Apple reportedly is expanding its AirPods hearing test to more locales in iOS 18.2.
MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol reports today Apple’s impending iOS 18.2 update expands the system’s hearing test feature for AirPods Pro to 9 countries. They include Cyprus, Czechia, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and the United Kingdom. In addition, AirPods Pro can be a hearing aid in the UAE.
Apple introduced the much-ballyhooed “clinical-grade” hearing aid feature in iOS 18.1, released in October after teasing it in September. There’s a support document for the feature, which notably (and nicely) turns on Do Not Disturb automatically. Of particular import, Rossignol notes AirPods must be running version 7B19 or later of the firmware in order to use the hearing test and other new hearing health functions.
I posted a first look story about the functionality prior to its release; my report includes an interview with Soundly founder and CEO Blake Cadwell. He expressed excitement over Apple’s entrance into the over-the-counter hearing aid market, telling me in part “this rollout marks a significant improvement in user experience, making access and awareness easier.” He added addressing the societal stigma surrounding hearing loss and wearing hearing aids is of crucial importance, saying Apple’s presence in the market is a big deal in solving those issues.
“There are very few brands that can transform public opinion and actions in the way that Apple does,” Cadwell said to me in October. “The hearing feature in AirPods Pro marks a milestone in culture’s acceptance of hearing aids and hearing loss as a more normal part of daily life.”
News of Apple’s hearing test expansion comes days after I posted an interview with Sarah Herrlinger, who leads accessibility at the company. Amongst other things, she told me the company had “years of learnings” on its path towards building the hearing aid feature for AirPods. It took a lot of expertise from lots of different people such as software engineers, medical personnel, acoustic engineers, and more. As I also wrote in my aforementioned October report, that AirPods Pro can be bonafide hearing aids now stands in stark contrast to the early years of AirPods. I recall many, many briefings in which Apple would stress—on the record, no less!—that AirPods weren’t intended to be hearing aids; they were passive listening devices for music and podcasts. Vestiges of those headier days remain, as Apple is equally keen to emphasize the hearing aid feature, transformative as it can be, is intended only for people who have mild-to-moderate hearing loss. Put another way, Apple isn’t eating the entirety of the hearing aid market. They’re merely adding to it.
Tim Cook said so himself in an interview with WIRED’s Steven Levy.
“It’s not about competing against hearing aids on the market,” Cook told Levy this week about AirPods Pro. “It’s about trying to convince people who have hearing loss to use their AirPods. The vast majority of people with hearing issues have not been diagnosed. For some people, hearing aids have a stigma, and we can counter that with AirPods. And we can have people diagnose themselves. It’s the democratization of health.”
iOS 18.2 is expected out sometime next week, according to Rossignol.