AirPods are about to become the best low-cost hearing aids around

"When the world's most valuable company held its latest glitzy event this past week, Apple offered a peek at its highly anticipated AI tools and the next iPhone.

And one more thing that could quietly turn out to be the most important release of them all.

It wasn't a new product. In fact, it's a product you might already own. The company showed off a feature that will transform the most popular wireless earbuds into something else altogether -- something that Apple believes will meaningfully, almost magically improve the lives of millions of people.

A hearing aid.

As soon as it rolls out the software update this fall, Apple will instantly make the AirPods Pro 2 into a medical device, essentially turning every pair of the company's top-selling headphones into over-the-counter hearing aids.

Audiologists expect it will be the best low-cost option for most Americans who need hearing aids but don't wear them.

It's meant for people with perceived mild to moderate levels of hearing loss. And those are exactly the people who might never otherwise get a hearing aid.

Whether it's because of price, stigma or their refusal to admit they're getting older, people with the least severe hearing problems are the ones most reluctant to seek help. Most feel it's not worth their money, time and energy to find a solution. Some don't even know they have a problem.

But walking around with something in your ear has become so completely normalized -- even cool! -- that medical professionals believe people who might not wear a hearing aid will feel perfectly comfortable popping in AirPods.

And this past week, when it authorized Apple's tech as the first over-the-counter hearing-aid software, the Food and Drug Administration called it an advance for "the availability, accessibility and acceptability of hearing support."

One of the audiologists I called after the Apple announcement was Nicholas Reed, an associate professor at NYU Langone Health's Optimal Aging Institute. As it turns out, he was the right person to call.

"I'm a pure Android person," Reed said. "I don't own Apple stuff."

Still, he told The Wall Street Journal a few years ago that AirPods as hearing aids could be a potential game-changer, since their mainstream appeal, plus the convenience and consumer trust in Apple, would reduce stigma and improve uptake. I wanted to know if he still felt that way. "I do think this is a game-changer," he said.

It was one that took years of work from the usual team of Apple software engineers and designers and a more unusual collection of acoustic engineers, clinicians and audiologists. The older you get, the worse your hearing gets, but the company says this is a product for all consumers.

"It's something you should care about at every age," said Dr. Sumbul Desai, Apple's vice president of health.

AirPods might not be as good as prescription hearing aids for people with profound hearing loss. But for people with mild to moderate hearing loss, they are plenty good enough. And there are lots of those people.

There are roughly 30 million Americans who could benefit from hearing aids, according to the U.S. government, and the World Health Organization says 1.5 billion people globally are living with hearing loss.

And the only thing more surprising than how many people could use a hearing aid is how many of those people don't actually have one.

In fact, 75% of people with hearing loss let it go untreated, according to the Apple Hearing Study, a project run with the University of Michigan. In case you don't trust medical statistics from a trillion-dollar company trying to sell you something, the audiologists I consulted told me that number sounded right.

Here's the upshot: The overwhelming majority of people with some kind of hearing loss are not buying devices that would help them.

Which is understandable. Because until recently, the only way to obtain a hearing aid was to visit a clinic, get a prescription and then pay up.

But two years ago, the FDA decided to allow hearing aids to be sold directly to consumers over the counter. That one decision cleared the way for more competition and more innovation -- and for devices that are more affordable.

Today, prescription hearing aids still cost thousands of dollars. OTC devices cost significantly less. The generic preset ones sell for roughly $100 and the more personalized self-fitting ones around $1,000. 

The hearing aid from Apple will essentially perform like the expensive devices for the price of the cheaper ones at $249. And for those who already own the AirPods Pro 2, it won't cost anything extra.

Other hearing aids have longer battery life and look nearly invisible, but Apple is also introducing several features meant to prevent, measure and assist with hearing loss. They include a hearing test that takes about five minutes and requires just an iPhone or iPad and these AirPods, which is useful, since Apple says 80% of U.S. adults have not had their hearing checked in the past five years.

The audiologists I called were optimistic that all of this will lead to improvements in our ear health -- and our overall health. That's because even minimal decreases in hearing ability have been linked with increased depression, cognitive decline and social isolation.

Of course, Apple isn't funding scientific research and running clinical trials just because it might be good for consumers. It also happens to be good business.

Apple sold nearly 80 million pairs of earwear last year, according to market-research firm IDC. The company doesn't break out AirPods sales, but its wearables category, which includes headphones and smartwatches, has grown to $40 billion a year -- more annual revenue than all of Starbucks or Netflix.

The market for hearing aids is currently dominated by a small number of companies that Americans have never heard of, but Apple's announcement pummeled their stock prices and wiped out billions of dollars in market value.

Even people who aren't the biggest fans of Apple gadgets are huge fans of the company getting into OTC hearing aids. Reed, the Android-using hearing professional, says it should boost the quality of these devices across the board and kill off the crummy ones that actually end up being counterproductive.

"If someone's great-grandma buys a $200 device off Amazon and it doesn't work, they're not coming back, and we've lost that person to hearing care," he said. "We make the world worse when we do that."

But that great-grandma is more likely to buy this $249 device because she trusts that a product made by Apple will just work.

Maybe she uses FaceTime to see her great-grandchildren. Or she visits the Genius Bar when she has iPhone issues her grandchildren can't fix. Or she relies on the Apple Watch for heart monitoring, fall detection and so many other health applications that it's her doctor's favorite medical device.

She's not the first customer who comes to mind as the target audience of Apple product launches, but she might just be the one with the most to gain from this one. Hear, hear." [1]

1. EXCHANGE --- Science of Success: Apple's Most Useful New Product Launch --- AirPods are about to become the best low-cost hearing aids around. Cohen, Ben.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 14 Sep 2024: B.1.