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I’m conflicted on use of AirPods as hearing aids. I use one hearing aid and have normal hearing in the other ear. I often listen to things on my phone over the

I’m conflicted on use of AirPods as hearing aids. I use one hearing aid and have normal hearing in the other ear. I often listen to things on my phone over the one hearing aid. It would be nice to have stereo. For this reason, AirPods for both listening to stuff and hearing assistance would be great. On the other hand, when I see someone wearing AirPods I assume they are listening to something else or are otherwise trying to shut the world out. If I were wearing them to be able to engage more, I think I would just be sending the opposite message.

garyfirestorm 2y ago
This problem could be solved easily. One could put some kind of tiny sticker on their AirPods - it would take sometime for it to become mainstream - like an orange color ring - indicating the user is using the AirPods as hearing aids. (This is a people problem…)
- wpollock 2y ago
  The answer is handicap hang tags, like those used in cars, but worn as earrings. <wink>
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
- hunter2_ 2y ago
  The sticker/paint could change all of the white into a skin tone, the way many hearing aids are. Maybe similar to wrapping a car with vinyl, or nail polish.
- sneak 2y ago
  Some RGB LEDs in the airpods that change color depending on the mode could also achieve this.
  - ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
    The issue would be battery use. The batteries in these things are tiny, and using them as hearing aids could mean longer use. Having a phone lockscreen indicator of status would be a good way to show this. I think the phone interface for audiograms is ridiculously complex. They need to improve that.
    - echoangle 2y ago
      How would a phone lockscreen indicator work? If someone walks up to you in a store with AirPods in, how are you seeing the indicator on the phone in their pocket? The situations where I can look at the lock screen of the phone of the person I'm speaking to are pretty limited.
      - ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
        Good point. But LEDs would probably take too much battery power. Not sure if the new color eInk would be useful.
        echoangle 2y ago
        Quick maths on the LED thing: According to Wikipedia, AirPods Pro Gen 1 have 0.16 Wh of battery per AirPod (There's no data on Gen 2). With 5 hours listening time, that gives a power draw of 0.032 watts or 32 milliwatts. This answer https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/640179 https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/640179 (I know, not the best source, but I'm just guesstimating anyways) gives a current of 1 mA at 5 V for an indicator LED. So the LED would need 5 mW. That increases power draw to 37 milliwatts and gives a new battery life of about 4 hours and 20 minutes. If using 5 mA, which the answer calls "blindingly bright for some clear LEDs, even from 10 feet away", the LED would draw 25 mW and reduce listening time to only 2 hours and 50 minutes. The answer is also about non-diffuse LEDs so the indicator would only be visible from a narrow angle, but since it would point forward, that's probably fine. Making it diffuse would reduce perceived brightness again. Brightness could be fine indoors, but outside with direct sun is probably harder. Since you would have the LED on both AirPods, you could probably expect that at least one of them is in the shadow at any time though.
sureIy 2y ago
Is it? I think that thanks to transparency mode and conversation detection people are keeping them in “full time”. In noisy environments I just keep them on without music and they help me hear people talk.
- mgerdts 2y ago
  It really depends on the awareness of product features and evolution of the actively used devices. My lived experience is that those with white things in their ears can’t hear you or can barely hear you and have to pull one out to have a conversation. Those that know you probably understand how you use them. If I were to see you walking in my neighborhood with your AirPods I would probably not bother saying hi unless I already knew you. If you were a new neighbor that always wore AirPods, that means we would probably never become more than strangers to each other unless you initiated conversation.
  - latexr 2y ago
    > If I were to see you walking in my neighborhood with your AirPods I would probably not bother saying hi unless I already knew you. You can still do a slight but friendly wave or nod. That would open the door for them to verbalise a “hi” or “good morning” and strike up a conversation. And it only needs to happen once for you to know. Also, anecdotally, over a decade ago I used to wear non-white headphones or earphones in public frequently. Yet I was still accosted by strangers all the time, asking for directions or other information, when there were plenty of other people around with nothing in their ears. Still I tried to always be helpful and friendly, even if it could get tiresome: I was always listening to a book, not music, so interruptions were meaningful distractions.
geoelectric 2y ago
I’m pretty pumped about it actually. I have high-frequency hearing loss in one ear (along with replacement tinnitus) that just randomly crept in on me a few years ago, probably after some ENT infection or the other. The hearing specialist who tested me said it’s fairly significant—eg I can’t hear consonants at the end of words clearly, think he rated it as 75yo hearing and I was ~45, and he asked me if I happened to shoot guns on that side. But he did not recommend going so far as a hearing aid yet. I personally am skeptical, especially a few years later. What the AirPods solution might do is let me audition the idea. If it turns out whatever it does is beneficial, that will certainly prompt me to get myself retested for the real thing. I should get re-tested anyway, but there’s not much better to motivate you than concrete evidence.
- RHSeeger 2y ago
  > What the AirPods solution might do is let me audition the idea That's where I stand. Not for AirPods since I don't use an Apple device, but I'm hoping it spurs some Android friendly versions in the near future.
Angostura 2y ago
The fact that Airpods don’t look like hearing aids is a key advantage for some people. it’s especially important to some young people for whom there is a bit of a stigma around wearing them.
- ghaff 2y ago
  The flip side is you're wearing something that (today) is generally considered an entertainment device or something used to communicate with someone not in the room. To be clear, I think this is great. My dad bought something off Amazon as a backup for his hearing aid and tried to get remote tech support from me. Who knows what Chinese piece of crap he bought and what he needed to make it work? Fortunately the return was easy. I'd have a lot more confidence in an Airpod.
- talldayo 2y ago
  It's a huge double-edged sword. I don't think twice about people wearing hearing aids at the movies or walking down a busy parking lot. If I see someone with Airpods doing the same thing, I'm going to assume they're not using the rare FDA-authorized feature and instead are fully noise-cancelled. Hell, there's an entire meme of "Oh no, they have their Airpods in!" that certainly won't abate after the release of a rarely-used feature.
- AyyEye 2y ago
  > it’s especially important to some young people for whom there is a bit of a stigma around wearing them. Anyone who has a stigma about wearing hearing aids around people they are talking to but not a stigma about wearing earbuds while conversing needs to do some deep reflection.

garyfirestorm 2y ago

This problem could be solved easily. One could put some kind of tiny sticker on their AirPods - it would take sometime for it to become mainstream - like an orange color ring - indicating the user is using the AirPods as hearing aids. (This is a people problem…)

wpollock 2y ago
The answer is handicap hang tags, like those used in cars, but worn as earrings. <wink>
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
hunter2_ 2y ago
The sticker/paint could change all of the white into a skin tone, the way many hearing aids are. Maybe similar to wrapping a car with vinyl, or nail polish.
sneak 2y ago
Some RGB LEDs in the airpods that change color depending on the mode could also achieve this.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
  The issue would be battery use. The batteries in these things are tiny, and using them as hearing aids could mean longer use. Having a phone lockscreen indicator of status would be a good way to show this. I think the phone interface for audiograms is ridiculously complex. They need to improve that.
  - echoangle 2y ago
    How would a phone lockscreen indicator work? If someone walks up to you in a store with AirPods in, how are you seeing the indicator on the phone in their pocket? The situations where I can look at the lock screen of the phone of the person I'm speaking to are pretty limited.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 2y ago
      Good point. But LEDs would probably take too much battery power. Not sure if the new color eInk would be useful.
      - echoangle 2y ago
        Quick maths on the LED thing: According to Wikipedia, AirPods Pro Gen 1 have 0.16 Wh of battery per AirPod (There's no data on Gen 2). With 5 hours listening time, that gives a power draw of 0.032 watts or 32 milliwatts. This answer https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/640179 https://electronics.stackexchange.com/a/640179 (I know, not the best source, but I'm just guesstimating anyways) gives a current of 1 mA at 5 V for an indicator LED. So the LED would need 5 mW. That increases power draw to 37 milliwatts and gives a new battery life of about 4 hours and 20 minutes. If using 5 mA, which the answer calls "blindingly bright for some clear LEDs, even from 10 feet away", the LED would draw 25 mW and reduce listening time to only 2 hours and 50 minutes. The answer is also about non-diffuse LEDs so the indicator would only be visible from a narrow angle, but since it would point forward, that's probably fine. Making it diffuse would reduce perceived brightness again. Brightness could be fine indoors, but outside with direct sun is probably harder. Since you would have the LED on both AirPods, you could probably expect that at least one of them is in the shadow at any time though.

sureIy 2y ago

Is it? I think that thanks to transparency mode and conversation detection people are keeping them in “full time”. In noisy environments I just keep them on without music and they help me hear people talk.

mgerdts 2y ago
It really depends on the awareness of product features and evolution of the actively used devices. My lived experience is that those with white things in their ears can’t hear you or can barely hear you and have to pull one out to have a conversation. Those that know you probably understand how you use them. If I were to see you walking in my neighborhood with your AirPods I would probably not bother saying hi unless I already knew you. If you were a new neighbor that always wore AirPods, that means we would probably never become more than strangers to each other unless you initiated conversation.
- latexr 2y ago
  > If I were to see you walking in my neighborhood with your AirPods I would probably not bother saying hi unless I already knew you. You can still do a slight but friendly wave or nod. That would open the door for them to verbalise a “hi” or “good morning” and strike up a conversation. And it only needs to happen once for you to know. Also, anecdotally, over a decade ago I used to wear non-white headphones or earphones in public frequently. Yet I was still accosted by strangers all the time, asking for directions or other information, when there were plenty of other people around with nothing in their ears. Still I tried to always be helpful and friendly, even if it could get tiresome: I was always listening to a book, not music, so interruptions were meaningful distractions.

geoelectric 2y ago

I’m pretty pumped about it actually. I have high-frequency hearing loss in one ear (along with replacement tinnitus) that just randomly crept in on me a few years ago, probably after some ENT infection or the other. The hearing specialist who tested me said it’s fairly significant—eg I can’t hear consonants at the end of words clearly, think he rated it as 75yo hearing and I was ~45, and he asked me if I happened to shoot guns on that side. But he did not recommend going so far as a hearing aid yet. I personally am skeptical, especially a few years later. What the AirPods solution might do is let me audition the idea. If it turns out whatever it does is beneficial, that will certainly prompt me to get myself retested for the real thing. I should get re-tested anyway, but there’s not much better to motivate you than concrete evidence.

RHSeeger 2y ago
> What the AirPods solution might do is let me audition the idea That's where I stand. Not for AirPods since I don't use an Apple device, but I'm hoping it spurs some Android friendly versions in the near future.

Angostura 2y ago

The fact that Airpods don’t look like hearing aids is a key advantage for some people. it’s especially important to some young people for whom there is a bit of a stigma around wearing them.

ghaff 2y ago
The flip side is you're wearing something that (today) is generally considered an entertainment device or something used to communicate with someone not in the room. To be clear, I think this is great. My dad bought something off Amazon as a backup for his hearing aid and tried to get remote tech support from me. Who knows what Chinese piece of crap he bought and what he needed to make it work? Fortunately the return was easy. I'd have a lot more confidence in an Airpod.
talldayo 2y ago
It's a huge double-edged sword. I don't think twice about people wearing hearing aids at the movies or walking down a busy parking lot. If I see someone with Airpods doing the same thing, I'm going to assume they're not using the rare FDA-authorized feature and instead are fully noise-cancelled. Hell, there's an entire meme of "Oh no, they have their Airpods in!" that certainly won't abate after the release of a rarely-used feature.
AyyEye 2y ago
> it’s especially important to some young people for whom there is a bit of a stigma around wearing them. Anyone who has a stigma about wearing hearing aids around people they are talking to but not a stigma about wearing earbuds while conversing needs to do some deep reflection.