Advice re: Airpods as hearing aid

In My Humble Opinion
1

My mother will be 89 this spring. She’s remarkably healthy, taking only an almost homeopathic dose of Levothyroxine and no other medication. After cataract surgery she reads the paper without glasses.

But her hearing is horrible. And hearing aids have been an ongoing problem for multiple reasons over the past five or so years. She does not want to use them. That’s another matter which I DO NOT need advice about.

On a whim I let her try my Airpods, since she’s about to get new hearing aids (which she won’t use). Someone tipped me off that Airpods pro can function as hearing aids for “low to moderate” hearing loss. Apple being Apple there’s a lot of sales talk on the web site and maybe some weasel words about how well they will work in real life. Mom actually liked the Airpods and found them comfy. Getting new hearing aids or Airpods will be the same price, more or less, and I’ll have to pay for them.

She has an Iphone, but AIUI, apart from configuring the Airpods, it’s not necessary to carry it around for them to work as hearing aids.

I realize that they will not be as good as proper hearing aids, but perfect is the enemy of good, and since she uses her real hearing aids grudgingly when I visit and never at other times, some form of aid that she uses all the time is better.

Please: No recommendations about other brands. She and I are happy inside Apple’s walled garden.

Anyone here that have personal experience, either as user or being close to a user, that can give me some advice?

2

We have a family friend in her late 70’s, whose relationship with hearing aids sounds very similar to your mother’s. She at the prompting of her children began enthusiastically using Apple Airpod Pro’s as a hearing assistance tool. It helped her being a part of conversations, others not having to repeat themselves over and over. It was great!! ……….for a while.

But like most things, she would not wear them, misplace them, quit using them.

:man_shrugging: What you gonna do?

3

You may find useful advice in this thread from a year ago on the same topic:

4

I tried using my AirPod Pros as hearing aids, but since they are a few years old, the batteries don’t last an entire day. If people have found they can use theirs for 17 hours straight without a recharge, I would like to hear that (no pun intended). Perhaps I need to get a new pair. :frowning: