Use the Hearing Aid feature on your AirPods Pro 2

AirPods Pro 2 provides a clinical-grade Hearing Aid feature for perceived mild to moderate hearing loss and a Media Assist feature, which enhances the clarity of music, video and calls.

To set up Hearing Aid and Media Assist, you need AirPods Pro 2 with the latest firmware paired with an iPhone or iPad running iOS or iPadOS 18.1 or later.

Find out how to identify your AirPods model

Countries or regions where the Hearing Aid feature is available

Set up and use the Hearing Aid feature

Hearing Aid uses the results from the Hearing Test that you took on your device or audiogram results from a hearing healthcare professional to customise the sound of your AirPods for your specific hearing needs. The Hearing Aid feature is intended for people 18 years and older with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.

Set up the Hearing Aid feature

1. Make sure your AirPods are sufficiently charged.*

2. With your AirPods in your ears and connected to your paired iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > your AirPods.

3. Tap Hearing Assistance.

4. If you haven’t taken the Hearing Test, tap Take a Hearing Test. If you’ve already taken the Hearing Test (or you want to use audiogram results from your doctor), tap Use a Prior Test Result.

5. Follow the instructions, then do either of the following:

   • To use a previous hearing test result to set up your AirPods for your specific hearing needs, tap a result from the list, then tap Next.

   • If you want to use an audiogram from your hearing health professional and haven’t added it yet, tap Add a Hearing Test Result, then follow the instructions. After adding these test results, you can access them in the Health app.

6. Tap Set Up Hearing Aid, tap Get Started, tap Next, then tap Turn On Hearing Aid. Depending on your test results, you may be prompted to turn on Media Assist instead of Hearing Aid. Find out more about Media Assist

It can take time to get used to the Hearing Aid feature. For the best experience, make small changes to Hearing Aid settings over time while you adjust.

Hearing Aid settings are stored on your AirPods, so if your paired device is not nearby, Hearing Aid will keep working using the most recent settings.

Adjust amplification level, balance and more in AirPods Pro settings

You can adjust settings such as amplification level (how much your AirPods amplify the sound around you), left-right balance, tone and Conversation Boost on iPhone, iPad or Mac (requires macOS Sequoia 15.1 or later). For quick access to settings, you can use Control Centre to adjust settings.

1. With your AirPods in your ears and connected to your paired device:

   • On iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > your AirPods, then tap Hearing Assistance under Hearing Health.

     

   • On Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Settings, click your AirPods in the left sidebar, then click Hearing Health.

     

2. Tap or click Adjustments.

3. To adjust how much your AirPods amplify the sound around you, drag the Amplification slider to the right or left. You can also adjust amplification from Control Centre. The volume buttons on your device don’t adjust the Hearing Aid amplification level (but do adjust the volume of media playing on your device).

4. To increase or decrease amplification levels by swiping up or down on the Touch controls of your AirPods, turn on Swipe to Control Amplification. This feature only works when in Transparency mode and no media is playing on your paired device.

5. To adjust the balance between the left and right AirPods, drag the Balance slider left or right.

6. To make the sound amplified by your AirPods brighter, drag the Tone slider to the right. For a darker, less bright tone, drag the slider to the left.

7. To decrease the amount of noise in your environment picked up by your AirPods, such as fan noise or road noise, drag the Ambient Noise Reduction slider to the right. This can help improve intelligibility in noisier environments.

When you change the settings for your AirPods Pro 2, the settings carry over to your other devices. If you have multiple sets of AirPods, you have to set up each set separately.

Adjust amplification level from Control Centre

You can adjust the amplification level of your AirPods in Control Centre on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch:

• To adjust on iPhone or iPad, open Control Centre, touch and hold the volume control, then adjust the amplification control . You can adjust the volume of the two sources separately. For example, you can listen to music on your iPhone while still benefitting from Hearing Aid amplification and blend the volume of the two sources to suit your needs.

  

• To adjust on Apple Watch, open Control Centre, tap the Hearing Aid button, then drag the slider.

  

• To adjust on Mac, open Control Centre (or click the AirPods Pro icon in the menu bar), then adjust the amplification control . You can adjust the volume of media playing on your Mac separately with the regular volume control or the volume buttons on your device.

  

Adjust other settings in Control Centre on iPhone or iPad

You can adjust other settings such as tone, ambient noise reduction and Conversation Boost with the Hearing Assistance controls in Control Centre. Hearing Assistance controls are automatically added to Control Centre when you set up the Hearing Aid feature.

1. Open Control Centre on your device.

2. Tap the Hearing control, tap Hearing Assistance, then adjust Hearing Assistance settings.

   

Use Conversation Boost with Hearing Aid

To improve intelligibility in a face-to-face conversation, turn on Conversation Boost. Conversation Boost is best for one-to-one conversations when the other person is directly in front of you.

• On iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > your AirPods, tap Hearing Assistance under Hearing Health, tap Adjustments, then turn on Conversation Boost.

• On Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Settings, click your AirPods in the left sidebar, then click Hearing Health. Click Adjustments under Hearing Aid, then turn on Conversation Boost.

You can also turn Conversation Boost on or off in Control Centre on your iPhone or iPad.

About Noise Control modes with Hearing Aid

The Hearing Aid feature only amplifies sounds in your environment when you’re in Transparency mode. Media Assist makes adjustments to improve the clarity of music, video and calls across all noise control modes.

Set up and use Media Assist

With Media Assist, the audio adjustments based on your hearing test results can be applied to the sound of music, videos and calls.

1. With your AirPods in your ears and connected to your paired device:

   • On iPhone or iPad, go to Settings > your AirPods, then tap Hearing Assistance under Hearing Health.

   • On Mac, choose Apple menu  > System Settings, click your AirPods in the left sidebar, then click Hearing Health.

2. Tap or click Adjustments, then turn on Media Assist.

3. To apply the audio adjustments based on your test results to music and video playing on your device, turn on Adjust Music and Video.

4. To apply audio adjustments to phone calls and FaceTime calls, turn on Adjust Calls and FaceTime.

5. To adjust the volume of phone calls, music and videos playing on your device when Hearing Aid is active:

   • Use the physical volume buttons on your device.

   • On iPhone or iPad, open Control Centre, touch and hold the volume control, then adjust the volume control. If Hearing Aid is also turned on, you can adjust the amplification control of Hearing Aid separately.

   • On Mac, open Control Centre, then drag the volume control under Sound to the left or right.

Most media apps, such as Apple Music or Podcasts, also have their own volume controls, so make sure you check the apps if you’re having an issue with the volume of music, video or other media in your AirPods.