AirPods for Hearing
Did you know you can use your AirPods and your iPhone or iPad as hearing aids? With a bit of setup you can put your iPhone or iPad near the sound source or person you’d like to hear better and it will transmit the sound to your AirPods.
Before I explain how, it’s important to note that hearing loss is no joke. If you are experiencing hearing loss, please see a medical professional.
The first thing you need to do is add Listen Live to your phone’s control center.
Then from your home screen open the control center on your iPhone. You usually do this by swiping down from the top righthand corner of the screen.
1. Tap the Hearing button hearing icon (looks like an ear).
Pro tip: on the same screen as the Live Listen button there’s a Background Sounds button. You can use the Background Sounds to listen to the ocean, rain, white noise, etc. Useful if there’s other noise you’d like to drown out.
Live listen will work over the same distance as Bluetooth, which is usually about 10m or so. This can be great for watching TV with others. Put your phone by the TV and it’ll broadcast to you and let you adjust the volume to what you like. It could even be used as a temporary baby monitor. Regardless of what you use it for this is a simple way to use your phone and headphones to assist with hearing.
Thanks to Marianne for the column suggestion this month. I heard you.