How to adjust AirPods Pro 2 to accommodate hearing loss?

An additional note to Tim's advice. You need to be in a country, such as the U.S., where the Hearing Aid feature has been approved.

If you are still using iOS 17.x, you can upload an audiogram and it will make some adjustments to the AirPods that may help. It's mostly sort of an equalizer on steroids but it may be enough to make a difference. There are apps in the App Store that say they will generate an audiogram.

Thanks for the advice. My iPhone is running 18.1 and the AirPods are new, but as IdrisSeabright

points out, there a countries where the Apple hearing test isn't

approved: sadly I live in one of them (UK). However, again taking up a

useful suggestion, I've generated an audiogram using a mobile app,

Hearing Test. It compares pretty well with ones I've seen as the result

of professional tests. I've got the audiogram into the iPhone, and I'm

about to find out if it is imposed on the AirPods, and whether the

enormous number of adjustments one can make to them will cooperated with

audiogram's adaptation. I'll report back if I get nearer to my ideal

result.

You won't get them working in the UK if you have updated to 18.1. Apple have geographically locked them as the MHRA haven't approved them for use as a hearing aids.

I am pleased that Idris is actually acknowledging that the Airpods can be set up running an older IOS. Last week he was not. An equalizer on steroids working on the frequencies your ears can no longer work with pretty much sounds like a hearing aid to me.

People have been using them as hearing aids since September 2022 when the AirPods first launched. One big difference was that Apple didn't tell anybody that they had hearing aid features because they hadn’t been approved by the FDA but people who had bought them caught on pretty quickly. There are dozens of videos on YouTube showing you how to set them up.

Now they have been approved Apple have to adhere to the FDA rules that means geographical locks for countries who haven't approved them.

Even using 18.1 in an approved country, if your hearing loss test is severe Apple will prevent you using them so you also need to beware of that.

If you have an older iphone or iPad with almost any IOS that is older than IOS 18.1 you can set them up as hearing aids using the Transparency feature in Headphone Accommodations.

It works in pretty much an identical way to the features that are available in the 18.1 version but in 18.1 they have simplified and streamlined the menus.

Six weeks ago I started appreciating music again as I can now hear all of the mid and high frequencies and I can actually hear a phone call through my left ear. Something I was unable to do a couple of months ago.

Folks, I am coming back to this subject. The fact is that I'm in the UK and running iOS 18.1.1, so I won't have access to the Apple Hearing Aid functionality until something changes. So, although I want in principle to use my AirPods Pro 2 as hearing aids, I am content for now with anything that will boost the treble end of the spectrum while listening, since that's where my hearing loss is concentrated. For this I obviously need some equaliser functionality. I had thought that this exists for these AirPods, presumably access via my iPhone, but I can't find anything at all that offers to change the treble (or indeed bass) response. This seems pretty much like the Dark Ages to me, but maybe someone can point me in the right direction.

One obvious idea is to use a Equaliser app to impose a different profile while listening. I downloaded Equaliser Pro to do this, but it only really works with music and can't be applied across the board (this is apparently a limitation imposed by Apple). I can't even make it work with YouTube.

Am I really stuck? I seem in the end to have made no progress at all. Should I return the AirPods, or maybe wait till something changes?

You won't be able to load your audiogram to your Airpods while you are using 18.1. The geographical lock that Apple have put on their use in the UK prevents them working in the way you want.

If you have an old Apple device, iphone 12 or later or an iPad running an IOS older than 18.1 you can set them up in Headphone Accommodations in settings. It will allow you to apply your audiogram in Transaparency and set up noise cancelling.

The feature has been available in the Airpods since September 2022 and they work really well but you need an older IOS to get them to work.

I was in a very challenging situation yesterday in a very noisy room and trying to talk to half a dozen people sitting around a table and I cranked up the amplification volume on the AirPods and switched the noise cancelling up and I could hear everything. I have been using them for a couple of months now.

It appears all that Apple, has done is lock them down with IOS 18.1 and streamline and simplify the menus.

They work really well without 18.1 and who knows when they will be approved by the MHRA in the UK.

If you want to use them give it a try.

Do you have an iphone running ios 18.1 or an iPad with ipadOS 18.1? Hearing aid functionality is available and can be set up using your phone.

Take a Hearing Test with AirPods Pro 2 - Apple Support

Living Fossil wrote:

Your advice was very helpful - see my reply to KiltedTim. Thanks very much.

Best of luck!