In iOS 18.1 the long awaited Air Pods Pro 2 Hearing Test and Hearing Aids feature is (as of 18.1 release date) not available in Canada. When will it be available and is there any specific was as users we can make this happen?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
iPhone 13 mini, iOS 18
It’s not as if allowing the iOS upgrade in Canada will have any effect on the audiologists own sales because if you couldn’t afford $5000 for a set of prescription Hearing Aids before the iPod Pro iOS 18.1 upgrade you are still not going to go to an audiologist. So let’s see the Canadian gov do the right thing and allow us all to use iPods for hearing tests and improve our hearing ability at the same time.
Yes! Read the same. Health Canada Medical Devices Directorate replied to my inquiry and said they issued licences to Apple on Dec 11/24. And that now it is up to the provinces to decide accessibility. Will write to Alberta Health in the New Year
I wrote to the Quebec Health Minister (Christian Dubé) today in the hope of accelerating the approval of the over-the-counter sale of hearing aids in the Province so that the citizens of Quebec can also benefit from the new hearing aid functionality that now comes with Apple’s AirPods Pro 2.
It does. I’ve had the Hearing Test and Aid features since flying to the US on Dec17. They became active while I was in the air! I thought I might lose these features upon my return to BC, but I’m still using them. Now I’m afraid I might lose them if I upgrade to 18.2. An AI search tells me the upgrade should be ok, but past experience leads me to not always trust AI.
I join with all the others here in saying this is all SO RIDICULOUS. I just want to be able to improve my hearing (which has a tremendous impact on my quality of life) without unnecessarily wasting a pile of money.
You need to switch auto update off if it's not. If you update to 18.2 you will lose the feature.
I sent an email to the Ontario Provincial Government inquiring when this feature would be available. The is the reply I got:
Good Afternoon,
Thank you for contacting the Assistive Devices Program (ADP).
Unfortunately, the Program does not have access to this specific information.
To receive more detailed response, you may wish to reach out to Apple Inc. or Health Canada directly.
Sincerely,
Assistive Devices Program
[Edited by Moderator]
---- ATTENTE POUR ACTIVATION DES AIRPODS PRO 2 AU QUÉBEC ----
High,
I just read the correspondance from Berbyq with the ON gouv. posted here.
A few weeks ago I made a similar enquiry asking the ''Ordre
des orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec'' what was oldling up the local approval of the listening aid pro 2 in Quebec. here is there answer:
Bonjour Monsieur -------,
Effectivement, Santé Canada a approuvé la fonction "appareil auditif" dans les
Airpods de Apple vers la fin de 2024. Cependant, l'Ordre des orthophonistes et
audiologistes du Québec n'a aucun lien avec le fait qu'Apple n'ait pas encore
déployé la mise à jour du logiciel permettant d'activer cette fonction, tant au
Québec que dans toutes les autres provinces canadiennes. En effet, l'OOAQ n'a
pas pour rôle de donner son aval au sujet de la disponibilité de ce type de
produit ou de sa vente au Québec, notamment parce que la distribution et la
vente de prothèses auditives sous prescription ou en vente libre ne fait pas
partie des activités des audiologistes ou des orthophonistes du Québec.
En complément d'informations, l'OOAQ a un énoncé de positon sur les appareils
auditifs en vente libre, que vous pouvez consulter au lien suivant:https://www.ooaq.qc.ca/decouvrir/a-propos/enonce-position-appareils-auditifs-vente-libre/ ainsi qu'une page web dédiée
au sujet: https://www.ooaq.qc.ca/consulter/audiologiste/appareils-auditifs-vente-libre/
Bonne journée,
Joanie Farmer, M.P.A Audiologiste
/ Conseillère aux affaires professionnelles
Ordre des orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec
630, rue
Sherbrooke Ouest, bureau 800
Montréal,
Québec, H3A 1E4
mulholland4 wrote:
In iOS 18.1 the long awaited Air Pods Pro 2 Hearing Test and Hearing Aids feature is (as of 18.1 release date) not available in Canada. When will it be available and is there any specific was as users we can make this happen?
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Recently wrote to Ontario Health Ministy - this is what I just got back......
Thank you for writing to the Honourable Sylvia Jones, Minister of Health, about using Apple Airpods
as hearing aids. The Ministry of Health appreciates that you took the time to get more information.
In Ontario, audiologists and speech-language pathologists are governed under the Regulated Health Professions Act, 1991, and the Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology Act, 1991.
Under these acts, the College of Audiologists and Speech Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO)
is responsible for ensuring its members are competent, skilled and
qualified to practise in Ontario. As part of its duties, CASLPO may make regulations and set standards of practice on a variety of subject matters.
We encourage you to contact CASLPO as they are best suited to answer your questions:
CASLPO
601-175 Bloor Street East, North Tower
Toronto, Ontario M4W 3R8
Telephone: 416-975-5347
Toll free: 800-993-9459
Email: caslpo@caslpo.com
We hope this information is helpful. Thank you again for writing.
Sincerely,
Correspondence and Corporate Support | Correspondance et soutien ministériel
Ministry of Health | Ministère de la Santé
However Canadians can order OTC hearing aids from Amazon. I have a set arriving today. I would have much preferred to use AirPods but returned them to Apple.
Please let us know if travelling to the US works - thinking to try the same.
I tried it. I even set up a new American apple ID. Doesn't work :(.
Try copy and paste this url "x-apple-health://HearingAppPlugin.healthplugin/HearingTest" to trigger the hearing test in iOS Safari.
Voilà, Enjoy !
It used to be that other countries were 'third world countries.' Seems Canada is achieving that status. The number of health supplements blocked is also way more than any other nation!
Mine are still working. 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
The CRE-C20’s are fairly pricey. Are they worth the price and trouble you went thru to get them? Seems like you could get a pair of prescription hearing aids from Costco for a couple of hundred $ more.
I bought some el cheapos from Amazon but have returned them as they were really bad quality (despite the reviews).
I also sent emails to my MLA and MP asking if there are any updates to OTC hearing aids in Canada.
The Sony CRE-C20 OTC ITE hearing aids are a valid upgrade over the CRE-C10. The most significant change is the rechargeable battery and the water-resisting factor now that the enclosure is sealed. I would not dive in a swimming pool or a lake with them, but they will resist rain or sweat, and it will not be the end of them if you forget to take them off before taking a shower.
On the functionality side, they are better at focusing on your spouse's or friend's speech while in a busy and noisy place like a restaurant. The hearing test has been modernized and appears more accurate. The rest of the app is pretty much the same.
The issue that needs to be clarified is whether Apple looks at GPS data to determine where you are located when you attempt to configure the AirPods Pro. I could log in to my US Apple ID using a VPN and then download the Sony app and configure my hearing aids—all that from my location north of Montreal. But I don’t know if the Apple process is the same. Remember that when you log in to a different Apple ID on one iPhone, you must first log out of your Canadian Apple ID. If you have the lockdown feature set, you have to wait an hour before being able to log in to your US Apple ID. It’s better to turn off lockdown mode before you begin this process. You can reactivate lockdown mode after you’re done.
AirPods Pro 2 Hearing Aids not available in Canada
