Speaking exclusively to 9News, Apple vice president of hardware engineering Kate Bergeron said, “I think it’s not too much to say you have this little supercomputer kind of running in your pocket and in your ears that many years ago would be unimaginable. And so we have always had sort of this aspirational idea that we wanted to do more for hearing health, but until all of these things came together, it was at that point in time, you know, only a dream, and now it’s become a reality, which is pretty amazing.”

That reality follows approval from Australia’s health regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Association, to make the bold claims Apple is making that your AirPods Pro 2 can be used to perform a clinically validated hearing test and, if required, use those same in-ear AirPods as a clinical-grade hearing aid.

Given the vast adoption of Apple’s products in Australia, this has meaningful health benefits. It’s estimated by the World Health Organisation that 1.5 billion people are living with hearing loss; in Australia, that’s one in six people or 3.5 million of us.

Hearing loss can result in social isolation, depression, and is also the largest modifiable (as in – treatable) risk factor leading to dementia.

Remarkably, even those who know they have hearing issues often avoid them. Dr Rajiv Kumar, a researcher at Apple, told 9News, “In the Apple hearing study, 10 per cent of participants had hearing loss and knew it. 75 per cent of them never went on to use a hearing aid. And when you dig into reasons why, often comes back to cost, access, but certainly stigma is big for a lot of people.”

Attacking that stigma is key here. A user with hearing loss that chooses to use the AirPods Pro 2 as a hearing aid doesn’t need to tell the world they have hearing loss, as Kumar says, “One doesn’t know specifically you’re using it because you have hearing loss, you’re using it ’cause you’re listening to a great podcast or navigating your environment. So in that regard, we think it lowers that activation energy or act, act that barrier for a lot of people.”

The feature is specific only to the AirPods Pro 2. They were released just shy of two years ago and feature Apple’s advanced headphone chipset, as well as the silicone tip which creates a passive barrier critical to performing the hearing test.

It’s all done on your device, either iPhone or iPad, where the experience first checks you’re in a quiet enough space, then checks the fit of your AirPods, and the test itself is simply listening out for sounds – small chirps and beeps at different frequencies over the course of 5-8 minutes.

At the end you get a result and a graph which can be shared with a hearing professional if needed, particularly if the hearing loss is above mild to moderate where a more specific hearing product might be the solution, and the results are stored in your private health profile.

If you are experiencing a mild to moderate hearing loss, the AirPods Pro 2 can have their sound profile adjusted to suit your specific needs, so you can hear more clearly – particularly the voices of people around you.

This is not the first headphone to offer this technology, and the ability to get easy access to testing has never been better in Australia. However, to be able to perform this test in the comfort of your own home, and perhaps utilise an existing audio product to benefit your overall hearing could be a game-changer for many, many Australians.

The feature rolls out as part of the latest iOS software update, which begins today.