AirPods Pro 2's hearing aid mode is coming to the UK soon, and I'm so pleased to hear it
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All thanks to a change in regulations. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. Apple's impressive hearing-aid mode for the AirPods Pro 2 is coming to the UK, following its launch in the US already (and the UAE more recently). As reported by The Telegraph, this is due to a change in the UK's regulations, and the newspaper says Apple confirmed the software "will be introduced within weeks".
![[Apple Hearing Test]](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/BA7ioc9nc2fsNB2UjthSfS-320-80.jpg)
Apple's hearing test, to determine whether you may have some amount of hearing loss, is already available in the UK, but the mode that takes your hearing loss data and enables the use of AirPods Pro 2 as full-on hearing aids to compensate for it – as long as you have mild to moderate hearing loss only – hasn't been available so far.
![[Matt Bolton]](https://vanilla.futurecdn.net/cyclingnews/media/img/missing-image.svg)
Speaking about the change in regulation that allows AirPods Pro 2 to be used in this way, UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting said, "Groundbreaking new hearing aid devices have the potential to help tens of thousands of people with hearing loss, helping them to live their life to the full. The action we’re taking will give businesses the green light to start selling these products to patients across the UK.
“This is part of the work this government is undertaking in partnership with leading technology companies, to harness the revolution in medical technology, bring our analogue healthcare into the digital age, and make life more convenient for patients.”.
This mode is only available on the AirPods Pro 2 model of Apple's headphones – not the more affordable AirPods 4 or AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation. Apple says that this is because those models lack an in-ear seal to improve noise isolation, which is necessary for its technology to be effective. The mode will not come to previous models of AirPods either – though I would expect it to be part of the feature list of the AirPods Pro 3, which is rumored to arrive later in 2025.
