Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 Hearing test and Hearing Aid feature available in Australia today

Apple’s remarkable hearing health features for AirPods Pro 2 owners are launching in Australia today after getting local medical certification from the Therapeutic Goods Association late last year.

Any set of AirPods Pro 2 can now be used to perform a clinically validated hearing test, and if needed have their settings and sound profile adjusted to act as a Clinical grade Hearing Aid thanks to this simple software update.

This is no small issue either, the World Health Organisation estimates there are 1.5 billion people living with hearing loss in the world, two thirds of them with mild to moderate loss.

In Australia, it’s likely that one in six of us experience some kind of hearing loss – that’s 3.5 million people.

What you probably don’t know is that hearing loss is also a contributing factor to the onset of Dementia, and being treatable, it’s one of the most impactful ways of diminishing risk of dementia.

AirPods Pro 2 have been on the market for almost two years, and at $399 they are not cheap, but offer great sound, music performance and now – hearing assistance.

You can perform a hearing test from the settings page of the AirPods Pro 2.

The software first checks the environment you are in is quiet enough to perform the test.

Then checks the tip fit of your AirPods Pro 2. The H2 chip on board might be the bit doing most of the work, but it’s the silicone tip which creates that initial passive block that makes these headphones capable of these hearing features.

Once you’re ready to go, you need about 5 minutes, though I’ve found it to be more like 6-7 minutes, to perform the test. You do the left ear first, then the right. Over the time a series of small chirps or beeps are heard. They come at different frequencies and volumes.

You simply tap the screen when you hear a sound,

When it’s done, you get a result.

Apple’s certification for this test shows that their results are consistently within 2dB of a “Pure Tone Audiometry” test which you might take in a hearing specialists office.

Critically, Apples AirPods Pro 2 can then be used as a Hearing Aid if any hearing loss is detected.

Designed for Low, or Mild to Moderate hearing loss, this adjustment to the AirPod boosts the frequencies you need in real-time, with a focus on the frequencies used in speech.

For those with a more severe level of loss, the test results can be exported and shown to a hearing professional, likewise if you’ve previously had a test, the iPhone can scan those results and add them to your health metrics.

Most importantly, the hearing profile when adjusted to be used as a Hearing Aid is stored on the AirPod itself. This means if you use the AirPod independent of your phone or even on a non-Apple device, your profile will still be adjusted to get the benefits of the hearing test.

Apple isn’t selling a new product here, they are adding a feature to an existing product, a remarkable style of announcement – but in line with many other health commitments the company has made.

To discuss this feature and understand it more, I sat down with Kate Bergeron, VP of Hardware Engineering, Apple and Dr. Rajiv Kumar, Researcher, Apple: