With iOS 12, Apple will focus on speed and performance for all iPhone and iPads that can run it. But iOS 12 also brings a variety of new features, including plenty of tricks that Apple didn’t even address on stage.
One of those hidden features concerns the AirPods, Apple’s tremendously popular wireless headphones. In the near future, the headphones may be used to improve your hearing.
Called Live Listen, and already available for select hearing aids, the feature will let you turn your iPhone into a microphone that can boost the sound in a noisy environment. Say you’re in a crowded restaurant and you’re having trouble hearing what people are saying, AirPods will fix that thanks to Live Listen.
What’s great about this new AirPods feature, first reported by TechCrunch is that it’ll put a basic hearing aid in anyone’s pocket.
Even better, there’s a hearing aid button that you can add to Control Center to quickly toggle the feature on and off.
However, AirPods with Live Listen aren’t meant to be used primarily as a hearing aid. First of all, they have limited battery life, which means you can’t wear them all day. Secondly, there’s not really designed to be worn as hearing aids.
In fact, you should definitely talk to a doctor to determine whether you need an actual hearing aid rather than use the AirPods to improve your hearing.
