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Apple's AirPods Pro hearing health features

(www.theverge.com)
282 points elsewhen | 7 comments | 22 Oct 24 00:25 UTC | HN request time: 1.531s | source | bottom
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an_d_rew ◴[22 Oct 24 02:35 UTC] No.41910659[source]▶
As a mid-50 year old who discovered two years ago that he has moderate hearing loss (50-55 dB HL), I will be forever grateful to Apple for doing this.

If anybody from the accessibility teams is reading this, please know that it is difficult for me to overstate my gratitude and my appreciation for the amount of work this must've taken.

Music sounds unbelievably better through my AirPod pros, and I didn't even know what I had lost until I heard it again.

I'm willing to bet that a lot of my middle aged compatriots don't even know how much their hearing has degraded… Get your hearing test tested, folks, while you still have it!

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1. JKCalhoun ◴[22 Oct 24 12:49 UTC] No.41913703[source]▶
My wife is in her 50's. Her hearing seems noticeably poor than it used to be but she is in a bit of denial about it. This will be my first purchase of Air Pods — and for my wife. A kind of stealth hearing aid....
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2. meragrin_ ◴[22 Oct 24 13:24 UTC] No.41913998[source]▶
> A kind of stealth hearing aid....

I've had hearing aids for years. People don't notice unless you don't have much hair or you have to have the industrial strength ones.

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3. Loughla ◴[22 Oct 24 13:26 UTC] No.41914021[source]▶
I would add, I've also never heard anyone make fun of another human for having hearing aids.

I do not understand the stigma around these things.

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4. KineticLensman ◴[22 Oct 24 14:16 UTC] No.41914547{3}[source]▶
I've been wearing them for 10 years and have never had any bad comments as a result. When I first got them, work colleagues were visibly pleased for me that I had done something about a problem that was getting worse (not being able to follow quiet conversations in meetings).

The one time someone did say something slightly negative that included "oh it's that guy with the hearing aids" I came back with "yes, and thanks to them I can hear what you just said, the clue is in the name", which got a general laugh that helped a lot. But that was a one off, apart from people slightly staring sometimes when they notice them, no one seems bothered.

5. JKCalhoun ◴[22 Oct 24 14:18 UTC] No.41914581[source]▶
"Stealth" in this case means I am stealthily getting her to try a "hearing aid" by way of Air Pods.
6. an_d_rew ◴[22 Oct 24 14:24 UTC] No.41914629[source]▶
Hearing loss is one of the very few proven and CAUSAL mechanisms behind cognitive degeneration as we age.

They even know the mechanism: the slow imperceptible year by year withdrawal from rich communication patterns with our environment.

I found that it took me a little while not to feel "old" when I discovered that I needed hearing aids.

But my oh my what a difference.

It's difficult to describe to someone what it's like and how much less cognitive energy you have to put into even simple things like discussing lunch with your wife!

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7. washadjeffmad ◴[23 Oct 24 13:27 UTC] No.41924876[source]▶
Because my voice is deep and I'm soft spoken, I've always been told people could feel my voice before they heard it, and a lot of noise cancellation models have a hard time distinguishing me from environmental sound and suppress my speech.

It's weirdly isolating not being able to communicate in certain meeting software or on some phones because a computer thinks I'm the machine.