In November 2022, the FDA approved a resolution that allowed Americans to buy hearing aids over-the-counter. The step triggered a mini-industry and sent businesses scurrying to get technology on the shelves that had been stalled in healthcare regulations.

Consumer electronics firms were in the same boat. In September, Apple said that hearing aid features would be available in AirPods Pro 2, part of an iOS upgrade.

I only get to test a demo of the feature today at the iPhone 16 launch event. The feature was supposed to give a glimpse of how people could use it to test their hearing from the comfort of their homes, although those results were partial. More recently though, Apple gave TechCrunch access to this future feature in its final form.

I confess to a small measure of trepidation. I have suffered from tinnitus my entire life. While fairly studious about carrying around earplugs, I was pretty confident over these many decades of rock shows that I'd done my fair share to ruin what might otherwise be good hearing.

As those go, however, Apple's new Hearing Test feature is painless. It's far too long since I've had any manner of formal testing but the feature immediately had me transported back to elementary school tests. Wait to hear a tone and hold up the corresponding hand. You get the drift.

The feature is available directly from the Settings menu when you've got a pair of AirPods Pro 2 connected and in your ears. For now, it's exclusive to that one model alone because they are the only member of the AirPods family containing both the new chip and an otherwise standard silicon tip designed for passive noise canceling. That's the point altogether: absolute silence. They're also quite faint, so the faintest ambient noise can eliminate them.

After a few simple questions to determine if you're over 18 and if you've been to a loud concert recently — within the last 24 hours, of course — the system will pipe through a generic piece of music to test whether the fit is proper for AirPods. If the seal is askew, it'll alert you to fix it before testing again.

Now, the test monitors the room for silence. The first time I took the test, I was informed my environment was too noisy. Funny enough, it was the air filter in the corner of the room that was loud enough to set it off. When the room is silent, the test starts. Just my luck, though, a man was fertilizing the lawn outside. He rode by my window every 45 seconds. Each time, the test paused and waited for things to quiet down.

The test is done ear by ear, starting with the left. Then, it introduces tones twice a piece, and in case you hear a tone, you just tap the screen. That's about it. The test doesn't measure speed at which you will tap the screen but if you tap it each time.

The tones scan throughout a range of frequencies to identify which areas within your range are at risk from hearing loss. The entire testing process can be completed within about five minutes total.

Results populate quickly. I was quite surprised when my results showed "little to no hearing loss." The app rated my left at 18 dBHL (decibel hearing loss) and my right at 19. Mild hearing loss kicks in around 25 dbHL. The feature of the hearing aid will be available only for those who test within the bounds of mild to moderate hearing loss.

For losses that are more serious, Apple suggests testing professionally. If you're in the normal range, however, the system will let you turn on Media Assist. The new feature hones in on focused elements such as speech, acoustically lifting it above the din of the background. Much like the new Hearing Aid, it is functioned to help people in everyday life rather than bring about loud amplifications.

Even so, the feature is kind of an acquired taste. I learned some things, such as the friction of fabric against fabric when you walk are much more pronounced than usual. For noisier environments, it is a genuinely useful feature – once you get past the social norm to pull out your headphones to speak with someone.

Perhaps that's the largest challenge for the feature. We're used to hearing aids. If you see someone with one, you assume they're living with some degree of hearing loss. If the same person were using AirPods and hadn't pulled at least one out before chatting with you, you'd probably just think it rude.

As irritants go, however, this little slice of social etiquette is something a quick explanation can rectify. It is a small price to pay for a technology that could fundamentally alter lives.