Updated to 18.1 this morning. I read the fine print—Australia is *not* in the list of countries where Hearing Test is available. Very disappointing. I was looking forward to using iPods Pro 2 for hearing assistance.
AirPods Pro (2nd generation)
Update:
this feature is available in Australia now: Hearing Test and Hearing Aid features available today with AirPods Pro 2 - Apple (AU)
That is excellent advice, Steven, and I will do that. I agree this situation is not Apple's fault. If everyone here does email their member and the Federal Health Minister, these actions can only help.
The Honourable Mark Butler, Minister for Health and Aged Care
So it’s going to be like how long it took the ECG feature on Apple Watch. We can’t get it until/ unless Apple Pay’s to some organisation in Australia to approve!!! It’s all about money 💰
Great to hear TGA approval now done
hopefully Apple will push their OS update for the AirPods asap
Hi. The link is to the App Mimi. Cannot see any other references in Settings which should appear when you connect to your AirPods 2
TGA in Australia approved. Now just waiting on Apple . Brought mine purely for this function. Its a bit sad Apple have not acted yet after blaming the TGA . Apple treating customer's poorly
Me to 18.3.1, nothing there. I spoke to Apple (Apple Care) told me there was no time frame and we just had to weight. I have never had a problem with Apple but they are a bit slow with this one.
TGA approved the feature on 24th Dec 24 but Australia is still not shown on the Apple availability page.
My money is on a traditional hearing aid provider telling some offical Australian government department to force Apple to block the feature until Apple ticks of the offical boxes in some form (I bet on paper) from the 1980s.
There was a similar delay in the ECG feature on Watch.
@Carolyn: If you live in Australia, then your iPhone IOS or laptop OS will be the Australian one—and that is the one that is missing the hearing test and AirPods Pro 2 programming function (this is the reason for the hearing test, to alter the sensitivities of the pods to your hearing profile). And you're probably right about the Apple ID, too. I think we're going to have to wait.
The really irritating thing is that a year ago I was able to program my AirPods Pro 2s with the results of a hearing test, and this really improved them for music and movies. It did nothing for them to be used as hearing assistance devides, though.
It was and still is for me because I didn’t update to 18.1. The UK is in the same boat as Australia in a regulatory way.
If you have an old iPhone or iPad running an IOS older than 18.1 kicking around you can set them up again with that. As far as I am aware you cannot roll back the IOS from 18.1 but it's something you can try if you have a backup in the Cloud or on your computer.
Set them up on an Apple device running an older IOS than 18.1 and you will be able to do that.
I am pretty certain you cannot roll back your iPhone IOS to a previous version but an old iPhone 12 will do the job.
IOS 18.2 update has:
But not Australia
The latest iOS (18.2.1) available this morning has restored "Hearing Test" to the menu. However, I could not find the app in the short time I had. I have not had time to try this yet (and am flat out this morning), but this maybe is what we have been waiting for.
Can someone with mild to moderate hearing loss try this test (and tell the rest of us where to find it, if you do) , upload the results to the APP2s, and report back?
I live in Australia and now have the hearing aid feature. I had to go to NZ to get it set up. Can I tell you just how amazing it is. I have mild hearing lost according to Apple. This device has changed my life. All the sounds are crisp and clear. My god. Wait till you try it. When I take them off the World goes quiet. Amazing product. Note that once I downloaded the NZ software it took about three hours for the product to automatically register. It now just pops up when I put the Airpod Pro 2 on. I tell you it’s worth the wait.
Hearing test not available in Australia after iOS update this morning
