MORE ON USING AIRPODS AS HEARING AIDS: “For their study, the researchers worked with a pool of 21 patients in Taiwan—whose average age was 41—with mild to moderate hearing loss. They tested Apple’s Live Listen feature, which utilizes the iPhone’s microphone to transmit audio directly to Bluetooth-paired AirPods in real time. The feature has been used to listen in on hard-to-hear sounds like bird calls or quiet speakers in a big lecture hall (and sometimes for eavesdropping). But it could also double as an assistive hearing device by amplifying sounds in noisy environments. “It’s actually pretty fun,” says Cheng. “You can use this function in a very noisy cocktail party to talk to your friends, but you can actually use it as a very good assistive device if you want to get a better signal out of the noise.” When used with the noise-canceling AirPods Pro, Live Listen can boost conversation volumes while maintaining safe-listening levels, filter in some outside noises to heighten awareness through “transparent mode,” and play calming sounds that can relieve tinnitus.”