- AirPods Pro 2 Hearing Test now available in Australia
- It turns Apple’s earbuds into hearing aids
- Your AirPods Pro 2 should automatically update to provide the new feature
When Apple announced a new hearing test for the AirPods Pro 2 at its Glowtime event in September 2024, it was perhaps one of the biggest announcements of the entire evening. Now, finally, the Hearing Test feature, which can turn the AirPods Pro 2 into hearing aids as well as test your hearing capability, has made its way to Australia.
The firmware update is available now, after the feature received the green tick of approval from Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
The AirPods Pro 2 could already support an ear tip test to determine how well they fitted into your ears, and they could let you know when your listening volume was realistically too loud. But now they can support clinical-grade hearing aid technology that allows them to help those with hearing issues hear speech and background sounds more clearly.
Alongside the hearing aid technology, the AirPods Pro 2 now support two other features related to hearing: a five-minute hearing test to help you better understand your hearing health and a hearing protection mode that promises to remove loud sounds around you when wearing the earbuds.
Australian users will need to take the hearing test first before they can use the AirPods Pro 2 as hearing aids. The test involves listening for beeps and other sound tones in both the left and right ear.
Listen and you will hear
I tried the test this morning when news of the update rolling out in Australia broke. You will need to make sure you’re in an incredibly quiet environment though, as after performing the test in my left ear, my iPhone told me that the background noise was too loud to generate a result.
I was surprised at how difficult the test was, however. The beeps early on in the test were clearly audible, but getting further in, I wasn’t hearing much – so I plan to test it again at a later time to see what my test result is.
A US colleague of mine has previously gotten his father to complete the hearing test, and he revealed that the results are grouped into categories, namely Little to No Loss, Mild Loss, Moderate Loss, Severe Loss and Profound Loss. The AirPods Pro 2 can only be used as hearing aids if the result is mild to moderate loss.
Apple says the technology will “enable personalised dynamic adjustments so users have the sounds around them filled in and boosted in real time.”
Hearing Test results will be stored in the Health app and you can retake the test whenever you like to chart out how your hearing changes over time (if at all). The hearing protection mode could be useful in environments like concerts, to help lower the loud volume and allow you to enjoy yourself without damaging your ears.
The next time you connect your AirPods Pro 2 to your iPhone, you should receive a pop-up notification informing you that the update has been applied. All you need to do is go into the AirPods settings within your iPhone and you’ll see the option to run the hearing test.
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