Apple’s Shoutout to AirPods Pro Hearing aids more meaningful than mere Marketing
While taking a break from my inbox this afternoon, I came across this post on X from my pal Mark Gurman of Bloomberg in which he shares news Apple today pushed a redesigned Health section of its site. The header, stylized with a color-shifting gradient in the background, features the tagline “Meaningful insights. Backed by science.”
What compels me to report on this ostensibly ho-hum change is Apple’s callout of its hearing health features in AirPods Pro 2. The software, which debuted alongside Apple Intelligence last October within iOS 18.1, includes a clinical-grade hearing test which enable AirPods Pro to act as an over-the-counter hearing aid. The timing was fortuitous, as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced a month earlier it authorized what it called the “first over-the-counter hearing aid software” for Apple’s earbuds.
“About 1.5 billion people around the world are living with hearing loss—and millions are unaware that they’re affected by it,” Apple’s marketing copy reads on its redesigned Health page. “To help you better understand your hearing and make caring for it more accessible, our medical and audio specialists worked together to develop an end-to-end hearing health experience for AirPods Pro 2.”
The company notes over 150,000 “real-world audiograms and millions of simulations” were used in developing the hearing test on iPhone and AirPods Pro.
Two things are simultaneously true about Apple’s new Health webpage:
It’s an opportunity for product marketing; and
It’s an opportunity to highlight the accessibility gains of using said product.
To the first statement, of course Greg Joswiak and Tor Myhren’s teams would seize yet another chance to hawk Apple’s wares. That’s literally part of the executives’ job description. To deride the new Health page as nothing but a pure marketing ploy is cynical and disingenuous because it implies the obvious—a for-profit business wanting to make money—is somehow icky or immoral. This point ties into the second statement, which is eminently relevant from a disability perspective. To wit, while one can acknowledge the marketing machinations at work, it’s also important to acknowledge the gravity of said marketing. This sentiment isn’t trivial; despite Apple being strident in their messaging that the AirPods’ hearing aids are intended for only those who cope with mild-to-moderate hearing loss, that the company is making more inroads on accessibility vis-a-vis the hearing aid market is a highly non-trivial development.
Apple is a pretty big and influential corporation nowadays, in case you haven’t heard.
Blake Cadwell, co-founder and CEO of Soundly, told me so in an interview last year.
“There are very few brands that can transform public opinion and actions in the way that Apple does,” he said of the significance of AirPods Pro becoming bonafide hearing aids. “The hearing feature in AirPods Pro marks a milestone in culture’s acceptance of hearing aids and hearing loss as a more normal part of daily life. The World Health Organization estimates that, by 2050, 1 in every 10 people will have disabling hearing loss. It’s something that also affects me personally. My own journey with hearing loss is what led to the creation of Soundly along with a deep sense of wanting to help others going through a similar process that can often feel frustrating and confusing.”
Even more pointedly, Cadwell continued by saying Apple’s then-newfound hearing aid feature has profound potential to “undoubtedly encourage more people to start their hearing journey now, rather than waiting another year—or even ten.”
Besides AirPods Pro sales, that notion of encouragement is exactly what Apple’s new Health page is built to bolster. Consider this: It’s highly plausible someone in the market for a hearing aid may be delighted to discover the AirPods Pro they already use every day to listen to music and podcasts are capable—and appropriate—in helping them hear better. That notion means something; it’s a testament to the gravity of highlighting an accessibility feature to the mainstream—whether during the holidays or right now.
