Apple has announced that the hearing aid mode for AirPods Pro 2, which was announced and launched in the US last year, is coming to the UK today, Monday February 24th, 2025. We already knew that it was coming to the UK following a regulatory change, but not when – however, you can expect it to become enabled imminently.
AirPods Pro 2 are able to help with mild to moderate hearing loss, and the hearing aid mode is designed to help people boost particular frequencies that may make it hard for them to hear conversations in loud rooms, for example – especially in combination with Apple's noise-management tech used in the earbuds.
Using them as hearing aids is a two-step process: first, you take a hearing aid test with them in your ears from your iPhone by listening to a series of tones while in a quiet room. This was already available in the UK, and we recommend everyone tries it – like our writer, you might find interesting things out even if you have no hearing problems, or it might help clarify things for you.
The second step is that the AirPods can take the results of your hearing test and create the hearing aid profile from there, boosting the parts of the world around you that need boosting when you wear them – though there are ways you can adjust how it works. This second part has been missing from the UK so far, but we've tried it out in the US, and it can be very powerful.
TechRadar Managing Editor, Jacob Krol, persuaded his father to try the hearing aid mode, as someone who has a little trouble hearing but doesn't use a hearing aid, and he loved how much it helped him to follow conversations better, picking up subtle sounds that he was missing before.
There are lots of people who resist hearing aids, for various reasons, and being able to use (relatively) inexpensive earbuds as an alternative might help a lot more people to try out hearing augmentation.
Well, that's as long as they have an iPhone as well, and don't hearing support all day. There's no Android support for this feature on AirPods Pro 2, and you're limited to the roughly six-hour battery life that AirPods Pro 2 have before then need recharging from their case.
But for some people, that will be perfect – they'll only need them when having lunch with a friend or watching TV for a few hours, and can put them back in the case to charge when they extra nuance they offer isn't needed.
The feature is only available for the AirPods Pro 2, not any of the other best AirPods – even the newer AirPods 4, because it requires the in-ear seal that only the Pro model provides.
If you're having trouble finding the new feature, make sure your iPhone is up to date by going to the Settings app, then General, then Software Update, to check for an update on that device. AirPods should update their software automatically in the background when charging and not in use, but Apple recently finally shared instructions on how to update AirPods.
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