Why People Don't Just Use AirPods Instead of Hearing Aids

I wear hearing aids.
You have the question backwards: why don’t people wear hearing aids instead of AirPods? To begin, they are designed for different purposes. However, there isn’t any reason a hearing aid with Bluetooth couldn’t be programmed to suppress the ambient audio it gets from the microphone on the spine and go all-in on the Bluetooth signal.

Hearing Aids: Superior Audio Devices

Hearing aids are generally much better audio devices than any wireless headset can be. They are also ten to thirty times the price of even AirPods Pro. They offer better processing power, better audio fidelity, and a wider frequency response curve. Additionally, replaceable zinc-air batteries in hearing aids provide an exceptional battery life.

Personalized Programming

Part of what you buy with hearing aids is the ability to closely program them—as individuals, one for each ear—to match your specific hearing profile. That's a lot more responsive than anything AirPods can offer.

Hearing Amplifiers

Now, they make hearing amplifiers, a device that looks a lot like a hearing aid but is just what it sounds like: a microphone, an amplifier, and a tiny speaker. If your hearing is still good enough for these, then there's no reason why AirPods wouldn't work. You'd need an app that would listen to the ambient environment for some kind of signal for the AirPods to use, but that's not hard. It already works just fine in phone calls and audio recordings. The necessary changes would involve some signal processing as well as a Bluetooth broadcast, and maybe a microphone with better audio fidelity would need to be installed in the phone or added via USB.

Conclusion

For many people with non-severe hearing damage, AirPods could be an improvement given an appropriate app written for the phone. However, for people who need hearing aids, they need hearing aids, which are much better and more versatile audio devices. The combination of advanced technology and personalized programming makes hearing aids indispensable for improving quality of life for users with significant hearing loss.