Apple’s incredibly popular wireless earphone range is rumored to gain new features over the next two years to assist people with their hearing health, as reported by Mark Gurman.
Writing in his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman expects Apple to “upgrade the AirPods to become a health tool in the next year or two,” which would join the existing accessibility features on AirPods such as Conversation Boost and Headphone Accommodations.
Since 2018, AirPods have had a Live Listen feature, which enables audio picked up from your iPhone’s microphones to be sent directly to your AirPods, which may me helpful in noisy environments. Given their popularity, Apple is seeking to bolster up its offerings for users who use a hearing aid. According to the National Institute of Health, around 37.5 million Americans over the age of 18 report trouble with hearing.
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This report from Gurman comes after Apple filled multiple patents for various different sensors to be added to future AirPods models. Apple’s VP of Technology, Kevin Lynch, said “We already do sensor fusion across some devices today, and I think there’s all kinds of potential here” in an interview to TechCrunch about the potential of health data getting obtained by AirPods. Currently, AirPods have sensors that could potentially be updated to add extra features that are not usable presently, almost like the hidden temperature sensor in HomePod mini being activated years after the initial release, although health features would require FDA approval.
