Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Trade article (bench test by a hearing-app maker)

Can Apple AirPods be used as hearing aids?

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/einhorn-2017/ · record checked 13 October 2026

  • Einhorn R
  • Hearing Review 24(10):24-25

Manufacturer (the measurements are Jacoti's, a maker of hearing apps, one of which was among those tested; the author states being a consultant for Jacoti and thanks its software team for the data)

Summary

A trade-journal article reporting a hearing-app maker's measurements of the delay added when an iPhone app sends live sound to Bluetooth earbuds instead of wired earphones.

Key findings

  • Jacoti measured the delay of an iPhone hearing app sending live sound to Apple AirPods over Bluetooth at 192 ms with the AirPods' microphone, and 295 ms and 258 ms with the iPhone's two microphones; its own app gave 266 ms with AirPods.
  • With the same maker's app and Apple's wired Lightning EarPods, the delay was 16 ms.
  • States that Bluetooth latency "can easily be 60-80 ms or more" depending on how the protocol is implemented on a device, and that Apple modified Bluetooth LE to shorten the audio delay for its made-for-iPhone hearing aids.
  • Cites hearing-aid literature that above 40 ms, sound "may fall out of synchronization with the visual information and interfere with speech reading", and concludes that Bluetooth earbuds were impractical for live listening through phone apps because listeners would see lips out of step with the voice.
  • The Testing an iPhone Hearing App section distinguishes the AirPods microphone from iPhone microphone 1 (1-person mode) and microphone 2 (Group mode). The Conclusion identifies the wired 16 ms route as the Lightning EarPods microphone through Jacoti ListenApp. The microphone used for the separate 266 ms ListenApp/AirPods result is not specified.
  • In the Results and Conclusion passages, the 192 ms wireless result uses the AirPods onboard microphone, while 295 and 258 ms use the two iPhone microphone modes. The 16 ms wired result uses Jacoti ListenApp and the microphone on Lightning EarPods. These are not controlled estimates of Bluetooth transport delay alone.

Limits

A maker's own measurements, reported by its consultant, with no stated method, repetitions or iOS version; the tests use phone or earbud microphones through a phone app, with different apps and input microphones across conditions, not from a venue's Wi-Fi stream. Tested 2016-2017 AirPods; Bluetooth earbuds, phones and hearing-aid streaming have changed since. Published online on 22 September 2017 for the October 2017 issue.

Read the original

hearingreview.com/hearing-products/hearing-aids/can-apple-airpods-used-hearing-aids

Link checked . We link to the original and do not host copies.

Cited in

Cite this source

Einhorn R. Can Apple AirPods be used as hearing aids? Hearing Review 24(10):24-25. 22 September 2017. https://hearingreview.com/hearing-products/hearing-aids/can-apple-airpods-used-hearing-aids (accessed 13 October 2026).

The accessed date is when this library last checked the link; use the date you read it. To point readers to this summary instead, link to https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/einhorn-2017/

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