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

Here is the announcement from Apple UK: Straight from the horses mouth: Hearing Aid feature available today with AirPods Pro 2 - Apple (UK)

This is great news! Apple are normally really good at updating everything at the same time. I wonder how long before they update the country list?. Let's hope they hurry up and do the same for Canada and Australia. So many people have been waiting too long for this after buying the AirPods for the hearing aid feature.

My plan is to update my wife's iPhione and make sure the feature is definitely available as I don't want to lose the feature I already have.

It appears not. I have had an email from the MHRA this week which suggest that they have no application from Apple

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.

Doesn’t work apparently. Even using a VPN. The device uses a number of sources to locate itself, even the ip address of the router it’s connected to.

Quite difficult to defeat. Someone has done it with a usb lead, an VPN’d laptop and putting the phone in a faraday cage fashioned from an old microwave.

The hearing test and audiogram custom sound will be available in 18.2 released this week 9/12->

So this with transparency and/or adaptive transparency gives us a lot of the functionality…

Only in countries that have the Hearing Aid approval.

The only way you will get them working using Transparency Mode is with an IOS older than 18. 18.2 will give you nothing if the hearing aid feature has not been approved in your country.

I am on 17.7.1 and I am still using the Custom Transparency Mode using my Costco test audiogram. Working well since September. The trick is to turn Auto Updates off. I am getting reminders on my 15 Pro Max at least twice a day and I just ignore them.

Why would I upgrade if I will lose my hearing aid functionality?

I suspect the UK is the same as Canada in that over the counter hearing aids are not allowed to be sold as they’re considered medical devices, subject to regulations. So it’s not up to Apple, it has everything to do with governments and regulation. I suspect the hearing aid feature may never be available in Canada.

Click on Settings > Bluetooth > click the i next to your headphones…

underneath the noise control options you should see Take a Hearing Test in blue

if you are not seeing that either your phone isn’t on 18.2 or the firmware on the AirPods is on 7B21 or your AirPods aren’t the Pro v2

As many have stated there is no hearing aid function available in the UK which in my book has been severe false or loose advertising on Apples part

I could have easily been a co-author of @rasg above except I’m in Australia. I had the exact same experience on 18 December 2024 when, after researching the AirPods Pro 2 decided they would be perfect for me with mild hearing loss.

The sales person confirmed the hearing function WAS available. I called Apple to confirm and was not impressed that Australia hadn’t the option YET. The store offered a full refund, however, the Apple representative recommended I wait, as approval for use as a hearing device for mild hearing loss was imminent.

We are now into the first week of February and still no progress. To say I’m dissatisfied is an understatement.

It’s not easy to get answers. Apple needs to keep us, globally that is, well informed.

Erm, because I did the software update to 18.3 on my iPhone 15 pro max and now I’m using the hearing aid feature :)

Where do you live. It makes a big difference. No approval yet for Canada, the UK, France, Italy or Spain.

Even if your country does get approval, if your hearing test shows worse than moderate hearing loss they Airpods won’t work.

If you already have the Airpod Pro 2s AND your iPhone is on an old IOS like 17.7.1 or older they will already work as hearing aids without any restrictions. If that is the case, you can go online to YouTube and there are loads of videos explaining how to do it, or reply to this message and I will explain how to do it.

The AirPods have been available as hearing aids since 2022.

Just saw this article in Wired on getting around Apple's geolocation in order to get acccess to the hearing aid functionality. I lack the skills, tools, and microwave to do it, but someone might find it useful.

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 *** really.

Tinnitus is, for many, a fundamental part and a symptom of hearing loss. Not the same agreed. The ability for airpods to assist and for (potential) users like me who have retrochohlear nuroma to adjust the audiogram will be fantastic. But until, or as it now sounds, if they are ever, licensed for use in the UK I will wait.