Your AirPods Pro will gain new capabilities with iOS 18, including a new mode that should enable the earbuds to double as a hearing aid-style device.
That’s according to the latest edition of Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. He didn’t provide additional details, but this isn’t the first time we’ve heard the hearing aid rumor (pun intended). In 2021, The Wall Street Journal ran a report claiming future AirPods would gain hearing aid-style features.
Gurman suggests that this feature will not require hardware. Instead, it should be made possible on the current second-generation USB-C AirPods Pro, released in September 2022, with the release of iOS 18 this fall.
iOS 18 could let AirPods Pro double as a hearing aid
Don’t expect this feature to trickle down to older AirPods models. Apple’s best computational audio features in iOS 18, known under the umbrella term Adaptive Audio, require its enhanced H2 chip from the second-generation AirPods Pro.
The H2 chip brings several improvements over the H1, like 48 Khz noise reduction in hardware and support for Bluetooth 5.3, as well as 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands.
Adaptive Audio comprises three distinct audio features that fully exploit the power of the H2 chip: Adaptive Noise Control, Personalized Volume, and Conversation Awareness (not to be confused with Conversation Boost).
AirPods Pro boost your conversations
Conversation Awareness and Conversation Boost incorporate some hearing aid-style features by enhancing the voice of the person speaking in front of you.
And with another feature called Live Listen, your iPhone becomes a remote microphone with which you can even eavesdrop on other people’s conversations.
In other words, Apple has already laid the building blocks to realize a hearing aid-style feature in the future. However, due to the FDA’s rules, the company will not be able to market the AirPods Pro with such features as a hearing aid device.