My feedback to Apple Accessibility about losing audiograms in Headphone Accommodations

Since my last post on the subject, I have received confirmation from Apple Accessibility Support that iOS 18.1 has indeed removed the feature to use your audiogram with Headphone Accommodations with not just the AirPods Pro 1 and Lightning AirPods Max that I own, but in fact all models. This feature existed right up through iOS 18.0.1.

They have asked me if I'd like to submit feedback that will be passed on. I sat on this request for a bit, because I have invested a lot of personal energy into this, but now it's time.

Here's what I'm sending.

My ability to use my audiogram with Headphone Accommodations has been tremendously important to me for years. The feature's removal going forward has been shocking and dismaying.

I have used it since before it became generally available, putting public betas on my iPhone (and later iPad) specifically for this feature. I was just beginning to experience more serious hearing loss then. I've also joined public betas specifically to offer feedback on the feature when there were problems.

I have hereditary ski-slope hearing loss which is progressing over time. When I first experienced Headphone Accommodations with my AirPods Pro 1, I heard details of music I had not heard in many years as well as details of new music I had never heard before. I am not kidding when I say it moved me to tears.

I also spend a lot of time on video calls for work. I even occasionally use the phone sometimes. My audiogram on Headphone Accommodations helps a lot here too, even if it can be a bit awkward to route the call audio through my phone and video through my computer.

I bought AirPods Max entirely on the strength of the Headphone Accommodations audiogram feature and a desire for better isolation and the ability to wear longer. They delivered.

This year, I got newer and better MFi hearing aids. I appreciate that I can easily switch them between all my devices. But they are not a substitute for either pair of my AirPods—especially when it comes to listening to music.

I was lucky enough to be able to catch the fact that iOS 18.1 was removing this feature because I was testing the public beta and plan accordingly. But it seems I may never be able to use a future audiogram now. And even if I moved to AirPods Pro 2, I still do not have a path for AirPods Max—or, indeed, any high-quality over-ear headphone—at all.

I have tried the non-audiogram Custom Audio Setup, and while it's good enough for a phone call (today, at least), it's definitely not the same as my audiogram when it comes to music.

This feature was very important to me, and others as well. I saw my audiologist just the other day, and we talked about it. She knows others using the feature, and was shocked to hear it had been removed like this.

I hope there's some substitute in the works that brings this functionality back. Other AirPods never needed to be hearing aids, but even without trying to be, there was so much they did for me.

We'll see how—if—this goes.