In November 2022, the FDA passed a ruling allowing Americans to purchase hearing aids without a prescription. The move launched a mini-industry, in which companies rushed to make available technology that was previously mired in health restrictions.
Consumer electronics companies also saw opportunities. In September, Apple announced that it would be adding headphone features to the AirPods Professional 2, as part of an upcoming iOS update.
I had the opportunity to try out a demo version of the feature at the iPhone 16 event. The offering was designed to provide information on how users can test their hearing at home, although those results were incomplete. However, more recently, Apple gave TechCrunch access to the upcoming feature in its final form.
I confess to being a little anxious. I've had tinnitus my entire life, and while I'm pretty good at packing earplugs, I was pretty convinced that decades of rock shows had taken a toll on my overall hearing health.
However, as these processes go, Apple's new hearing test feature is painless. It's been too long since I've had any sort of formal testing, but the performance immediately transported me back to grade school testing. Wait for a tone and raise the corresponding hand. You understand the trend.
The feature is immediately accessible from the Settings menu when you have a pair of AirPods Professional 2 connected and in your ears. At the moment, the feature is only available on that specific model. This is because they are the only member of the AirPods family to have the new chip and a silicone tip for passive noise cancellation. After all, absolute silence is the key. The tones are weak and easily masked by the slightest ambient noise.
After some basic questions: Are you over 18 years old? Did you attend a loud concert in the last 24 hours? – the system will play a generic piece of music to ensure the AirPods fit is correct. If the seal is out of place, the system will prompt you to fix it before retesting.
The test then monitors the room for complete silence. The first time I tried it, I was informed that my environment was too noisy. It turns out that the air filter in the corner of the room was loud enough to activate it. Once the room is quiet, the test will begin. It was my luck though, a guy was fertilizing the grass outside. It passed my window every 45 seconds, and each time the test stopped and waited for things to calm down.
The hearing test is performed on one ear at a time, starting with the left ear. The system then plays a series of tones, twice per piece. When you hear the tone, touch the screen. It's almost as easy as that. The test doesn't measure how fast you touch the screen, only whether you touch it each time.
The tones run through a range of frequencies to determine which parts of their range may be affected by hearing loss. The entire process takes about five minutes in total.
The results appear quickly. I was surprised when my results were “little to no hearing loss.” The app rated my left at 18 dBHL (decibel hearing loss) and my right at 19. Mild hearing loss starts around 25 dbHL. The hearing aid feature will only be available to those testing within the limits of mild to moderate hearing loss.
If your hearing loss is more severe, Apple recommends getting a professional test. On the other hand, if you test within the regular range, the system will offer the possibility to activate Media Help. The new feature amplifies certain elements such as speech, distinguishing them from background noise. It is comparable to the new hearing aid feature in that it is intended to improve daily life, although the amplifications are not as pronounced.
Still, this feature takes a little getting used to. I found that some things, like the sound of fabric rubbing against fabric when walking, were significantly more noticeable than usual. In more chaotic environments, it's a really useful feature, once you get past the social norm of removing your headphones to talk to someone.
That may well be the biggest challenge for the role. We are used to hearing aids. If you see someone wearing one, you assume they live with some degree of hearing loss. If the same person were using AirPods and didn't bother to take out at least one before engaging in a conversation with you, you'd probably consider them rude.
However, as far as barriers go, this little social nicety is something that a quick explanation can address. It's a small price to pay for a technology that could fundamentally improve lives.