A unique case. The American regulator allowed the use of AirPods Pro as a hearing aid

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of headphones as an over-the-counter hearing aid for the first time in history. Apple AirPods Pro 2nd generation will get this feature this month.

Apple Hearing Aid feature, which will appear on iPhone and iPad later this month after the release in iOS 18, allows you to perform a quick hearing test using AirPods Pro 2. The FDA claims that the feature was highly effective and had no side effects.

"Once installed and adjusted to the hearing needs of the user, the Hearing Aid feature allows compatible versions of AirPods Pro to serve as an over-the-counter hearing aid designed to amplify sounds for people 18 years of age and older with presumed mild to moderate hearing loss", &mdash ; it is stated in the message of the regulator.

The management reports that the feature was tested in a clinical trial involving 118 people with mild to moderate hearing loss.

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AirPods already offer a feature called Live Listen, which has been available since iOS 12 and was added in 2018. This feature effectively turns the iPhone into a directional microphone, transmitting audio recorded by the device to AirPods in real time. Apple also introduced the Conversation Boost function for AirPods Pro in 2021, which strengthens the pickup of the microphone and allows you to better hear who is talking to you. A 2022 study found that some of these existing features of AirPods Pro are already comparable to much more expensive dedicated devices.

However, Apple went further and developed a new Hearing Aid feature using 150 000 real audiograms and millions of simulations. To use this feature, you need AirPods Pro headphones of the second generation, first released in September 2022 and updated in a year.

If the hearing test with the Hearing Test function, which consists of  because the user taps the screen when they hear certain sounds in their headphones will detect that there are problems, a custom sound profile will be created for them to be used silently for conversations and media playback. If hearing problems turn out to be serious — iPhone will offer to contact doctors.