Apple will add a new “hearing aid” mode for AirPods Pro in its next iPhone operating system, iOS18, which is expected to be released this fall, Bloomberg reports.
According to the article, Apple will not make additional hardware improvements to AirPods Pro this year. However, “the big news will be the new hearing aid mode that will ship with iOS18.”
Apple introduced Live Listen in iOS12 in 2018, a feature that amplifies sounds picked up by the iPhone’s microphone and streams them through AirPods. The Conversation Boost feature on AirPods Pro increases the volume of conversations to make them easier to hear.
Deregulation across the Atlantic
These Apple initiatives are part of a context where health product control authorities in the United States have deregulated hearing aids so that they are available without a prescription, since 2022.
Bloomberg previously reported that Apple would add hearing aid functionality to AirPods in a software update planned for later this year. Apple also planned to offer a hearing test feature that would tell AirPods users if they have hearing loss.
Source: “ZDNet Korea”