Apple recently released a small version of iOS, 17.4, but the next major update of its operating system will be carried out in September, along with the launch of the iPhone 16. With iOS 18, many new features are expected to arrive, so much so that analyst Mark Gurman Bloomberg believes it will be one of the brand’s “biggest updates ever.”
The technology company will announce some of the functions planned for iOS 18 at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which, like every year, is expected to arrive in June. Until then, we will not have an official presentation of the news of the upcoming software, but we do have some leaks of what Apple could be preparing for its customers.
The last one that we have known consists of a ‘headphone mode’ that its engineers are developing to improve the performance of its AirPods Pro. According to Gurman’s weekly Power On newsletter, users with these wireless headphones will enjoy new user functions thanks to iOS 18.
The Bloomberg analyst has explained that no hardware changes are expected for the AirPods Pro in 2024. However, the “important new hearing aid mode” that will come to smartphones with iOS 18 will allow control of some functionalities of these devices From the phone.
iOS 18 ‘Headphone Mode’ Details
The information that Gurman has given in his newsletter comes from internal Apple sources related to the matter. According to him, it helps optimize accessibility features on iPhones, especially when it comes to hearing health.
Although this novelty that will arrive in September has not been discussed in depth, it is expected that the ‘headphone mode’ will allow you to personalize and improve the listening experience of the AirPods Pro. Initially, this system will allow you to adapt the audio to specific needs.
For example, ‘hearing aid mode’ could help people with hearing difficulties or to understand conversations in noisy environments. To do this, Apple will take advantage of advanced sound processing and noise cancellation technology.
Apple’s ‘hearing aid mode’ comes after a very notable change from the United States Food and Drug Administration, better known by its acronym FDA. This regulatory body proposed new guidelines in 2022 for the category of hearing aids that can be purchased without a prescription.
Current AirPods features that make listening easier
The ‘hearing aid mode’ of iOS 18 will be a clear improvement in the accessibility functions of Apple smartphones, but it will not be the only one. Currently, the apple brand already has some tools that make listening to your mobile phone easier thanks to AirPods.
One of them is ‘Live Listen’, which they launched in iOS 12 (2018) and transforms iPhones into a directional microphone. With this functionality, Apple was already looking to help users “listen to a conversation in a noisy area.” They achieve this by transmitting the audio captured by the phone and amplifying it on the AirPods in real time.
There is also a very useful feature that amplifies the pickup of sound directly from the AirPods Pro microphones. It’s called ‘Conversation Boost’ and it activates when the headphones detect that someone is talking.
Regarding ‘Conversation Boost’, Apple defined it this way during its presentation: “When you start talking, this function automatically reduces the volume of multimedia content and improves the voices coming to you in front of you, in addition to reducing additional background noise.”
Now, with the arrival of ‘hearing aid mode’, the American company will further improve its features to make listening easier. Thus, your clients will have an alternative to the expensive hearing aids that currently exist on the market.
