Apple will offer millions of AirPod users a hearing aid. Can it convince them to use it?

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After years of dabbling in hearing health, Apple earlier this week went all-in, announcing that AirPods Pro, the tech giant’s top wireless earbuds, will soon double as hearing aids for people with milder forms of hearing loss.

Apple’s redoubled effort on hearing also includes software to test a person’s hearing and to customize the output of the hearing aid. This hearing aid feature, which boosts sound around users to make it more audible, is intended for people with mild to moderate hearing loss of the kind that can make it difficult to hear conversation in a noisy restaurant or other quiet sounds in everyday life — not for severe or profound hearing loss that requires professional treatment. Both the hearing aid and hearing test tools will be available in the United States this fall. Apple plans to launch the features worldwide.

On Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it had cleared the hearing aid feature via the De Novo pathway, calling it the “first over-the-counter hearing aid software device.” Clearance for the hearing test, which will be classified as an over-the-counter audiometer, is still pending.

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Mario Aguilar
Health Tech Correspondent
Mario Aguilar covers technology in health care, including artificial intelligence, virtual reality, wearable devices, telehealth, and digital therapeutics. His stories explore how tech is changing the practice of health care and the business and policy challenges to realizing tech’s promise. He’s also the co-author of the free, twice weekly STAT Health Tech newsletter.
Timmy Broderick
Disability in Health Care Reporting Fellow