How Apple tools are helping people improve their hearing health

NEW DELHI: According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), 430 million people globally, or 5 per cent of the world population have disabling hearing loss.

To help people monitor and protect hearing health, Apple has introduced some useful features like safe listening features, headphone accommodations, sound recognition and more.

According to findings from the recent Apple Hearing Study, 25 per cent of participants experienced a daily average environmental sound exposure (which can include traffic, machinery, public transport, and so on) that is higher than the WHO recommended limit.

On the World Hearing Day on Friday, the company said that the Noise app on Apple Watch uses the microphone to measure decibel levels in your environment.

Noise Notifications alert you if the sound levels in your environment have reached a level that can affect your hearing, according to the company.

The users can also open the Noise app on your Apple Watch to measure the decibel levels of your environment in real time.

Adaptive Transparency on AirPods Pro (2nd generation) dynamically reduces the volume of harsh environmental noise, like heavy construction or a vehicle siren passing by, reacting instantaneously to the high-decibel noise on your behalf.

This helps users reduce harmful levels of noise exposure during everyday routine, like a morning commute or lunchtime walk, and this can also particularly be helpful at concerts or live entertainment events as well.

For longer durations spent in louder environments it can be even more helpful to turn on Active Noise Cancellation prior to the exposure.

For people who listen to loud headphone audio long enough to potentially affect their hearing, iPhone and Apple Watch can automatically send a notification recommending that they should reduce the volume.

In addition, you can use the Settings app to set a maximum decibel level that keeps your headphone audio at a comfortable level, according to Apple.

The Headphone Accommodations feature let users customise audio to best suit their hearing needs.

"When you're talking with someone in a noisy environment, Conversation Boost on your AirPods Pro or AirPods Pro Max can help you hear more clearly by focusing on the sound of the person directly in front of you," said Apple.