Why are AirPods Pro 2 Hearing Aid features not available in the UK?

I spoke to Apple support yesterday

I was told Apple doesn’t have the approval for UK yet that why it hasn’t be issued in UK.

As soon as they got the approval it will be released for UK too with the next update.

I hope this explains it 😊

Apple SupportUK is as much use as a chocolate fireguard on this subject. I enquire and had to jump through several hoops e.g "Serial number please". Nothing wrong with the AirPods Pro 2 just asking why the UK is not included.

Did a bit of research and this is what came up from the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.

Apple simply hasn't registered them in the UK! This is the MHRA response.

Thank you for your email.

As of 18 Nov 2024, Apple Inc has not registered the AirPods Pro 2 or Hearing Aid Feature as a medical device with the MHRA. Details on what Apple has registered with the MHRA are available to search on the Public Access Registrations Database (PARD) at the following link PARD

Registration of devices with the MHRA (the UK Competent Authority) does not represent any form of accreditation, certification, approval or endorsement by the MHRA.

In accordance with the above, medical device manufacturers must ensure that all information registered with the MHRA is accurate and up to date.

You may wish to contact Apple UK (see details below) to learn of plans to introduce the Hearing Aid Feature in the UK.

Telephone: 0800 107 6285

Contact – Official Apple Support (UK)

Get technical support for Apple’s Accessibility features

Connect with British Sign Language support

Kind regards,

Judith

MHRA Customer Experience Centre

Communications and engagement

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency

[Edited by Moderator]

Well I just bought a pair of AirPods Pro 2 from the local Apple Store in the UK. I spoke to the sales people at length about how I was impressed by their inclusion of hearing tests, hearing aid and protection functions. I liked that you wear them in noisy environment to protect your hearing. Clever stuff which closed the sale for me.

At no point did they suggest that none of these features are actually available to UK customers (because of regulations for test and aid, and actually protection is only available in N America). In effect, the product was missold to me. I am therefore disappointed and feel misled.

The AirPods Pro to a UK user are OK as they are, but could have been much better. Bit of a con really.

I think have really dropped the ball on this if the Apple Stores are not warning you that you unable to use the hearing aid feature in the UK yet before you buy them. There is no date for the UK yet and I read somewhere earlier today that Apple haven’t even applied for MHRA approval in the UK yet. I think the person who was posting had contacted the MHRA directly.

If you haven’t updated your iPhone to IOS 18.1 you can still use the Airpods as hearing Aids with an older IOS without the geographical lock and for me with mild to moderate hearing loss they work really well. I've been using them for five or six weeks. They won't help you that much if your hearing loss is severe or profound.

If you are not on IOS 18.1 you can set them up straight away. If you have an iPad or an older iPhone that is running an older IOS you could set them up on that. You will need to download the free Mimi app to do do a hearing test OR you can download your audiogram by taking a photo of it.

Assuming you have set them up using Bluetooth after you have taken a hearing test. Go to Settings/Accessibility/Audio Visual and click on Headphone Accommodations. Click on Audiogram and it will ask you which one to use. If you used the Mimi app the test will appear with todays date. Select it. In the next menu you can hear a sample of music and toggle between music with your Audiogram applied and without it so you know your Audiogram is working.

Go to the bottom and click on Transparency Mode and also switch Conversation boost on.

With the Airpods connected to your phone or iPad, your Airpods will appear close to the top of the Settings menu. Click on it. Switch Conversation Awareness on. Switch Loud Sound Reduction on. Go almost to the bottom and do an Ear Tip Fit Test to make sure you have a good seal in your ears.

That's about it but there are loads of settings you can play around with. In the last menu I mentioned you can simply set them to Adaptive Mode which will automatically set Noise Cancellation volume according to your surroundings. Otherwise you tinker with the Background Volume and Hearing Aid Volume manually independently of each other.

Hope this helps. Copy it quick!

"I have moderate hearing loss and have been using the transparency features for over a year successfully. Music sounds much clearer, and I'm able to converse with people almost as well as I can with my prescription hearing aids. I'm not sure why you are no longer able to use your audiogram as it is still available on my APP2 with ios 18.1."

The same for me but I have only been using mine for over a month. They are excellent and work for me very well.

I'm not sure why Idris is arguing the point when he is simply wrong. He is trying to flog a dead horse when we now have two people who are hard of hearing who USE them hearing aids.

Thank you for weighing in on this, by the way.

I am using IOS 17.7.1 as I am UK based and approval hasn't been granted yet for us. An update to 18.1 on my iPhone will simply stop mine working so I won't be upgrading any time soon.

"If they were hearing aids, they would work on things other than listening to music. But they don't. Or didn't until now."

They do work on improving hearing as well as music. This feature has been available for a while.

Yes it has.

Hera is the first video I found on YouTube to set them up.

18.1 is the "problem" in the sense that it now has the geographic lock and the Apple Hearing test. I know a few people on one of the Facebook hearing aid forums who had been using their AirPod Pro 2s as hearing aids for music and TV for a year or more.

In a couple, of cases, they had moderate to severe hearing problems but they found the Airpods really useful for watching TV and playing music. 18.1 has stopped their iPhones using an audiogram in the way it did before 18.1. Such a shame.

We know that Airpods are only meant for people with mild to moderate hearing loss but these people use regular hearing aids for their every day life but they found that Airpods for music and TV are so much better than their "real" hearing aids. And now they can no longer use them.

Please take note Apple.

i went to the apple shop today, they said the feature will arrive in the UK today, i haven’t found anything yet but hopefully soon something will happen🤞

My country is also not in the list. I bought my AirPods Pro 2 specifically for the hearing aid option. How is the inclusion determined? Who approves inclusion in each country and is there a list of expected date of inclusion in each country? Thanks

Me too! I’ve been waiting since April for an urgent referral: Feb 25!!

I bought my AirPod Pros this weekend after seeing them on YouTube - it wasn’t very clear this functionality was not yet available in the UK so my excitement was quite muted when I couldn’t find the menu items!! ☹️

However, I’m ready and waiting for the eventual release! The conversation boost and transparency modes give some idea of what to expect; this is fab functionality and the headphones music performance and noise cancellation is almost as good as my Sony WM 1000 over ears.

But the UK is not one of them. Why not? I am on the NHS waiting list to get my hearing tested... I am waiting already over 6 months. And the waiting list is ONE YEAR! But the NHS can't or won't approve this useful feature?

I really beat myself about upgrading to ios18.1 without waiting for bugs to be reported. Not being able to use APP2 as hearing aids is proving to be a real issue for me as I can’t even work face to face with people anymore.

It's not incorrect. I'm not denying you could do that or that it helped

with some things. But it didn't do what a hearing aid does and wasn't

approved as such.

I see you are determined to split hairs on this. We all now know that the Apple AirPod Pro 2s that were released in 2022 and many people in the know have been using them for a while. Apple didn't have FDA approval so they couldn't market them as such.

The word "aid" means to help or assist so those people have been using them as hearing aids for a couple of years. Without mine all I hear is a muffled smudge in my left earso they are definitely aiding my hearing.

You are using some technicality to decide they are not really hearing aids yet they have been aiding people with their hearing for more than two years.

I bet if you asked anybody who uses them to aid their hearing, they would disagree with you.

Regarding “doing your homework” - Would to say having detailed lengthy chats with Apple sales people in a UK Apple Store should cover it, or do we need to be looking elsewhere? Or just keep going.

I chatted about the hearing test and aid features as well as hearing protection (noise cancellation) for gigs. At no point was it suggested to me they are not available in the UK. And regards hearing protection, it was suggested that ear plugs would do a better job.

Clearly there is a bit of a miss by Apple UK regarding communications about this product under iOS 18.1.

I think it's been a huge miss by Apple and the left hand doesn’t seem to know what the right hand is doing.

The hearing aid function has been available for the AirPod Pro 2s since September 2022 and many are using them in the same way that I am because none of us updated to IOS 18.1. Dig out an old iPad or a iPhone 12 or newer that's running and IOS older than 18.1 and you can set them up. You will need a third party hearing test app like Mimi or you can upload your Audiogram to the AirPods in Transparency Mode in Headphone Accommodations.

They work very well for me with my mild to moderate hearing loss.

I also have done exactly the same updates as you, here in the UK, and I have the same problem. Hopefully get it soon

Yes I did and I won't be updating to IOS 18.1 until the the MHRA has approved the use of the Airpods in the UK.

If I updated the Airpods will lose the ability to use my audiogram.