- In this video I'm talking about
using your Apple AirPods
Pro as hearing aids,
coming up.
(funky music)
Hi guys, Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Phoenix, Arizona.
And on this channel, I cover
a bunch of hearing related
information to help make you
a better informed consumer.
So if you're into that,
make sure you hit that subscribe button.
And don't forget to click the
bell to receive a notification
every time I post a new video.
All I can say is it is about time
because for years
individuals have speculated
as to whether or not
Apple would actually get
into the hearable or
the hearing aid space.
Well, that time has finally come.
I for one did not think that Apple
would actually get into
the hearing aid space.
And the reason I felt
that wasn't because Apple
is incapable of actually
developing a product
that can be used by
individuals with hearing loss,
but because the hearing loss
market is so stinking small,
compared to the mass appeal that they have
with regular consumer products.
However, with all of the
focus that Apple has placed
on the health features
inside of their products,
along with the fact that
Apple really has been working
alongside hearing aid manufacturers
for a number of years now with their made
for iPhone hearing aids,
and then you combine that
with the fact that there
are millions upon millions
of individuals across the world
who have hearing loss
that needs some help,
it really seems like
Apple is on a mission.
Well, the word is that
the new iOS 14 update
is actually going to allow the AirPods Pro
to act more like a hearing aid.
Meaning, they're actually gonna be able
to take some external sounds
and amplify them for you
if you need a little bit of a boost.
You can already use a feature
called Live listen mode,
which is where you
actually take your iPhone,
you turn on Live Listen mode,
and you either hand it to
someone else to talk into,
or you set it in front of them.
And this acts like a remote microphone
that sends their voice
directly into your device,
so you can cut out a lot of
different background noise
and actually increase the
volume of their voice.
But the new iOS update is supposed
to allow your AirPods Pro to increase
your environmental sounds, without having
to have all of those sounds go
through the microphone of your iPhone.
So you'll be able to
actually keep your iPhone
in your pocket, you don't have to hand it
to someone for them to talk into,
and you should be able to
boost the volume around you.
When it comes to customizing
the amount of amplification
that you will receive
with your AirPods Pro,
we don't know what that is
actually going to look like yet,
but we suspect that you're gonna be able
to actually upload a custom audiogram
like you can get with the
Mimi Hearing Test app,
which is actually the
same type of hearing tests
that I took to customize
my Bragi Dash Pros earbuds.
In fact, I've already
taken my Mimi Hearing Test
and I've uploaded it into
my iPhone in preparation
for when iOS 14 is released.
Ultimately, what will the
actual capabilities be
of the AirPods Pro as hearing aids?
And we don't really know
the answer to that yet.
I suspect that Apple will do a
couple of things really well,
but I also expect them to miss the boat
on a variety of different
important factors.
There are still a lot of questions
that we do not know the answers to.
I mean, how much customization
will we actually be able to do,
with the AirPods Pro from an
amplification perspective?
Will the amplification actually meet
real ear measurement prescriptive targets?
Will the occlusion effect
still be a problem,
even when you're in transparency mode?
Which is a huge issue that I find,
and in fact, is the reason that
I'm not wearing both of them
right now recording this video.
Of course, they'll probably still suffer
from very short battery life,
if you're gonna be using these devices
throughout the course of the
day, as actual hearing aids.
You are not going to be getting more than
a couple hours worth of
battery life at a time.
A big question is, what will
the processing delay be like?
So will all of the
processing actually happen
inside of the AirPods, or
will some of that processing
have to be done on the iPhone?
If it's done on the iPhone,
that means that the device
has to pick up the audio,
send it to the iPhone for processing,
and then from the iPhone it
has to go back to the AirPod
to actually amplify that
sound inside of your ear.
If they can do all of this really quick
like within several milliseconds,
then it's not gonna be a problem at all.
But I have a suspicion that there might be
a little bit of an audio delay
if that sound has to be
processed on the actual iPhone.
And the biggest question of them all is,
will they actually be
able to function well,
in a background noise setting?
I know that they get a lot of fanfare
for this active noise cancellation,
but it's really easy to
cancel out extraneous sound
when you're just trying to
stream audio in from a device.
But when you're trying to separate speech
from background noise,
that becomes significantly
more difficult to do,
and who knows whether
or not the AirPods Pro
will be able to actually do that?
Each one of the answers to these questions
will ultimately be make
it or break it factors,
when it comes to using these
guys as actual hearing aids.
So if you're interested in
seeing my detailed review
of the Apple AirPods Pro
to be used as hearing aids,
then make sure you stay
tuned to my channel,
because as soon as the
iOS 14 update comes out,
I'm gonna jump into this review
so I can answer all of
these questions and more.
And as soon as I'm done with that review,
I will also link it in the
description of this video.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions,
leave them in the comment section below.
If you liked the video, please share it.
And if you want to see other
videos just like this one,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
Also feel free to check out
my website, drcliffaud.com.
(funky music)
