Apple intentionally removing hearing accessibility features

My name is Mikail. I’m 24 and I was diagnosed with hearing loss in my right ear in November, 2024. My ear drum is ruptured, and the three tiny bones in the ear that transfer sound — the auditory ossicles — are deteriorating. I have about 40 decibels of hearing loss in my right ear, which for me means that conversation is audible, but hardly intelligible. Thankfully my left ear still works fine. I am scheduled for a surgery to receive a prosthetic replacement for these auditory ossicles. This procedure may restore some of my hearing. At the very least, my hearing loss will stop advancing.

On October 28, 2024, Apple released an FDA-approved Hearing Aid feature among others, which I’ve used every day since. In fact, the Apple Hearing Test is how I discovered the early stages of my hearing loss. I immediately made a doctor’s appointment which led us to today where I await surgery.

Incredibly, I have only lived in a world with hearing loss and Apple’s Hearing Aid feature. I took my first hearing test with my AirPods on October 28, the day Apple released the feature. I take these tests regularly to utilize two key features: Hearing Aid and Media Assist.

The Hearing Aid does exactly what you think, boosting volume in my right ear. Media Assist adjusts the audio equalization for both ears. For me, I get a boost in the right ear. With this feature on, it’s like my hearing loss disappears. Both of these features compensate for the various levels of hearing loss across the audio spectrum. It is not simply a boost in volume.

This is a feature that everyone involved should feel immense pride in putting to market. I am constantly in awe that these headphones that I already owned would end up being truly indispensable.

As a quick aside, I actually made a little website as an assignment for a hearing science class I took in 2020. It’s funny how things come around again.

My most up-to-date audiogram from my audiologist.

Back in 2021, I owned AirPods Max, gifted to me by my then-girlfriend. What a gift. I loved those headphones to an unreasonable degree. The noise cancelling made the world feel still. The heft of them was comforting and not burdensome, an unpopular experience. They sounded great, too. I loved them. Loved. They were one of the first things to go when we wanted a little extra cash after buying our first house.

So, I of course bought them again after seeing the new wired and USB-C lossless features because, well, I love AirPods Max irrationally.

To rationalize my fondness, I started researching hearing accessibility features that were available on AirPods Max. Apple calls these Headphone Accommodations. I discovered that just like on AirPods Pro 2, I could upload an audiogram the results of my hearing test — and have audio equalized on AirPods Max. This was perfect. I made sure I had a copy of my audiogram and went through the steps listed on this forum post. Apple’s support article can be found here. When I opened the Headphone Accommodations setting, every feature was there but one: the option to upload my audiogram. It was gone. Why?

Apple removed this feature in iOS 18.1. Axed. An accessibility feature from 2020 made for most Apple and Beats-branded headphones has been made exclusive to AirPods Pro 2.

I’d been so accustomed to my AirPods Pro’s Media Assist feature that, when I put on my AirPods Max for the first time, I cried. It’s like I lost my hearing for a second time. I knew that sound was coming out of the right headphone, but I could not hear it. I don’t wear headphones while I’m teaching, so I know what my life is like with hearing loss, yet when I put on headphones, there’s an expectation I’ve set for myself that everything goes back to normal.

Because my hearing loss is unilateral, my only option is to pan the audio to the right. Even so, my hearing loss is not quite a flat 40 decibels, so sound in my right ear seems slightly off. So, that’s my current solution. To compensate for the reduction in volume in my functioning left ear, I just turn the volume up. It’s serviceable.

This is the balance I’m trying right now.

Apple, please add this feature back. If not to continue making the world more accessible to everyone, but to avoid undoing the progress you made five years ago when you first solved this problem. You are a leader in accessibility. Don’t leave other devices behind because they’re not FDA-approved hearing aids. I’ve learned that these accessibility features are vital. Let us hear again, like we could before October 28.

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It’s still there. You need to enter your Audiogram manually in the Health app on an iPhone. I just checked mine running 18.4. Once you have it in the Health app, you can access it from an iPad. And I just checked the Health app on my iPad, and it’s there as well. Just search “Audiogram” in the health app, in the upper right corner click “add test”, then follow the steps to add it manually. I’ve been using it with my AirPods Max since 2021 and update it regularly. Once done, choose “Audiogram” from Headphone Accomodations” and you are good to go.

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Thank you so much for your reply. I am on iOS 18.4 and this is what it looks like for me. In another reply, I’ll show my hearing test page on the health app.

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Here’s my hearing test page.

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What happens when you click on one of the results? You should get a page that looks like this… in the top right corner it should say Add Test. Then click Add Manually. Then click whichever way you want to add them.

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Same thing, unfortunately. That’s how I added my tests from the audiologist originally. I get prompted to setup hearing aids, but no option in Headphone Accommodations for my AirPods Max


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What happens when you click “show details”? Also, which iPhone do you have, and are we in the same country? I am in the USA. And am using an iPhone 14. And which Aids? Mine are Costco KS-9, so they don’t use the Apple hearing aid tools…just Bluetooth.

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iPhone 16 on iOS 18.4. No hearing aids. Just two kinds of AirPods. Hearing accommodations with my audiogram work with the AirPods Pro 2, but not the AirPods Max.

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Have you figured it out yet?

No. The feature doesn’t exist i’m pretty sure. Here are other people with the same issue:

https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/s/HEjLm8sx3q

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Perhaps it’s the actual headphones themselves (your AirPods Max V2 - I think you said you have the second version).

Here is a series of screens that shows how I can add, using either photo, file, or manually my hearing curve to my Health app, and then call that up from my SETTINGS/ACCESSIBILITY/HEARING-AUDIO VISUAL areas on either my iPhone or iPad using my AirPods Max (V1).

And thanks to your link, I see that this is SUPPOSED to work with the Mac, as well, however it seems that ONLY AirPods 2 PRO work with the Mac. My AirPods Max don’t seem to. So, this only works with iPhones and iPads:

These should be in the order of operations. If not, they are named sequentially…

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For this set, just enter the data from your audiogram. Or try the photo or file option. I entered only the first one to demonstrate:

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I’m going to try this with my iPad because that “Audiogram” selection you have in your last photo is not on my phone. I have 2 audiograms that I have in my health app that I added manually with a copy of my hearing tests from the audiologist and 3 more from the AirPods themselves.

I can follow every step in your directions up until the last one. What I’ve heard is that if you added your audiogram and used the hearing accommodations feature highlighted, you can continue to use that specific audiogram past iOS 18.0.1.

I.e., if you had the feature enabled prior to iOS 18.1, it carries through. Otherwise you can’t use it.

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I have another iPhone that’s never been paired with my AirPods Max. I’ll see if I have the same issues…

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It might be saved to your account but it could be per device! Thank you for checking. I might try a store and see if they have any out-of-date devices to put the accessibility setting on my account

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Good point about the account. I am going to use my wife’s and see if that works.

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Never used or handled them.
Are the Air Pods Pro the only model that can be configured via audiogram?
How much gain can they compensate for, are they mostly for high end loss ?

So, I’ve done exactly the process in the screen shots above on my wife’s iPhone 14. And it all worked. I was able to save a manual audiogram. Paired my AirPods Max (V1 - lightning) for the first time, and got the option to use the audiogram in the Headphone Accommodations screen. The only thing I can think of is that there might be a difference between V1 and V2?
I don’t have any other AirPods or Beats to check. My firmware version is 6F25.


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Well what the heck! I’ll keep poking around. In the meantime, I do have a case open with Apple’s accessibility. Thank you for everything you’ve been doing to help. I appreciate it!

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