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bbates123

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 2, 2010
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Can somebody who has IOS 12 and Airpods confirm that this feature now works with Airpods? Also, for someone with hearing loss, what is the experience like?
 
Yes it's working in the current beta. Don't suffer from hearing loss so can't vouch for experience relative to other devices I'm afraid
 
Doesn't work at all for me on iOS12 Beta 1 and my first Gen AirPods. In the settings screen "MDi Hearing Devices", the Searching message never finds anything. I am sitting directly next to the iPhone 7 plus wearing the airpods and Bluetooth is on.
 
Doesn't work at all for me on iOS12 Beta 1 and my first Gen AirPods. In the settings screen "MDi Hearing Devices", the Searching message never finds anything. I am sitting directly next to the iPhone 7 plus wearing the airpods and Bluetooth is on.
I activated the Hearing control centre tile within the control centre settings. Then force touch the tile when you want to use the feature simply tap to turn on live listen
 
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I activated the Hearing control centre tile within the control centre settings. Then force touch the tile when you want to use the feature simply tap to turn on live listen
Perfect, thanks, that works for me too. There's quite a latency in the sound however, which is bigger than I thought it would be.
 
Uhhh…do you have something you would like to share with the class daio? lol
I noticed that, too!

As someone with lifelong hearing loss, and for whom conventional hearing aids won't work, I am really interested in this. If it helps, even somewhat, in crowded conditions (parties, noisy restaurants), I will buy a pair of AirPods tomorrow!! Or my family may buy them for me!
 
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I can confirm that with my AirPods this works great. I have slight hearing issues with my right ear. Upon enabling the “hearing” setting in control center, I can active live listen when my AirPods are connected. This also works on iPad as well.

It basically works with your device, iPhone or iPad, as a microphone and the AirPods relay the sounds picked up from your device and can be heard in your AirPods. It sounds as if you were hearing things with a microphone effect. There is a definite notice in an increased ability to hear sounds picked up by your device. If your device is near you and you speak, it creates a slight echo, as if you were talking over a microphone to a large audience.

Also, you can simultaneously watching a video through your device and AirPods, while still being able to hear sounds picked up by my device externally, so it’s interesting that you can hear the video or music audio, as well as still hear things around you via the microphone.

Hope this helps!
Alex
 
Dumb question but I'm assuming this works even when your screen goes dark? What's the hit on battery life?
 
Dumb question but I'm assuming this works even when your screen goes dark? What's the hit on battery life?

So to answer my own question, well one of them...

I bit the bullet and loaded IOS 12. Added hearing aides to Control Center and it found my AirPods and I was able to turn live listen on no problem. It keeps working when the screen is dark so I would imagine there's a big hit on battery life when this is running all the time.

Had a weird issue where I put the AirPods away and put the phone in my pocket. Next time I went to turn live listen back on the option wasn't there. My AirPods showed up, but no option for turn live listen on or off. So I rebooted and lo and behold the option was back again.
 
So to answer my own question, well one of them...

I bit the bullet and loaded IOS 12. Added hearing aides to Control Center and it found my AirPods and I was able to turn live listen on no problem. It keeps working when the screen is dark so I would imagine there's a big hit on battery life when this is running all the time.

Had a weird issue where I put the AirPods away and put the phone in my pocket. Next time I went to turn live listen back on the option wasn't there. My AirPods showed up, but no option for turn live listen on or off. So I rebooted and lo and behold the option was back again.

So, after using them for a bit, can you report on what the actual battery impact was?
 
Uhhh…do you have something you would like to share with the class daio? lol
Well there was talk of a second gen with the chance to wirelessly charge them. I believe they're not out yet as I write this, but people do come back to old posts when they search the forums, so I do try to give a frame of reference when I talk about specific products and behaviour... if you know what I'm trying to say.
 
Well there was talk of a second gen with the chance to wirelessly charge them. I believe they're not out yet as I write this, but people do come back to old posts when they search the forums, so I do try to give a frame of reference when I talk about specific products and behaviour... if you know what I'm trying to say.
Oh ok, lol. I thought maybe you had access to something else…haha.
 
Well there was talk of a second gen with the chance to wirelessly charge them. I believe they're not out yet as I write this, but people do come back to old posts when they search the forums, so I do try to give a frame of reference when I talk about specific products and behaviour... if you know what I'm trying to say.
I think that was just you could purchase a wireless charging case, that the AirPods themselves are still the same rev at this point...
 
I went out and bought a pair of AirPods just for this feature. So far, a little underwhelming but I haven’t tried it in the noisy environment that it seems made for. I wonder if this uses any of the directional listening tech they’ve put in the HomePod?
 
So, after using them for a bit, can you report on what the actual battery impact was?

I've been traveling and haven't really had a chance to use this feature. I'll report back when I have a chance to try it out for a while. Last time I tried it was on a plane and the results were horrible...the AirPods just amplified all of the background noise and with the echo effect as well I could barely hear the flight attendant.
 
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Just took a look today and it looks like this feature has been removed in Beta 3.
 
Just took a look today and it looks like this feature has been removed in Beta 3.

It’s still there on mine. But you have to connect to your AirPods for the first time to bring back the ListenLive functionality.
 
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