Apple has announced that the hearing aid mode for AirPods Pro 2, which was announced and launched in the US last year, is coming to the UK today, Monday February 24th, 2025. We already knew that it was coming to the UK following a regulatory change, but not when – however, you can expect it to become enabled imminently.
AirPods Pro 2 are able to help with mild to moderate hearing loss, and the hearing aid mode is designed to help people boost particular frequencies that may make it hard for them to hear conversations in loud rooms, for example – especially in combination with Apple’s noise-management tech used in the earbuds.
Using them as hearing aids is a two-step process: first, you take a hearing aid test with them in your ears from your iPhone by listening to a series of tones while in a quiet room. This was already available in the UK, and we recommend everyone tries it – like our writer, you might find interesting things out even if you have no hearing problems, or it might help clarify things for you.
The second step is that the AirPods can take the results of your hearing test and create the hearing aid profile from there, boosting the parts of the world around you that need boosting when you wear them – though there are ways you can adjust how it works. This second part has been missing from the UK so far, but we’ve tried it out in the US, and it can be very powerful.
