AirPod Pro 2 as hearing device

Question and Answer
#41

Sure @Volusiano ! Later tonight though, she is at work now.

This is the long version, it might clarify things a bit for you: When I read your post I went to my iPad to check the steps to write you back. But doing so I immediatly noticed a difference in transparency mode. iPads won’t load our audiograms since they do not have the “Apple Health” app. I was like… oh no! Then I quickly paired the AirPods to my partner’s SE 2020, download iHearlt, loaded my audiogram and exported it to Apple Health, set up my AirPods using my hearing test again, and unpaired the pods from her phone. Now the AirPods have the same amplification I had before trying to do it on my iPad.

#42

Have had the AirPods Pro 2 for about a week. Of course they are not hearing aids, but I find they do help me hear better, even if I don’t have my iPhone with me.

For example taking a walk, I just hear ambient sounds better, even my own footsteps. But normally I carry the phone to stream music or ask Siri dumb questions. :crazy_face:

They really help my hearing on the phone and it is nice to have my hands free while yaking on the phone.

I seldom use the Noise Canceling mode but it is great when I do, such as running a vacuum or using a power tool.

Personally, I have had no problem with the occlusion effect. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would say they help my hearing about a 3. It is simply unrealistic to expect them to perform like a $3000 pair of hearing aids.

No one mentioned the Live mode. I haven’t used it other than to try it out, but can see where it could be useful, say at a lecture where you could place your phone near the speaker.

Overall, I am pleased with them.

If you are thinking about trying them, I would strongly recommend you buy them from a source that accepts returns if you decide they aren’t for you.

Comments:

I had one fall out while shopping, but luckily spotted it right away. I read that almost 20% of owners lose one! So I bought the below lanyard. Don’t plan on wearing it except at times I think I may be distracted. Have to remove it when placing in case. Also, have to tell Siri to adjust volume since it covers part of the stem.

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Someone wanted to manually input an audiogram. If you try to upload a non audiogram photo, it will give you an error message and give you the option to enter data manually.

#43

Done and it worked the same way. I loaded a flat audiometry at 0 dB and everything went quiet in transparency mode.

#44

Thanks for verifying, @e1405 ! I’ll be visiting a local Apple store tomorrow to see if I could get it to work for my case or not with a newer iOS 16 iPhone. I’m already noticing that I’m not able to use or personalize Spatial Audio, nor does it support the Adaptive Transparency in iOS 15.7.1 on my iPhone 7 Plus (although it does support normal Transparency)

Thanks for pointing out that the iPad doesn’t support the Apple Health app. That explains why I was not able to load a personalized audiogram into it. I also notice that it does not support the Spatial Audio feature either, which is kinda strange because this iPad has iOS 16.1.1. But it does have Adaptive Transparency support, though.

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#45

One of my hearing aids crapped out this weekend. I had to mail it off. My son has graciously lent me his Apple Air Pod Pro 2s for the couple weeks or so I’ll be out. I was somewhat dubious it would help as I tried a pair of the first version last year, and there were a number of problems. I could never get a good seal. There was always a strong sense of occlusion. I never felt like the boost where my hearing is flat was enough. I gave them to my younger son, who turned 25 today. He seems to enjoy them.

The newer pair really help. When it is quiet and there isn’t a lot of noise, I can hear speech better. I had to get my son to disconnect from his apple ID to get my hearing profile stored away. Once that was put through and I turned on the good stuff, it was like night and day. Without it, they sounded quite flat.

I have to travel next week and have in-person meetings. Not looking forward to it. And the batteries don’t last like my HAs. But “Better than a sharp stick in the eye.”

WH

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#46

I went to the Apple store today to try and pair my Pro 2 with a brand new IPhone 14 Pro Max and personalized ny audiogram on it, then immediately after that, I tried out my wife’s Samsung Note 8 and my Windows 11 laptop and the audiogram still didn’t stick and work for neither the Android phone nor the Windows 11 laptop. I notice that the name of my Airpods Pro 2 now has a “Find My” appended to the end of it after this set up with the newer iPhone 14 Pro Max when I tried to pair it with the Note 8 and the laptop. So it’s an indication that the new setup sticks because the name got changed by the new setup. For some reason Unfortunately the audiogram still didn’t stick. It also didn’t stick in the Transparency mode either.

So I don’t know what else I can try to get it to stick now. Apparently @WhiteHat seems to imply that his setup also sticks, or at least for the Transparency mode. I wonder if you @WhiteHat can try it on an Android phone or Windows pc if you have available to see if the media streaming on those non-iOS devices has your personalized audiogram on them or not? Thanks!

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#47

I don’t have android available, and I’m not allowed to BT anything to my work windows box. Sorry.

You did unhook your airpod from the apple ID on that store phone, right?

WH

#48

@Volusiano: My AirPods act as “hearing aids” in transparency mode when they are not paired to an iPhone. They also amplify the surrounding sound when I am streaming music/podcast from my Android or Ipad and I am in “transparency mode”. I can hear and understand my daughter while listening to music, though as other forum members have mentioned the performance as “hearing aids” is mediocre.

Here is what I am not sure of: do they amplify/correct the streamed music/podcast from my Android based on my audiogram? I would have to do an A/B test to figure it out, perhaps this weekend.

#49

I didn’t really do anything to the Apple ID on the store phone. I just load in my audiogram (no good via taking a picture like before so it made me enter it in manually which I did) in the setup using whatever the Apple ID is on the phone. Then I disconnected it from that iPhone then re-pair it immediately afterwards to the Android phone then the laptop.

Can you elaborate on what you meant above?

#50

Find my indicates it is attached to an apple ID and that appleID can see the location when you use them, and also send sounds to them, etc. If they are attached to a device you control, then no problem. If you attached them to the apple ID of a phone on display in the store, that might be a problem for you later, as you can’t remove it. Apple might be able to do it, but it would take some explaining.

To disconnect, I think there is a slider to turn off “Find My Network” of your apple ID is the one attached to the airpods.

WH

#51

Ah, OK, I understand what you’re saying now. I suppose if I intend to keep these Airpods Pro 2, I’ll have to return to the Apple store shortly thereafter to unhook it from that Apple ID. Hopefully the same iPhone is still there for me to remove the Airpods from it. I should be back in the area where the Apple store is in a couple of days so I can get it done as long as the displayed iPhone is still there. Push comes to shove, you can also just reset the Airpods so the Apple ID it’s hooked on to won’t be able to Find it. However, from what I understand, you will lose that Find My feature on those Airpods for good because you won’t be able to associate it with another AppleID after the reset.

The Find My words appended to the name of my Airpods Pro 2 after the store visit indicated that I’ve properly “hooked” it onto the store’s iPhone 14 Pro Max. Before with my iOS 15.7.1 iPhone 7 Plus, it doesn’t support the Find My feature for the Airpods Pro 2, so that’s why it didn’t get “hooked” to my 7 Plus. But rest assured that the personalized audiogram is “hooked” onto my 7 Plus streaming audio just fine because I can hear the amplifed/aided sharpness of the highs in the streaming audio.

Anyway, at this point, I’m really inclined to return these Airpods Pro 2 to Costco because I haven’t been able to get it to work with my personalized audiogram in place for non-iOS devices like Android or Windows. So unhooking it from the store’s AppleID is not really a concern if I decide to return them anyway.

I’ll sleep on it for a few more days but I’ll most likely return them by next Tuesday if I don’t make any progress anyway.

I still don’t get why I wasn’t able to get personalized audiogram to work with non-IOS streaming, nor with the Transparency mode, even after I hooked it up with the latest iPhone 14 Pro Max at the store.

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#52

Have you tried to manually switch modes on your AirPod? Perhaps transparency is off and you need to turn it on. I found this online:

  • Pair and connect your AirPods Pro with your device.
  • Once connected, find the small flat force sensor pad on the stem (there is one on each AirPod).
  • Press and hold it down until you hear a slight blink sound which will mean the Transparency Mode is on. Pressing down the sensor again will turn the mode off.
#53

Yes, I have, several times. Too many times even, either manually on the Airpods “stems”, or via the buttons on the iPhone. When I switch between Transparency and OFF and ANC. I can distinctly tell that all 3 modes are working. With Transparency, I can hear the environmental sounds. With OFF, if it’s quiet around, I can even hear my own heart beat. With ANC, it’s eerily quiet and my own hearbeat sound disappears.

But with Transparency enabled, while I can hear the environmental sounds, they’re “flat”, not amplified/aided to my personalized audiogram. How do I verify that it’s not “aided”? Simply by taking the Airpods out of my ears, then I can hear the environmental sounds almost the same flatness as with them in my ears, except maybe at a tiny bit lower, but more natural and unoccluded volume. I expect to be able to hear sharper sounds from the environment if they were amplified/aided to my personalized audiogram, but they’re not. They sound “flat” just the same as if I hear it with my own unaided ears. If there are voices around me, I can barely make out what those voices are saying in Transparency mode, just the same as if I hear with my own unaided ears.

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#54

I am out of suggestions now, @Volusiano. Perhaps this is a faulty pair. I can share a video setting up mine if you think it would help you, just PM me.

#55

OK, thanks, @e1405. If I were the only one on this thread that has this problem and everyone else is successful, then I’d be inclined to agree that perhaps mine is a faulty pair. But apparently @d_Wooluf shares the same experience/difficulties I have, so I don’t really think it’s a faulty pair. Besides, it’s brand new in the box, not a used pair either.

What I found weird also is this → if the premise is that the personalized audiogram is not localized in the iPhone only, but gets uploaded to the Airpods Pro 2 ear pieces such that it works for Android and Windows and Transparency independently outside of the Apple ecosystem, then why wouldn’t it work just as well on my iOS 16.1.1 iPad? My iPad doesn’t support Apple Health, hence no personalized audiogram can be set up local to the iPad, hence no aided streaming audio (only flat audio) from it. Yet the Android phone doesn’t support Apple Health either, and no personalized audiogram can be set up on the Android either, but yet, somehow one can get aided streaming audio on the Android? Something doesn’t make sense here. If independent, non-localized aided streaming audio works on the Android device outside of the Apple ecosystem, then why wouldn’t the same principle work independently on the iPad device as well?

#56

Someone on Reddit sent me a screenshot that implies that you can only get hearing accommodations when connected to Apple gear. https://imgur.com/a/Qsatji7. That gels with my experience. Yesterday I turned hearing accommodations on and off and tested on my computer each time. No difference.

The “find my” suffix is weird. I got that on my GCCwTV when I first tried to pair the airpods. I think i pressed the button on the back of the case too long and it reset the airpods. Later, I got X’s Airpods without the “find my”. I haven’t looked into it.

#57

Your iPhone is on iOS 16, right? @d_Wooluf

I just want to rule out that maybe because my iPhone is only on iOS 15.7.1 that I have ruined my Airpods Pro 2 setup with that older iOS 15 somehow, such that setting it up over again with an iOS 16 iPhone 14 Pro Max at the Apple store later on still wouldn’t undo the screw up with iOS 15 (if any).

#58

@Volusiano. Yes, iphone 8 running 16.1.

No question that this device is not as powerful as a hearing aid. Twice yesterday I failed to return my turning indicators back to centre. That doesn’t happen when I wear hearing aids. Also, no question in my mind that the effect is real. I tested them in conversation with my wife and the difference was marked.

#59

Did you test them in-store with their iphone?

#60

What does this mean “turning indicators”?