Applications for hearing are ready to debut in Europe, and therefore in Italy Airods Pro 2 anticipated by Apple some time ago and already available after their official launch in the United States and Canada: the original package includes three different functions, but here we will have to wait a little longer for one of them, namely the hearing aid mode.
This delay in the Old Continent is caused by the more stringent regulations of ours and other EU member countries, especially with regards to the recognition and approval of a device that can be officially recognized as medical device (MDR, “Medical Device Regulation). The AirPods Pro 2 fall into this category due to the applications on hearing, from diagnosis to the correction of any defect, clinical tests in the European Union to arrive at the much desired certification of effectiveness and security preceding the green light for marketing were very strict.
In the USA, the Food and Drug Administration has already documented earphones as “clinical level hearing aids”, but here the debut of this functionality has been postponed to a later date, as it is still in the verification phase: for the moment, therefore, yes they can only take advantage of two applications.
The first is the “hearing test”intended only for adults, which allows for an exam similar to that practiced by audiologists. The audiometric test, certified from a scientific point of view, uses low volume tones to arrive at a pre-diagnosis: it is activated from the Health app or directly from the earphone settings. The second is the “loud sound reduction mode”which protects hearing by automatically screening out intense and prolonged noises coming from the external environment
Hearing test
Once the application has been started, a preliminary phase is undertaken to evaluate the suitability of the user, who must be of age and certain of carrying out the test in optimal conditions: in fact, the evaluation should not be carried out if you have a cold or is recently exposed to loud noises. The second step is to choose a silent environment to obtain a reliable result, and in this sense the noise cancellation function of the earphones can also help: once the latter have been positioned correctly, with the rubber tips that must adhere perfectly to the wall of the ear cavity to isolate the user from external sounds, you can go.
The evaluation, which starts from the left ear and continues with the right, lasts about 5 minutes, and the information is provided directly from the screen of the Apple device: after the reproduction of sounds at different frequencies and volumes, the result arrives, expressed in the form of audiogramfor each of the two ears. The vertical axis represents the volume and intensity of the sounds reproduced in decibels (DbHL), with which the minimum audible threshold is evaluated, the horizontal one indicates the frequency and height of the sounds in hertz: depending on the result the application indicates 5 levels of hearing impairment, that is:
- mild or absent (-25/25 DbHL)
- mild (from 26/40 DbHL)
- moderate (41/60 DbHL)
- severe (61/80 DbHL)
- deep (81/125 dBHL).
Obviously it is good to underline that this is only a pre-test, so the result must always be re-evaluated with a professional, but it is clear that in any case the audiogram can be a good starting point to present any problem with a solid basis to be explored further. Furthermore, since the evaluation is repeatable, you can also monitor your condition and evaluate any changes over time.
Updates needed
To take advantage of these applications it is necessary to update both the Apple device to iOS 18.2, currently in beta, which will debut for everyone at the beginning of December, and the AirPods Pro 2, on which the latest firmware must be installed.
The earphones take care of the download themselves: they simply need to be in the charging case connected to a power source and connected to an Apple device connected to a Wi-Fi network.