Since the Apple Watch arrived in 2015, Apple has been slowly upping its health-tracking capabilities, and it looks like its AirPods will soon be getting in on the act.
According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, Apple has two health-based upgrades in the works — one that could come to current models, and one that will require new versions of the hardware.
The former is a hearing test. AirPods already allow for audiograms, which let the earbuds work around your hearing weak spots, but this would be to “screen for hearing issues” in general, rather than to just improve the AirPod experience.
This would likely play users various sounds and tones to test how well they can hear each one. Existing apps like Mimi do this, and Gurman notes that Apple had a meeting with developers a few years ago.
Separately, Bloomberg believes that Apple may be exploring AirPods as hearing aids after the FDA relaxed rules and allowed them to be sold over the counter without a prescription.
That may sound unlikely, but a previous study suggested that existing features like Conversation Boost and Live Listen can make them more effective than you might think for those suffering from hearing loss.
In terms of next-gen hardware, Apple is also looking at adding a temperature sensor to future AirPods. Apple added a similar sensor to the Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra models last year, to keep tabs on wrist temperature, which helps with fertility tracking.
The temperature of the ear canal is considered more accurate than wrist temperature and could be used to predict when a user is getting sick and might need to take it easy. While it isn’t stated in the piece, this feels like the kind of feature that could be destined for the more expensive Pro models.
Such an upgrade is “likely several months or even years away”. But in the shorter term, we can expect future AirPod charging cases to switch to USB-C connectivity thanks to the EU law that’s making Apple drop Lighting cables elsewhere.
