Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says Apple’s AirPods Pro will gain a new “hearing aid mode” with the release of iOS 18 later this year.
Gurman, writing in his weekly “Power On” newsletter on Sunday claims that the “big news” for AirPods Pro will be hearing aid-style functionality with the release of iOS 18 this coming fall.
Gurman in March 2023 said Apple’s AirPods could gain more prominent hearing health features over the next few years. Gurman said that he believes Apple will “upgrade the AirPods to become a health tool in the next year or two,” with “the ability to get hearing data of some sort.”
Apple’s AirPods already offer hearing-focused features, including Live Listen and Conversation Boost. However, as Gurman noted in March, such features are not yet FDA-approved or designed to serve as a hearing aid replacement. He expects AirPods to offer this functionality “more officially” in the near future.
It is not yet clear whether Apple will require FDA clearance in order to make claims about the rumored “hearing aid mode,” or whether that’s what Apple will call the mode.
Apple will unveil iOS 18 in June at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), and it will likely be released to the public when the iPhone 16 series is launched, likely sometime in September.