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Testing the New iOS 18.1 Hearing Aid Functionality
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Not seeing it on 18.1 RC and Airpods Pro 2 in Canada here either. Do I have to wait for it to decide to magically send another Airpods version update?
Downloaded and installed. I have had mild hearing loss since 1987 and this is pretty amazing. Left ear: 31 dBHL / Right ear: 36 dBHL. The test was quick and easy and the adjustment was immediate. Excellent audio, although I'm not sure I actually want to hear everything this well since my brain has adapted to the insulation of silence. I'll definitely use this though it will take getting use to. I'm not so sure I want to hear my lungs with every breath ha ha
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At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, Apple is a US-based company and as such, it typically rolls out many features, especially the health related features that may require a regulatory approval, to US first
Hopefully, Apple will expand this feature to your country soon.
Cracks me up, I took the test today and it reported 13db left and 16db right. I think this pissed off my wife because she has been telling me that I need to get my hearing checked forever!!! LOL! I said, nope, Apple says I'm good! Ha ha! However, I will say that when I open and close the dishwasher and forget to press Start I usually can't hear the warning beeps (KitchenAid, why do you design your dishwashers this way? It's stupid! I realize why Jobs would have discussions with the family members about this stuff at dinner!). Anyway, after I did the test, I was kind of hoping that the APP2 would allow me to clearly hear the dishwasher beeping. No dice - couldn't hear it at all...and still can't hear the wife! 😜
With iOS 18.1, Apple is adding a new set of hearing health features to the AirPods Pro 2. The iOS 18.1 release candidate for developers and public beta testers includes the full hearing aid functionality, so we thought we'd give it a try to see just how it works.
Article Link: Testing the New iOS 18.1 Hearing Aid Functionality
Best thing Apple has presented this year no doubt.
With iOS 18.1, Apple is adding a new set of hearing health features to the AirPods Pro 2. The iOS 18.1 release candidate for developers and public beta testers includes the full hearing aid functionality, so we thought we'd give it a try to see just how it works.
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To use the new hearing health features, you need to connect your AirPods Pro 2 to an iPhone running iOS 18.1, or an iPad with iPadOS 18.1. From there, if you tap into the AirPods Pro section, you'll see an option to take a hearing test, which should be your first stop.
Apple's hearing test mimics the hearing tests you might have had conducted at a doctor's office or by an audiologist, and it's meant to determine whether you have any hearing loss. If you do have hearing loss, the test determines which frequencies you're struggling with.
With the AirPods in your ears, you can tap "Get Started" to take the hearing test. The test takes approximately five minutes, starting first with the left ear and then moving on to the right ear. You'll hear a series of tones at different frequencies and sound levels, and the idea is to tap the iPhone's screen whenever you hear a sound. The tones that you hear test for four frequencies, including 500Hz, 1kHz, 2kHz, and 4kHz.
Apple puts your iPhone in Do Not Disturb mode for the test, and also uses your AirPods to make sure it's quiet enough for the test to be conducted. The test is designed for adults that are 18 years or older, and it shouldn't be done when you have allergies, a cold, an ear infection, or a sinus issue, which can affect the results. Apple also recommends waiting to take the test at least 24 hours after you've been exposed to loud noise like a concert or construction, as this can also impact the hearing test.
After going through the hearing test steps, you'll get your Hearing Test results, with separate decibel levels detected for each ear. If you get a 5 dBHL reading for each ear, for example, you have little to no hearing loss and will not need adjustments to your AirPods.
Apple says that results up to 25 dBHL indicate little to no hearing loss. 26 to 40 dBHL is a sign of mild hearing loss, while results of 41 to 60 dBHL suggest moderate hearing loss. 61 to 80 dBHL is severe hearing loss, and a result above 80 dBHL is considered profound hearing loss.
For context, a whisper is around 20 decibels, while a person breathing is somewhere around 10 decibels. Rainfall is 50 decibels, and a standard conversation is 60 decibels. With no hearing loss, you can hear a whisper, and with mild loss, you can still hear and repeat words spoken in a normal voice from three feet away. With moderate loss, you can hear and repeat words spoken in a raised voice from three feet away.
If your test shows mild to moderate hearing loss, you'll have the option to turn on the Hearing Aid feature of the AirPods Pro. With this enabled, the AirPods Pro can use the data from your test to boost the frequencies that you have trouble hearing, making it easier to hear voices and other sounds around you.
There's also a Media Assist feature that goes along with the Hearing Aid function, and it adjusts music, videos, and calls so you can hear them better. You can also turn on the Hearing Aid feature using an audiogram from an audiologist if you don't want to take the test on the iPhone.
Note that if your test showed no hearing loss, Apple will not recommend changes to your AirPods tuning, and there will not be an option to turn on the Hearing Aid feature.
To see even more information from your Hearing Test, you can go to the Hearing section of the Health app and tap into the test to see a graph of which frequencies you had the most trouble with.
Along with Hearing Assistance, the AirPods Pro 2 also offer Hearing Protection as part of Apple's Hearing Health feature set. This includes a Loud Sound Reduction option that is enabled automatically. Loud Sound Reduction listens for loud noises around you in Transparency and Adaptive Modes, and reduces the level of the noise to prevent hearing loss.
If you're at a concert, for example, Loud Sound Reduction will drop the noise to a healthier level so that it won't impact your hearing. The same goes for other loud sounds like nearby construction work.
Apple says that in Transparency Mode, you'll see 11-15 decibels of sound reduction in an environment where the noise level is at 100 decibels, while in Adaptive Mode, noise reduction will range from 25 to 29 decibels. With Active Noise Cancellation, noise reduction is 25 to 30 decibels.
The amount of noise reduction can vary based on the fit of the AirPods Pro 2 and the environment that you're in. The AirPods Pro 2 don't provide enough sound reduction for "extremely loud impulse sounds" like gunfire, jackhammers, or fireworks, nor do they work well enough for sustained noise levels louder than 110 decibels.
In the Health app under the Environmental Sound Reduction section, you can see the amount of sound reduction you've gotten from your AirPods Pro from hour to hour.
If you have the iOS 18.1 developer or public beta and AirPods Pro 2, you can try out the new hearing test and hearing aid feature right now. Otherwise, this functionality is set to become available to the public when iOS 18.1 launches next week.
What do you think of the new Hearing Health features for the AirPods Pro 2? Let us know in the comments below.
Article Link: Testing the New iOS 18.1 Hearing Aid Functionality
I really like to see this as I have moderate hearing loss in my left ear (I had three operations to graft skin on the ear drum). My primary care doctor does not even understand how I can still have any hearing in the left ear and I do just not the greatest. I guess next week I find out how good this works. The hearing aid I have went kaput a year ago and it was really annoying anyway as the dang battery was really annoying anyway
How many APP would you have to go through to get to the cost of one set of hearing aids though?
Now, the dedicated earphones would be more fit for purpose, but it does starkly demonstrate how much of a rip off hearing aids are, and how this whole market is ripe for disruption.
maybe Apple might one day produce a cool set of hearing aids To completely rebuild the market. Much like it did with the iPad and disability assist tablets.
I bet this helps remove a lot of stigma some people have about hearing aids.
If you have an actual hearing loss that you can sense, you should go to an audiologist. Most of the time when a person is getting older, it's typical that you can get a gradual hearing loss. However bypassing medical intervention in this case can miss cases with neurological involvement. They can also miss cases where medical intervention can gain your hearing back, like in diagnostic cases where you may need steroids. If treatment isn't sought then you could make a hearing loss you thought was permanent, actually permanent by not getting treatment. Tumors along the auditory nerve and brainstem can cause a hearing loss. A lot of these are treatable with great success but FATAL if left alone to grow. This new trend of 'going around' the healthcare system may miss some of these cases and become a real problem. Be careful out there and remember to be your own best advocate for your health!
The thing that it doesn’t say is should have noise cancellation on or off when taking the test.
MacRumors, If you create a how-to guide for the hear aid features, please address which AirPods can be used, which iOS version is minimum, whether or not it can be setup from a Mac (if so, what is the minimum macOS version), and what happens if a non-Apple user wants only the hearing aid stuff (e.g., can my mom borrow my iPhone to setup her AirPods and then be fine with no other Apple device?; if so, can I also have personalized hearing help with my own AirPods?). A brief overview of the various modes (e.g., transparency) and how to set them would also be appreciated. Thanks!
Some real hearing aids have replaceable batteries. Some have rechargeable batteries - my Phonaks have rechargeable, for example. It is not at all clear to me that I will have to replace my airpods more frequently than my hearing aids - modern hearing aids don't last forever either.
There are some very real differences between them. The hearing aids last a lot longer on battery than airpods do. I can wear mine all day. My airpods die in a few hours, then need to be recharged. My hearing aids have more adjustability than my airpods. OTOH, music sounds a lot better on the airpods and they pair more easily with my phone, ipad, macbook, etc.
Have you tried just giving your dad some airpod pros for birthday or Christmas? Given the cost of many normal hearing aids, I don't blame him for not wanting those. Besides, just wearing them is embarrassing somehow. (I know it should not be, but it is, at least to me.)
Apple, please add a crossover feature to send sound from one ear to the other side, with some sort of spacial processing to convey the sound is coming from elsewhere. My son is deaf in one ear and solutions like this would be beneficial in certain situations.
Are 7Bxx the latest firmware versions for the Airpods Pro 2? Apple still lists the latest firmware version, as of Oct 7 2024, as 7A305, at least according to their article at https://support.apple.com/en-us/106340. This is what my Airpods Pro 2 have, which I bought maybe two or three weeks ago. I've had them in their charging case (which I usually place on a Magsafe charger, but sometimes I plug it directly into a charger via a cable) and near my iPhone (running iOS 18.0.1) for several hours a day, and have received no firmware updates beyond 7A305. Am I missing something? I've gone through the reset process for the Airpods several times, but that hasn't triggered a firmware update beyond 7A305.
Edit:
I see now, according to the article at https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/apple-releases-new-airpods-pro-2-beta-firmware.2440138/, that Airpod firmware versions 7Bxx are beta firmware updates for people who are signed up as developers, and that 7B5013d is the latest version. Does Apple restrict beta versions of Airpod firmware updates only to people whose iPhones contain developer releases of iOS? If so, I'm guessing that when iOS 18.1 is released later this month, that this should allow Airpods with the current 7A305 release firmware to be updated to the next release version, making them compatible with the new hearing aid functionality.
Edit edit:
At least one user here reports finding that firmware version 7A305 works, with iOS 18.1 RC, to show all the Hearing Aid and Hearing Test functionality.
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The issue is that while you can gain some immediate improvement just putting in hearing aids here and there, the real magic happens over time as the brain relearns to process the new audio signals. So you have to wear the hearing aids 24/7 for maximal effect. That is something the APP won’t ever fully replicate unless they could have all day battery.
These would have been nice for my mom. Her "real hearing aids" cost about $5k, had batteries that needed to be replaced every day which was a giant pain since they were tiny, and didn't have a way to track them so when she hid them, we didn't find them for quite a while. If she decided she didn't want to use them, someone else could reset them back to factory settings and use them as regular earphones.
Presumably the Hearing Aid test needs the AirPods to pass Apple’s Fit test first. I’ve never found 2 foam/silicone/whatever tips where both ears pass the test.
