Improved AirPods as a hearing aid
You probably already know that you can use the AirPods as a hearing aid, thanks to the Live Listening function. Although they cannot replace a professional hearing aid, of course, it can be a godsend for people who sometimes have difficulty understanding things. For this to work properly, you must perform a hearing test with apps such as Mimi or SonicCloud, so that the AirPods can be properly set up for your hearing problem. That will soon be a lot easier, because you can enter audiograms in the Health app on your iPhone. An audiogram is a graph that represents a person's hearing threshold.
Amplification tailored to your hearing
The AirPods can then provide amplification of sounds tailored to your ears, for example when you use Live Listening or the Transparency mode. You can have a clinical diagnostic hearing test done and then use the results to adjust the settings of the AirPods Pro. If your hearing has deteriorated and you have had a new hearing test, you can immediately import this from paper or a PDF.
Apple gives you the option to adjust the sound level of your headphones and can also warn you if the music is too loud. But also for certain frequencies can be adjusted to your personal hearing. For example, soft sounds can be amplified and that also applies to sounds at frequencies that you cannot hear very well.
Apple has not yet specified how exactly importing an audiogram works, but it sounds like you can take a photo of a paper printout or PDF and the results are processed by the iPhone. The new feature isn't in iOS yet, so we haven't been able to test it yet. It may become part of iOS 15, to be announced next month.
You will already find the option to adjust the headphone sound in the Settings app. You then have to listen to three fragments and indicate which one sounds better. However, this primarily applies to the reproduction of music.
https://www.iculture.nl/tips/live-luisten-ios/
Would you like to get started with a hearing test for your AirPods, without having to go to If you need an ENT doctor or hearing care professional, you can try the Mimi app.
More features for the deaf and hard of hearing
More accessibility features for the deaf and hard of hearing are on the way. For example, you will soon be able to make hands-free calls with MFi hearing aids and there will be background noise for people with tinnitus. Hands-free calling will be available in future hearing aids that will be available later in 2021. This makes it possible for deaf and hard of hearing people to make phone and FaceTime calls.
One of the current problems with MFi hearing aids is that the audio streaming only works in one direction due to limitations in the Bluetooth technology used. Some manufacturers solve this with separately available microphone accessories, but that is inconvenient and involves additional costs. Apple probably opts for Bluetooth 5.2 to solve this. This allows audio streaming in two directions thanks to the energy-efficient LC3 audio codec. It is quite possible that hearing aids that already have Bluetooth 5.2 will support it via a firmware upgrade at a later time this year.
If you suffer from tinnitus (& lsquo; ringing in the ears & rsquo;), then there will be also offer you a new position that will hopefully bring you some relief. Apple does not explicitly mention this, but introduces it as new background noise to distract you less, so you can concentrate better and stay calm. You can choose from multiple sounds, including constant ocean and rain sounds. This makes unwanted ambient noise less noticeable. We have a separate article about this: