During a product announcement event, Apple revealed that its latest AirPods Pro 2 model will double as a clinical-grade over-the-counter hearing aid.
“We’re adding this groundbreaking capability to help more than 1 billion people living with mild to moderate hearing loss,” stated Sumbul Ahmad Desai, Apple’s vice president of health, according to CNN.
Whereas prescription hearing aids can cost up to thousands of dollars, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 costs just $249 – making them significantly more affordable and accessible to those suffering from hearing loss.
Once activated, the hearing aid feature boosts sound in real time and creates a personalized hearing profile that can be applied to movies, music, and phone calls across multiple devices. According to CNN, Apple said the new feature will use “machine learning to make real-time adjustments as you go about your day.”
This announcement comes two years after the FDA greenlit the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids, allowing adults with hearing loss to buy hearing aids from stores or online manufacturers rather than a doctor.
To access the new hearing aid feature, AirPods Pro 2 users will take a test that measures the user’s hearing loss. The test asks users to tap on their smartphone’s screen after they hear a series of tones at different frequencies and volumes.
“After you take a hearing test, your AirPods Pro are transformed into a personalized hearing aid, boosting specific sounds you need in real-time, like parts of speech or elements within your environment,” said Desai.
The test results also allow the AirPods Pro 2 to create a personalized hearing profile, which will be stored in Apple’s Health app and shared with the user’s healthcare provider. This profile could also be applied in tandem with a feature called Media Assist, which can hone in on certain sounds, such as parts of speech on a phone call or a specific instrument in a soundtrack.
Apple has stated it expects to receive FDA clearance “very soon,” which means the AirPods Pro 2 would become a regulated medical device. The new hearing aid features will become available this fall through a software update in over 100 countries, including the United States, Germany, and Japan.
