Hearing test not available in Australia after iOS update this morning

Wondering if Apple Support's video below can help: Seems the Hearing Aid feature is available for those over 18, with mild to moderate hearing loss

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5noO6dnGBs

From Page 1 of this discussion thread:

"Wondering whether or not marketing and Health Authorities in Australia are still looking into authorization".

Not all health items can be ordered from the US for delivery to Australia.

kit laughlin wrote:

You are not alone, Raylud. Does anyone know where one can post to convey our wishes to Apple?

It's not Apple who approves where the hearing aid feature will be allowed. It is up to each country. Contact the government agency that approves medical devices.

From Sydney University paper:

“In usual times, the TGA is about 120 days slower in approving drugs than the FDA. However, most studies show that there have been more safety problems with drugs fast-tracked by the FDA compared with drugs approved via its usual regulatory process.”

Not available in India but is available in Bhutan, Nepal etc. Looks like I have to go to these countries to get it uploaded on my AirPods. Can we do it through VPN when the next update is released in December

I did exactly the same thing this morning. over an hour on the phone to Apple support only to find out myself on google it is not avaliable in Australia. I did not need to spend $400 on "just another set of ear buds".

simontb wrote:

I have bought a pair and fully expect Australia to agree to allow Apple to market the product

Such a charmingly naive view of the politics of regulation. I certainly hope that you're right, though.

While we wait for full hearing assistance tech to be made available in Australia, here is an article on the use of the 'Headphone Accommodations' feature which does seem to work (I just tried it)  also an interesting recent article on the hackaday electronics DIY website

[Edited by Moderator]

Thanks very helpful

might be interesting to see if any tech minded people have done this in Perth or any other city in Aus and can offer the same solution

must say I like the idea of a faraday cage!

It was and still is for me because I didn’t update to 18.1. The UK is in the same boat as Australia in a regulatory way.

If you have an old iPhone or iPad running an IOS older than 18.1 kicking around you can set them up again with that. As far as I am aware you cannot roll back the IOS from 18.1 but it's something you can try if you have a backup in the Cloud or on your computer.

I suspect this has been blocked by Cochlear Ltd lobbyists, there is a lot of money involved. I hope it can be resolved sooner rather than later, my elderly father could really use it, his hearing aids perform very poorly, and they are very expensive.

I suggest you read messages in the feed going back to October 2024 when the hearing aid function was enabled in the US and several other markets.

Because the hearing aid function required approval of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) the function not enabled in Australia .

TGA approval was announced on 23 December 2024.

Now we wait, patiently, for Apply to get around to releasing the hearing Function. We are hopeful that could happen as early as next week with the release of iOS 18.3, but no guarantees.