AirPods Hearing Test not showing on iPhone

Try restarting your phone. When I did that, the hearing test showed up.

If you’ve got 18.1. It doesn’t show up unless you go to Settings—>Privacy & Security—>toggle each one of those items off, then back on.

then go back to your AirPods settings & you’ll see the hearing health links.

OR I just updated my iPad to 18.2…and all the hearing aid stuff shows up just fine.

they work great!

all 3 updates, reboot…still mo hearing health. Physically i am traveling in Europe.

Which country specifically were you in when you tried to update them and even more important which country do you live in when you’re not traveling?

I am pretty certain, from what I have read, that Apple ties your location to the country where you set up your Apple ID. If in the US, they will work. If in Canada they won't. The FDA in the US have approved their use. The equivalent of the FDA in Canada have not.

I live in Sydney Australia. I purchased the AirPods Pro 2 on 18 January 2025 specifically for the purpose of using the hearing aid feature. Like everyone else in Australia who has purchased the AirPods Pro 2 for the purpose of using the hearing aid feature, I was outraged that no-one in the Apple store where I purchased my Airpods Pro 2 (Bondi Junction) mentioned that this feature wasn't available in Australia - even though the use of the Airpods Pro 2 as an 'over the counter hearing assistance device' was approved by the Therapeutic Goods Association on the 18th December 2024. So, the fact that this feature is not yet available in Australia is due to Apple not having updated their iOS software to permit such use here. My iPhone is running iOS 18.3.2 and the 'Hearing Health' option under AirPods Pro 2 does not appear on this update which, I believe, was released yesterday. Extremely disappointing and annoying.

Not really. They were released and have had the hearing aid option since 2022 and they are very good BUT Apple didn’t have FDA approval as Over The Counter (OTC) hearing aids. In the UK there is no such thing. We have to go to an audiologist for hearing as do people from many other countries.

100 countries do have approval.

I am really happy with the Airpods but I stuck with IOS 17.7 and the geographical locks etc didn’t appear until IOS 18.1 appeared.

rasg wrote:

If you haven’t updated to OS 18, 18.01 or 18.1 yet you can still use them as hearing aids. They are not available the UK either on IOS 18.1.

No, you can't.

I am in the UK and I have been using them as hearing aids for over a month. They have worked since September 2022 when the Airpod Pro 2s were first launched. They work extremely well for me with my mild to moderate hearing loss.

The new Hearing Aid feature is not the same as Live Listen, which is what I suspect you've been using. The Hearing Aid function requires that your phone be updated to iOS 18.1. And it also hasn't been released in the U.K.

If you have updated to IOS 18 of any flavour it may be possible to roll back to IOS 17.7 if you have a backup on iCloud or on your computer but it's better if you haven’t made the update.

Downgrading is not supported and never has been.

I am running 17.7.1 and I won't be updating any time soon because i love my Airpods.

You will not lose Live Listen if you update your iPhone.

Well Idris, you are 100% WRONG.

I have NOT been using Live Listen.

Airpod Pro 2s have been available to use as hearing aids since September 2022 when they were released but Apple kept quiet about but probably gleaned a massive amount of data at the same time. There are many videos on YouTube explaining how to set them up as hearing aids and five weeks ago I did exactly that.

I have been using them using the Audiogram from my local Costco Hearing Centre but I also used the Mimi app for a couple of tests before the Audiologist sent it to me and they work REALLY well for me and I have spent a LOT of time getting to know them. How they work. Amount of noise cancelling that suits me etc and I now use Adaptive Mode for most things that I do.

IOS 18.1 has now localised the use of them as hearing aids to the countries that have been "approved" for the use of them but if any of them have a spare iPhone or iPad running 17.7.1 or earlier they can set them up as hearing aids.

I have been doing exactly that for five weeks.

Are you in Canada? Or another part of the British Commonwealth for whatever reason if we’re a member of the British Commonwealth It seems her dictators don’t want us having hearing aids without paying for expensive ones. Changed to an American account today and it works fine. All the options are there.

Today is 29 October, and Apple release the update 18.1.. i using newest airpods pro 2 firmware...still no hearing health option yet... but if you restart the iphone and go to the airpods pro 2 menu, its there but grey out and after couple second, it gone.... here i attach mine..

Also you have to be in the country as well. My apple account is from the US but i am right now in Colombia and it just does not show the hearing test while I'm here, I spoke to my daughter back home and she was able to take under the same account.

Did you update your IOS while you were in Columbia or do you have it set to auto update?

I purchased the Pro 2 for my mom because she wanted to use it as a hearing aid, but I found out it is not available in Canada. I even changed the iPhone region to US but it still doesn’t show hearing test. Very disappointed, especially that there are so many other countries that support it, and I just think there are enough Canadians that need this feature.

Oct 25 chat with Apple Support (my AirPods Pro 2 are brand new just for this feature) will only work with iOS18.1. More hype and wait.

Same here. I contacted support and they said it’s not available in Canada yet. Maybe in a few weeks but not sure when.

they can have it available all over the world but not canada. 🤦🏼‍♀️

You are correct. I am in the US.

My issue was that the firmware was "old", and updating it (which is a PITA if you ask me), cured the issue, once I restarted my iPhone once that update was loaded

Had to turn on Location in Settings to access the Hearing Test using iPad M2, iPad OS 18.2, and Air Pods Pro 2

richardw1224 wrote:

Thank you Carol. I hadn’t seen the country list link before. No UK. And no hearing test.

I wonder if this to do with monopolies exercised by hearing aid companies and/or practitioners.

No. It has to do with Apple needing approval from the country's appropriate government agency. In the US, it was the FDA.