Apple iOS 18 to bring ‘hearing aid mode’ for AirPods Pro

Apple is developing a new hearing aid mode feature for AirPods Pro that will be released with iOS 18 software says Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman.

Federal Communication Commission (FCC) has announced hearing aid compatibility (HAC) requirements for digital wireless phones. Most of the iPhones are compatible with FCC’s rules to support hearing aid devices.

iPhones bring “Hearing Aid Compatibility” that improves the audio quality with some hearing aids on iOS 13 and above. Its Live Listen feature enables the iPhone to work as a remote microphone that sends sound to a supported heading aid.

Live Listen can allow users to hear a conversation in a noisy room or hear someone speaking across the room.

Customers can also use the Live Listen feature with AirPods. Similar to the hearing aid, the iPhone works as a microphone and sends audio to the connected wearable.

Live Listen for wearables supports AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, Powerbeats Pro, Beats Fit Pro, and Beats Studio Pro.

You will need to add “Live Listen” to the control center to use this feature. Go to Settings > Control Center > find “Hearing” and tap on the + icon.

iOS Live Listen Feature (Image Credit: Apple)

These AirPods Pro come with in-built microphones, which are used to provide sound to your ears. Feature such as Active Noise Cancellation heavily relies on such hardware.

iOS 18 will use new AI technologies such as generative large language models. A previous report reveals that the company is preparing some new accessibility future for the customers.

So, this could be another addition to the list of new accessibility options coming with the new iOS version. With AI, the company could add some new capabilities to the Live Listen and may rename it as “hearing aid mode”.

Information about this new capability may come at the WWDC annual developers event.

(source – Bloomberg)