Heavily marketed hearing health features for Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 earphones are now the latest innovations from the technology giant which have launched in the United States but remain unavailable in Australia due to a lack of regulatory approval.
Announced in September and released on 28 October, the hearing health features on Apple’s $399 AirPods Pro 2 — including a hearing test and a clinical-grade hearing aid capability — are available in dozens of countries, including New Zealand.
The features, which Apple has touted as “groundbreaking”, are yet to receive regulatory approval from Australia’s Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
The AirPods Pro 2’s hearing protection feature, which Apple said would help users “minimise exposure to loud environmental noise”, was only available in the United States and Canada at launch.
The United Kingdom is also yet to approve any of the new hearing health features, while Canada has only approved Apple’s hearing protection system.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment from Information Age on whether it had submitted the AirPods Pro 2’s hearing health features for TGA approval in Australia.
The TGA has previously refused to disclose whether Apple has submitted new health features for regulatory approval.
“Some hearing health features are not currently available in every region,” Apple has noted on its website.
“Hearing test and hearing aid features are regulated health features that require regulatory approval and will be offered after authorisation is received.”
Some users 'very disappointed'
Kit Laughlin, a 71-year-old former competitive shooter from the New South Wales south coast, told Information Age he purchased the AirPods Pro 2 to help with his hearing difficulties, so that he could better enjoy media from his phone and laptop.
But he was disappointed to discover the AirPods' hearing health features were not yet available in Australia, after Apple released software updates last week.
Laughlin said he had held off on purchasing more expensive hearing aids because he believed they did not take advantage of the processing power of modern phones and computers.
He said he also saw AirPods as more socially acceptable.
“Everyone wears AirPods these days, so they’re not considered any kind of a stigma,” he said.
“But wearing a powerful hearing aid — especially one that sits behind the ears — is still [stigmatised].”
Former competitive shooter Kit Laughlin says he purchased the AirPods Pro 2 to help with his hearing difficulties. Photo: Kit Laughlin / Supplied
Laughlin said while he believed Apple was not at fault for the hearing health features not being available in Australia yet, he had sent feedback to the company about his experience.
Other AirPods Pro 2 users have voiced their disappointment in a thread started by Laughlin on Apple’s Community forums.
“Just bought my AirPods Pro this morning for just this feature,” one wrote.
“Get home and find it’s not available in Australia. Guess how I feel about this issue. Not happy.”
Another user wrote, “Very disappointed, finally bit the bullet and bought AirPod Pro 2 today believing I could use the hearing assistance feature only to find out it is not available in Australia."
“This is extremely annoying,” wrote another.
“I just cancelled my order for the new AirPods because the only reason I was going to update was the promised hearing assistance features.”
Apple’s vice president of health, Dr Sumbul Desai, said in a recent press release that the company believed its hearing health features “would literally change people’s lives — and democratise access to treatment for a condition that affects more than a billion people”.
The World Health Organisation’s technical lead for hearing, Dr Shelly Chadha, said in the same release that technology could play “an important role in raising awareness and providing intervention options for those affected by hearing loss”.
Apple says hearing health features in its AirPods Pro 2 require regulatory approval in each market. Photo: Apple / Supplied
Australian Apple users missing other features
The lack of local regulatory approval for Apple's hearing health features comes after the company released updated Apple Watch software in September, which included a new sleep apnoea notifications feature that is yet to be approved for use in Australia.
The feature would notify a user when their Apple Watch noticed an increased number of breathing disturbances during sleep, Apple said.
The sleep apnoea feature was made immediately available in more than 150 countries in September, while Australia and Canada were among the few English-speaking nations yet to approve it.
Australian Apple Watch users previously waited more than two years for the TGA to approve the device’s electrocardiogram (ECG) and irregular heart rhythm notification features, after they were announced by Apple in September 2018.
Though not beholden to regulatory approval, the first in the company's line of long-awaited artificial intelligence features, dubbed Apple Intelligence, were publicly released in October for devices using US English as their language, but would not be available to devices using Australian English until December, Apple said.