AirPods Pro Hearing Aids Approved in Canada
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While we didn’t get new AirPods Pro hardware this year, Apple added some significant new features in iOS 18. During its September Glowtime event, it also took the time to announce a comprehensive hearing health solution for its premium earbuds.
With iOS 18.1 and the necessary firmware updates, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 can perform clinical-grade hearing tests, offer advanced hearing protection, and even be used in hearing aids. However, like many health features, these are limited to countries where they’ve been approved by the proper regulatory authorities.
Hearing protection features for the AirPods Pro have been rumored for years and gained new steam after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued new regulations approving over-the-counter hearing aids. Previously, heading aids required a prescription from an audiologist, and in many countries, they still do.
However, even in September, when Apple’s VP of Health, Dr. Sumbal Desai, took the stage to discuss the company’s new hearing health features, it hadn’t yet received approval from the FDA. Dr. Desai said that clearance was expected to happen “soon,” and true to her word, the FDA greenlit the technology only three days after the Apple event, making the AirPods Pro the “first over-the-counter hearing aid software.”
That wasn’t quite fast enough for it to arrive in iOS 18.0, but by the time iOS 18.1 landed in late October, the trifecta of hearing health features was ready to be rolled out in the US.
Sadly, the same couldn’t be said for most other countries, which got a mishmash of the features, subject to whatever their respective governments had approved. Germany and Japan were two of the few countries to get both the Hearing Aid and Hearing Test features, while Australia and the UK got nothing new at all. Meanwhile, the third feature, Hearing Protection, was limited to the US and Canada — but that’s all that Canada got (it’s still a bit of a mystery why Hearing Protection is so limited, as it seems the least likely of the three to be affected by health regulations).
Thankfully, that’s about to change. As MacRumors discovered today, Health Canada has issued licenses for both the hearing aid and hearing test features, which means Apple is clear to launch them in the Great White North.
However, the timing of this couldn’t be more ironic. These new clearances come a day after iOS 18.2 was launched to the public. This brought the hearing aid feature to the United Arab Emirates and expanded the hearing test to France, Italy, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain, Cyprus, Czechia, and the UK—but not Canada, as the approval came too late to make the cut.
While Apple could theoretically launch the feature in a sub-point release like iOS 18.2.1, it’s likely Canadians won’t see a hearing aid and hearing tests arrive until iOS 18.3 arrives early next year. While the first developer betas of iOS 18.3 would typically follow this week’s iOS 18.2 release in short order, Apple may choose to wait until after the holidays to push out the next round of betas.
