- AirPods Pro 2’s useful hearing aid mode coming to the UK soon
- The feature will arrive “within a few weeks” due to a change in UK regulations.
- The mode is only available on AirPods Pro 2 and not on other AirPods
Apple’s impressive hearing aid mode for the AirPods Pro 2 is coming to the UK, following its launch in the US (and the UAE more recently). As The Telegraph reports, this is due to a change in UK regulations, and the newspaper says Apple has confirmed the software “will be introduced within weeks.”
Apple’s hearing test, to determine if you have some hearing loss, is already available in the UK, but the mode that takes your hearing loss data and allows AirPods Pro 2 to be used as complete hearing aids to compensate for it. – as long as you only have mild to moderate hearing loss – was not available until now.
Speaking about the regulatory change allowing AirPods Pro 2 to be used in this way, UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Revolutionary new hearing aids have the potential to help tens of thousands of hearing impaired people, helping them live their lives. life fully. The steps we are taking will give the green light for companies to start selling these products to patients across the UK.
“This is part of the work this Government is undertaking in partnership with leading technology companies, to harness the medical technology revolution, bring our analogue healthcare into the digital age and make life more convenient for patients .”
This mode is only available on the AirPods Pro 2 model of Apple headphones – not on the more affordable AirPods 4 or AirPods 4 with active noise cancellation. Apple says this is because these models don’t have an in-ear seal to improve sound isolation, which is necessary for its technology to be effective. The mode won’t be available on previous AirPods models either – although I would expect it to be part of the feature list for the AirPods Pro 3, which are rumored to arrive later in 2025 .
Apple is one of the first companies to add this type of technology in its headphones, but you can expect to hear about it in many more of the best headphones in the future – Sennheiser, for example, is now owned by a specialist company . in the field of hearing health and has already manufactured products that merge the needs of the hearing impaired with Sennheiser’s consumer technology.
An ideal bridge to other hearing health products
I’m excited to see this coming to the UK, as we’ve already tested Apple’s hearing aid mode in the US and found it potentially very useful. I have several family members here in the UK who sometimes show signs of difficulty hearing, but have been reluctant to get tested or get hearing aids regularly, as is the case of many people, for many reasons. reasons ranging from pride to fear.
AirPods Pro 2 offers people who don’t want to use a full hearing aid a more user-friendly and relatively affordable way to “try” to increase their hearing – perhaps only in places where conversations may be particularly difficult to follow , because it’s so easy to insert and remove AirPods Pro and carry them in their case.
Really, this is the ideal way to use them, because the maximum battery life of six hours won’t get you through a full day of use anyway.
I’m hoping that maybe this mode on AirPods Pro 2 will help me convince my family members that seeing an audiologist could help improve their quality of life.
In its announcement of support for consumer tech health devices such as this AirPods Pro 2 mode, the UK government noted that it is still extremely important that people consult their doctor about their hearing and do not rely not just these automated tests.
