AirPods will act as hearing aids

During its product announcement event on Tuesday, Apple said the hearing aid feature on its AirPods Pro will boost frequencies "so sounds are clearer and more vibrant to your ears" and that the feature will use "machine learning to make real-time adjustments as you go about your day."

To access the hearing aid feature, which Apple said will roll out this fall, AirPods Pro 2 users will have to take a test that will analyze their hearing loss by playing a series of tones.

"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 Sumbul Ahmad Desai, Apple's VP of health.

Hearing test results will be available within the Health app, where users can retake the test at any time to monitor their hearing.

Apple said the hearing aid feature "was validated in a controlled, randomized study that evaluated the perceived benefit of the feature and its custom settings compared to an audiologist-assisted setup," however, the company has not yet made data available.

Apple's announcement comes two years after FDA approved the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids. FDA still requires people under the age of 18 to purchase hearing aids by prescription. The agency says over-the-counter hearing aids like Apple's are not a treatment for "severe or profound" hearing loss, and those with significant hearing loss should consult a healthcare provider.

FDA on Thursday announced it approved the piece of software used in Apple's AirPods as an over-the-counter hearing aid. FDA said it tested the AirPods' hearing aid feature in a clinical study with 118 participants who believed they had mild or moderate hearing loss. The study found that people who used Apple's hearing test on their AirPods saw similar benefits to people who had a professional set up their earbuds.

Expert reaction

Many experts praised Apple's announcement, noting that Apple's AirPods' price tag of $249 is significantly less expensive than other over-the-counter hearing aids and could allow existing users to check their hearing and try out hearing aids without expending too much money or effort.

"This is the least friction pathway to getting them to try it, and I think that's going to be huge," said Abram Bailey, a former audiologist who runs HearingTracker, a website for hearing aid reviews. "There's going to be a lot of people that do get something out of it, and I think that's going to be good for the whole industry."

Bailey noted that while it's unclear exactly how well AirPods will perform as hearing aids, people who see some benefit could be enticed to explore what other options are available.

Barbara Kelley, executive director of Hearing Loss Association of America, said Apple's announcement is the kind of thing she was hoping for after FDA allowed the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids.

"This is what we wanted in the market, to see technology innovation to really get people to pay attention to their hearing health," she said.

Kelley added that she hopes AirPods will encourage more people to address their hearing loss.

"There's still a stigma attached to hearing loss coming with aging," she said. "But my goodness, I see elementary school kids with these AirPods in their ears. If it can also serve as a hearing aid, I think that's really exciting."

Meaghan Reed, an audiologist at Mass Eye and Ear, also noted that Apple could help with the stigma that comes with using hearing aids, since AirPods are used by millions of people.

"I have 90-plus year-old patients who you would think would not care about the visibility of a hearing aid, and they're very adamant about not having something visible. I think that's where Apple has kind of an edge," Reed said. "This is their wireless headphone, and it's so widespread, at least in the United States, that it very easily could break that barrier of the stigma."

"There is a lot of frustration among the community of people who dedicate their lives to hearing health that the vast majority of people who could benefit from over-the-counter hearing aids are not availing themselves of it," said Sujana Chandrasekhar, a partner at ENT and Allergy Associates. "And when hearing loss is untreated, it's associated with social isolation, which can cause depression, and that can lead to dementia."

Chandrasekhar likened over-the-counter hearing aids to cheap reading glasses you can buy at convenience stores, but noted that "people on the street wear all sorts of cool glasses that are purple, pink, invisible, visible, and nobody bothers you when you wear them. But hearing aids still have this stigma of age."

Apple's AirPods could change that, Chandrasekhar said. "They give you a hearing test and amplify where it looks like you need amplification. And because everybody walks around with something in their ear, you don't look like you are wearing a hearing aid. So these bypass all those hurdles," she said.

Sreek Cherukuri, an ear, nose, and throat doctor in Illinois, said he welcomes Apple's announcement, but noted there are some potential downsides.

"At the social level, when you see someone with AirPods in their ears, you don't talk to them because you think they are on a call or listening to music," he said.

He also noted that older patients, who are most likely to need hearing aids, tend to have larger ear canals, meaning AirPods might not fit them. "They may be too small for their ear canals," he said.

In addition, the AirPods Pro 2 doesn't have the same lengthy battery life that other, more expensive over-the-counter or prescription hearing aids have. The AirPods Pro 2 provide up to six hours of listening time on a single charge, compared to Sony's CRE-E10, which provide up to 26 hours of continuous usage.

"That's a problem for people on the more severe end of the mild to moderate category," said Nancy Williams, founder and president of Auditory Insight, a hearing healthcare consulting firm. "The more severe someone's hearing loss is — and the more interested they are in having hearing enhancement throughout the day — the more battery life becomes a significant drawback." (Delouya, CNN, 9/10; Aguilar/Broderick, STAT+ [subscription required], 9/12; Roth, The Verge, 9/12; Cerullo, CBS News, 9/11; Hunter, Washington Post, 9/12)

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