Apple AirPods Pro 2 can be sold as hearing aids, says FDA America's drug watchdog this week gave Apple permission to market its AirPods Pro 2 as over-the-counter hearing aids, disrupting an industry where traditional devices have often cost thousands of dollars. Apple announced on Monday that AirPods Pro 2 earpieces will sport a so-called Hearing Aid Feature (HAF), suitable for those …
Did your nitroglycerin capsules require doctor's visit and a prescription? Although this is a British journal, think of us Americans who have to pay out of pocket for stuff like this! Many American's "health care insurance" policies have multi-thousand dollar deductibles. Maybe that's why Wall Street is so unconcerned?
That was my first thought also - if they're stand-alone devices then they may have a niche for SWMBO. But the mention of the learning process rather implies some sort of device to interface with them, and, never having used them, I don't know how tightly they're integrated into the Apple ecosystem, or whether, for example, they can be driven by a bog-standard bluetooth output on e.g. an Android device. After all, they're effectively being used in the opposite of their noise-cancelling mode.
Still, I suppose even those and an iphone is more economical than standard hearing aids.
(But I guess it's not going to do much for most tinnitus, other than that which a normal hearing aid might help.)
You can pair them as regular bluetooth earbuds on Windows and Android, though you don't get all the features. Some reviewers actually rate them as the best wireless earbuds to use with Android. Crinacle for example rates them as a very close second to Samsung on sound quality but the best overall for user experience and the ones he actually uses with his Android.
If you think you have mild hearing loss, you ought to get it checked to be sure that it is only mild loss and not fixable by early intervention.
And while hearing aid shows you have a hearing problem that's not generally something people will be critical of you for, while they make an assumption of you if you wear airpods all the time.
Declaration of interest - my wife works with CIs. Yes the things do seem to be available in a limited range of colours. With ordinary hearing aids the earmould is relatively cheap and realtively regularly changed so easily made in a variety of colours. There is no earmould with a CI but it's quite common to decorate the processor and the coil with stickers and such, and some manufacturers provide sheets of ready-shaped stick on decorations.
M.
"You can get free hearing aids, with a proper diagnosis and everything, in the UK. (and I suspect for for those European nations with effective socialised medicine too). And they have Bluetooth these days, and are less obvious than a pair of airpods."
The best private ones are indeed very good, but costs thousands. The NHS issues ones certainly aren't all BT enabled, the ones I'm familiar are clunky over-ear affairs that don't appear to have changed in forty years, use zinc air batteries that are always running out out, and are prone to over-amplifying things like screaming kids.
I've long thought "why can't wireless earphones have a hearing aid mode?" and I'm pretty sure the whole user experience of Apple buds as hearing aids will be vastly better than that currently offered via the NHS to those with hearing loss.
> The NHS issues ones certainly aren't all BT enabled
Suggest you get a referral to Addenbrookes(NHS)…
From my observations, it seems many get comfortable with their hearing aid and forget to get it upgraded every 4~6 years; which the NHS supports.
The current generation of Bluetooth enabled hearing aids (supplied by Addenbrookes) are a massive improvement on 2020 Bluetooth enabled hearing aids Addenbrookes et al were providing.
>” why can't wireless earphones have a hearing aid mode?"
Agree, just need to ensure your phone (and earbuds) support the Bluetooth hearing aid extensions, which recent iPhones do.
As noted in another comment, earbuds are probably a good solution for those with a low level of hearing loss. However, given earbuds are intended for high fidelity normal hearing, I suspect to properly replace hearing aids, there are going to be some compromises which will impact the premium positioning of Apple’s earbuds…
"The NHS issues ones certainly aren't all BT enabled, the ones I'm familiar are clunky over-ear affairs that don't appear to have changed in forty years, use zinc air batteries that are always running out out, and are prone to over-amplifying things like screaming kids."
That's odd, because as well as my over-the-ear hearing aids feature digital signal processing (they can mute a sound such as a hammer blow before it reaches my ears), selectable hearing profiles for different situations, can be individually controlled to reduce the level of "screaming kids" or loud bands from either side and get around 8 days use out of a zinc air cell - how long do a set of Airpods go on a single charge?
I was also offered the option, about 5 years ago, of buying a model with real-time language translation - no, hearing aids haven't changed much in the last 40 years.
latest ones on nhs are awesome
rechargable batteries with their own charging case, and can hook upto 2 devices
i've helped several elderly peoples in setting them up with the very popular cheap affordable dumb dorro phones they seem to like ... been a real life changer for them :)
just another creepy "big american tech shitification/domination" of the apple logo into peoples lives
they'll make even more monies now and so have even more politcial power .... who the hell voted creeps like cook et al in anyways!
I really hope this is right, because it was the battery changing that defeated my parents. The batteries are small and pretty fiddly. My mum tended to just leave them putting the hearing aids in even when the batteries were completely flat. Obviously this made their hearing even worse and meant that they decided that the aids didn't work.
If you're choosing hearing aids for yourself, or parents, be very sure to opt forcefully for the rechargeable ones.
I can confirm it is available in the UK.
You download a hearing test app, I used Mimi Hearing Test.
Take the test
Export the test results to Apple Health
Go into acessibility settings, and tell it to use those test results.
More details here, this is the article I followed to set it up:
https://www.soundly.com/blog/airpods-as-hearing-aids
Whether you can program once and forget, I am anticipating you will need regular access to an app (and likely only available on Apple) - this is because (I am a user of hearing aids that have an Android bluetooth app) you typically want to flip through various "profiles" on the go - universal, front focus, party mode (cancel background noise), tv etc. and also to tweak the volume. Oh and the special mode for listening to the wife that streams music to your ears and beeps occasionally to prompt you to nod and smile.
The hearing aid market is broken worldwide.
Even in the UK private hearing aids start at £500.
The "behind the ear" aids are a free loan on the NHS - with a £100/pair replacement charge if you break or lose them, that I'm certain doesn't cover the actual cost. Some trusts offer other types the same way.
On the other hand, if someone has to buy a £1000 iPhone as well, suddenly it's not so good.
And this lets you tweak them on the fly every week if you want.
If hearing aids are like every other medical device, they're old tech with a ridiculously high price.
And I suspect AirPod Pros have at least as much processing capability as an expensive hearing aid, probably more.
From my experience, my kin has a set of those excessive high priced hearing aides. Even tho he uses an app on his phone,( tried both Apple and android), he still has to take it in every couple of months to get an adjustment.
It has all kinds of adjustments;
Hear what is in front of you
High noise
Low noise
Conversations
Etc.
All adjustments can be done on the phone app.
For mum, who will not wear hers, I got her an $60 android tablet and put google transcribe on it and now she can read what people are saying. Worked great till she downloaded so many games that she can’t find the icon to start it.
The point of a regular tuning appointment is not that the manufacturers are keeping these settings away from the users as some kind of cartel-type lock-in but that it's actually quite important for a medical professional to do an assessment once in a while which might also reveal other developing problems, and, in fact, to give Joe Public access to the full range of possible adjustments could allow them to damage their hearing further by misadjusting things.
But we are not comparing extreme-tech high-power hearing aids here. From what I gather these are aimed firmly at low to moderate losses and (hopefully) the range of adjustments available does not venture in to additional damage territory.
M.
Then your mum needs to pop back to the clijic and ask for a reassessment. As others have said there is a right to a regular update and things have moved on vastly in the last ten years or so. As many problems as it has, the NHS (generalising) doesn't tend to be stingy when it comes to (properly diagnosed) hearing loss.
M.
On the other hand, if someone has to buy a £1000 iPhone as well, suddenly it's not so good.
£658 for the cheapest iPhone and a pair of Air Pod Pro 2.
How they'll match a pair of 5K AI hearing aids I've no idea, however a lot of the problems that need solving for headphones and noise cancellation are in the same ballpark. Economies of scale also help massively too. They'll match a pair of free NHS ones though I expect.
Remember the hearing aid market is orders of magnitude smaller than the earbuds market, thus unable to benefit from the economies of hyper scale.
Plus a modern hearing aid will have a much more sophisticated sound processor than a set of mass market earbuds, because it is intended to be programmed to be tailored to the users specific needs.
The reason hearing aid manufacturers aren't worried is because the majority of people that use hearing aids are pensioner who won't want to use an iPhone and probably don't even know how to. There Then you have to factor the cost. Lets say you have them for 10 years how many iPhones and Airpods are you going to go through in that time? Can't be that far off the 5000.
The reason hearing aid manufacturers aren't worried is because the majority of people that use hearing aids are pensioner who won't want to use an iPhone and probably don't even know how to.
I think this is a fairly outdated view of the older generation. I was telling my mum about these and she was quite interested as she admitted she's putting off getting a hearing aid. She's in her 70s and quite comfortable with PCs, iPhones and iPads.
I’ve seen tech savvy pensioners in their early 80’s become forgetful and get lost when things update or replaced and things aren’t where they were with the previous device…
That's people nearing the very end of their lives though. Pensioner covers a large age range.
In the UK a pensioner in their early 80s has been a pensioner for around 20 years. My recently deceased great aunt (99) was using things like Skype well into her 90s, it was only the failing eyesight that stopped her in the last couple of years.
Most people here will spend a decent fraction of their lives as 'old people'. The problem is we cement our idea of 'old' when we're young, then never update it.
> That's people nearing the very end of their lives though. Pensioner covers a large age range.
“Nearing the very end of their lives”, aka the “elderly” from my experience is 4~15 years.
Yes younger pensioners are in much better health than previous generations, and will form the majority of pensioners, so the expectation is they will be older and closer to end of life than perhaps is currently the case (once you discount the few excessively long lived people, life expectancy hasn’t changed that much.
> it was only the failing eyesight that stopped her in the last couple of years.
So that wasn’t a problem, she could still do her online banking, doctors appointments etc?
> young pensioners and elderly pensioners
Very true... I am nearly 60 and have spent many years trying to teach pensioners how to use everyday technology. At 70-75 quite a lot of people are starting to show signs of significantly reduced cognitive ability, often with other signs of dementia such as confusion, extreme forgetfulness, inability to understand new concepts etc, typically accompanied by significant lack of self-awareness of these deficiencies (or at least the extent of them).
My dad has never sent an email (refused to, and now can't, learn) and can barely make a phone call. He is convinced that because he can still type he is fully compos mentis, and refuses to accept that he badly needs hearing aids.
On the other hand, some are fine, albeit usually slower and less sharp than they were a decade or two earlier. 6 years ago my mother, aged 79, spent her last days sat in her death bed busy texting, WhatsApping, emailing, Messengering on her modern phone for all the hours that she could.
Unless the batteries are removable and can be charged outside of the device having them rechargeable is a significant disadvantage unless you have a second set you can use while the first set is recharging.
App control is not new, in the olden days hearing aids had a volume knob but that I suppose was considered too complicated - with modern hearing aids you turn them on, turn on your phone, wait for the Bluetooth to pair in the phone app then you can control them from your phone - see much easier than a fiddly knob.
I've no idea how they manage the power management in modern hearing aids but it's really good, a crappy PR48 battery (provided FOC by the NHS) will last for several days of use.
> How many traditional hearing aids are?
Depends on your needs, but I expect most modern hearing aids (ie. manufactured since 2020), to have removable rechargeable batteries, additionally, the NHS tends to provide additional batteries so that the user can use the hearing aid all day long.
Additonally, the overnight charging case tends to be a little more sophisticated and will incorporate functions that help to prolong the life of the in-ear device.
Based on my fathers loss of hearing at least 10 years ago and what was available.
Bluetooth, rechargeable, programmable dsp profiles etc are all old hat in Hearing aids ... just need to have the money to buy the very latest or be in the right area to get them from the NHS.
When the funds run out the better aids are harder to get !!!
(Reality does get in the way sometimes.)
:)
I'm asking, because I don't know, but... how does a "proper" hearing aid compare battery wise with airpods/pixel buds/galaxy buds etc?
Obviously with earbuds you pop them in the case, they charge, then you get a few hours of use - presumably you get days of use out of a regular hearing aid?
If you're constantly popping them in the case, their utility/convenience diminishes somewhat - but then thinking about it, I'm not sure if targeting those at the less severe end of the hearing loss spectrum means that constant use is required?
Modern NHS issue hearing aids last for several days on PR48 batteries that are provided free by the NHS.
Unless you have 2 sets so you can charge one while using the other, being rechargeable is not a good idea. Of course if the rechargeable batteries are powerful enough to run the devices for up to 20 hours most people could charge them at night but a quick search tells me you'll get 4 to 6 hours of Air-Pod life out of a single charge which is inadequate, not even a full working day.
From a pair of CR312 batteries I get about seven days, sometimes eight, assuming "normal use" which is about 12 hours per day *not* using bluetooth. Using bluetooth 4 hours out of the 12 I can get about four days, sometimes only three.
I needed hearing aids for work and paid out-of-pocket for the expensive ones, but they are still going strong seven years later. The over-the-ear type work great, whereas I don't get along so well with earbuds. After surgery on one ear nothing stays in that side.
Double joke alert!! With these Airpods can the bluetooth be disabled? How many recharge cycles before the rechargeable batteries should be replaced?
A bit like me with my reading glasses.
The big difference is that the brain learns to adapt to hearing aids and certainly for moderate losses and greater it is better to have them in all the time than constantly to take them out. Obviously if you are alone in a quiet house or something you can remove them, and the ear does need to 'breathe' occasionally, but otherwise leave them in and switched on. Also vastly reduces the chances of losing them, particularly with children.
So to be of any use, yes, these things are probably going to need 12 hours of runtime as a minimum I would say. I don't think any current ear pods approach that?
M.
It would provide a cost-effective solution for many people, and could be a disruptive technology as far as the hearing aid industry is concerned. The Android industry had better step up, I think! I say all this, even though I don't use an iPhone and I personally dislike the look of these...
As a hearing aid wearer for over 60 years, this interesting, but perhaps not too surprising as they are very similar devices, both have microphone, speaker & some form of DSP.
As I have severe hearing loss, I doubt the Apple devices would be suitable.
The NHS aids I have, have a number of advantages:
- customised ear moulds, important as I wear my aids for 16+ hours a day.
- battery life of around 2 weeks, but the batteries are not rechargeable.
- that they look like hearing aids is in my view an advantage, if people notice and most do not.
- simple controls on the aids themselves, no dependency on a phone.
- works with LOOP systems.
- Cost not that high, NHS pay around £400 for them.
The advantages Apple will have is:
- rechargeable batteries
- Bluetooth
- you may already have them
One final thing to point out, is adjusting to new hearing aids can be quite a challenge. I recall hearing lots of echos, when I had one new hearing aid, but after a few days adjusted. Switching to digital, enabled me to hear a lot more especially as I then had 2 as opposed to 1.
There is no stigma to wearing a hearing aid, they are just uncomfortable and don’t work very well. The only thing worse is having to go: Sorry, what was that, love? and then getting the same incomprehensible reply, or yelling, which is completely impossible to understand. Sony and Sennheiser earphones seem to work reasonably well as a lower cost and more featureful solution.
I thought the Sony OTC 'C" series and the new "E" series earbuds were OTC hearing aids?
First versions were IOS only but new "E" versions were IOS/Android according to the spec sheet.
Not cheap or as cheap as the Apple version, which is surprising but maybe Apple entering the fray will drive down pricing.
NOT THAT I NEED THEM YOU UNDERSTAND. NO POOR DECISIONS ON MY PART IN MY YOUTH, NO SIRREE.
The Sony ones are the result of a partnership with WS Audiology.
From past performance, we can expect the Apple versions to be the result of Apple stealing technology (see the Apple Watch infringement of Masimo’s patents etc,) so expect a lawsuit down the road…
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