Four new iPhone 16s, Apple Watch Series 10 watches, new AirPods. There was no shortage of new products at the keynote by Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, on September 9! And surprise in the avalanche of information coming from Cupertino: the AirPods 2 Pro will soon be equipped with a “Hearing Aid” mode, dedicated to people with hearing impairment. While waiting to be able to test this feature, which will depend on a software update, 20 Minutes you no longer tell us about this function which risks making noise.
Five minutes of testing
It was a bit of a cherry on the cake. In Tim Cook’s hood, the AirPods Pro 2 weighted, in addition to their intrinsic qualities for listening to music and their noise reduction system, with a hearing aid function.
According to Apple, which cites the World Health Organization, “1.5 billion people suffer from hearing loss.” The manufacturer has thus imagined a hearing test that each owner of AirPods Pro 2 will be able to carry out, headphones in the ears (with the support of an iPhone or an iPad under iOS 18).
For five minutes, this test will invite everyone to press the screen of their terminal according to sounds emitted in turn at different frequencies. This real screening, based on a standard clinical approach known as pure tone audiometry, would have been scientifically validated, according to Apple. The company with the apple would have developed it using 150,000 audiograms.
Remedy possible hearing failures
Once performed in a quiet and calm place, this test will produce its results, in the form of a diagnosis, stored privately in the Health app, while being able to be shared with a doctor or a specialist. In the meantime, the AirPods Pro 2 will have determined the “hearing profile” of their user.
From then on, this profile specific to each individual will automatically apply adapted settings to compensate for any deficiencies detected for listening to music, films, games, but also conversations. Promising. Especially since at 279 euros, the AirPods Pro 2 are much less expensive than a hearing aid, sold on average for 1,900 euros (with follow-up by a specialist). It remains to be seen whether they are relevant.
This real-time correction should allow people with mild to moderate hearing loss to hear better. Apple does not hesitate to mention a real “Hearing Aid” function for its AirPods Pro 2. It should be effective thanks to an update of the headphones this fall in one hundred countries, including the United States, Germany and Japan, cited by Apple during the manufacturer’s back-to-school keynote.
It is also hoped that France, which is probably awaiting validation, will be affected. For the moment, no mention of these functions is made on the Apple website… According to Inserm, deafness affects 6% of 15-24 year-olds in France, 9% of 25-34 year-olds, 18% of 35-44 year-olds and more than 65% of those aged 65 and over. Thus, a quarter of 18-75 year-olds have a hearing deficiency!
Simple headphones or medical device?
“The good news is that through this announcement, we are talking about hearing,” enthuses Brice Jantzem, the president of the hearing aid professionals’ union, interviewed by 20 Minutes. The fact remains, according to him, that the AirPods Pro 2 “raise the question of self-diagnosis and self-medication”. According to this specialist, “if these headphones seem interesting in terms of screening, it is better to then recommend seeing a doctor to decide whether to use their amplifying part. Furthermore, a hearing aid is not a self-sufficient object, it requires monitoring and support”.
Brice Jantzem wants to warn: “hearing loss can also be a symptom of a more serious pathology, such as an acoustic neuroma, which is a small tumor.”
Concretely, as well thought out as the AirPods Pro 2 are to detect and combat certain hearing problems, consulting a doctor, ENT specialist, or even a hearing aid professional may be necessary if you are suffering from even partial hearing loss.
In the meantime, if the AirPods Pro 2 are approved in France as a medical device (the American Food and Drug Administration has just done so), hearing aid professionals will be authorized to issue them. From then on, the headphones could also be reimbursed by the Social Security.
