and people's voices so muffled that all I can hear are my own breathing, some muted voices from the neighbors talking in their back yard (with my doors and windows closed, no less), and other "ambient" sounds around me.
They basically do the opposite of what I would expect a hearing aid to do – they amplify things I would rather not hear at all and completely remove voices. I've tried adjusting every setting and nothing seems to work (or even change).
This would save so much time and hassle if people can submit their own hearing tests from home.
I struck up a conversation with a man waiting with me at a clinic. I was there for a drug test for a job, and he has been waiting 45 minutes in the busy clinic to get his name called. He was waiting to do the hearing test. It was a very busy clinic.
He lived 35 minutes away from the clinic. Luckily, I only had to wait 25 minutes for my name to be called.
I hope other headphones manufacturers make hearing tests and hearing aids as Apple has done in the future.
I struck up a conversation with a man waiting with me at a clinic. I was there for a drug test for a job, and he has been waiting 45 minutes in the busy clinic to get his name called. He was waiting to do the hearing test. It was a very busy clinic.
He lived 35 minutes away from the clinic. Luckily, I only had to wait 25 minutes for my name to be called.
I hope other headphones manufacturers make hearing tests and hearing aids as Apple has done in the future.
I want to get my father the AP2, but he doesn't have any Apple hardware (i.e. iPhone). Can I have him take a hearing test using the AP2 with my iPhone? I’m worried that it might adjust my settings instead of just his AP2.
I am trying to find out, why it fails 100% here and I think, that Apple is clever enough to avoid this. There is a silent space between the the different beeps. If you try to fool it and (honestly) think, you hear something, when there is silence, it is interpreted as noise around you and finishes with a failure.
...unless you use a stopwatch to control the silent spaces though.
It’s easy to forget we are just at the beginning of home health diagnostic tools being available to the masses. Yes, Apple’s hearing test and AirPods may not be as good as professional options, but think what it will be like in 5-10 years after Apple has millions of data points and makes hardware and software improvements. Between these kinds of technological innovations and AI (I mean machine learning) the future for managing our own health looks extremely bright.
This is why you need to see an audiologist to have a hearing aid custom prescribed for your level of hearing loss.. this is actually a medical prescription similar to eyeglasses. A prescribed hearing aid will adjust the volume of each frequency group rather than boosting all sound at the same volume. This is the difference between an OTC hearing device and a medically-prescribed hearing aid. An OTC (over-the-counter) hearing device has the potential to damage what hearing you have because it is boosting all sound instead of just the frequencies that you need increased.
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