The company that put a thousand songs in your pocket is about to be able to help the billion or so people with mild-to-moderate hearing loss hear that music (and everything else) more clearly. Next week, Apple is launching a hearing test that’s compatible with the Apple AirPods Pro 2. Once you take the test, AirPods will automatically adapt to your level of hearing loss to act as a hearing aid if you’re someone who needs it.

There's a lot of technical wizardry happening here, but a big, necessary unlock was regulatory: Last year, the Biden Administration passed an executive order allowing for hearing aids to be sold over the counter, paving the way for tech brands like Apple to shimmy into the mix. Prior to the order, hearing aids used to require a trip to a doctor, along with a prescription and thousands of dollars of out-of-pocket expense to acquire—a slog for even the most determined advocate of their health. Now, folks with hearing loss can find solutions at their local CVS or Walgreens—or Apple Store—for under $250.

“Often what you find is that it's almost accepted that your hearing will change over time and fade away, ” says Sumbul Desai, MD, vice president of health at Apple. To date, it’s so accepted that hearing will worsen and become part of daily life that only about 25% of those who are diagnosed with hearing loss wear a hearing aid, according to results from a joint study from Apple and the University of Michigan.

The Cupertino behemoth aims to change that by reducing stigma by putting a hearing aid into a device that’s become a part of everyday life. It’s impossible to distinguish whether someone is listening to a podcast, wearing a hearing aid, or watching an SEC football game on their phone during a fall Saturday wedding they were dragged to. “It allows you to have a little bit of privacy in terms of how you are managing your hearing,” says Desai.

Apple’s bet is that if people use the AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid function during the initial days of hearing aid use, they’ll recognize the power of the device and either keep with using the product or graduate to a more powerful device based on hearing loss progression. “A lot of times when people actually go get over the hump and use a hearing aid, they often take them out because, you know, there's, it's a big adjustment for your brain to now be hearing and processing that sound,” says Desai. “That's the other thought is like if this is even a way to start using hearing where your brain gets used to that augmentation, and then over time, should you need more extensive help, [you can graduate to a different device].”

The effects of hearing loss can be wide-ranging, leading to increased stress at work, isolation from friends, and even diminished cognition. “That's one of the reasons that the Biden administration passed that over-the-counter law is that it truly could be preventative when it comes to cognitive decline-slash-dementia,” says Desai, citing a study published by Johns Hopkins found that the likelihood of dementia among hearing-aid users was lower than those who didn’t wear the devices, and also that older adults who experienced more severe hearing loss were more likely to have dementia.

For Apple, the move to create a health device isn't new, but many of Apple’s health features to date have centered around proactive behaviors (standing every hour) or detection (finding irregular heartbeats), so the hearing aid software—which is clinically validated and authorized by the FDA—for daily life is mega in terms of staking its claim as a health-focused tech company.

In testing out the system, I found that, as with many things that Apple launches, everything felt pretty seamless. I set up my AirPods Pro 2 in a matter of minutes, then clicked on the connected AirPods device and the hearing test in the settings menu. With my AirPods in my ears, I sat in a quiet space and tapped through a few prompts that asked me some lifestyle questions, like whether I’d been to loud spaces like a concert in the past 24 hours or presently had allergies or a sinus infection.

Then, the system tested whether the tips of the earbuds were sealed in my ears and I was off. I listened to a series of quieter and quieter beeps in my left ear, then switched over to my right ear and did the same. At the end of the test, Apple instructed me that I presently don’t have any hearing loss, and that my AirPods wouldn’t get any dynamic changes at present. The thing is: That might not always be the case, and it's so much easier to sit in a quiet space and take a 10-minute test than it is to have to schlep to a doctor, get a pricey prescription, and then shell out thousands of dollars to fill it.

“With all of our features, you'll see a thread that we're just trying to help you start thinking about your health in a different way, because I think what ends up happening traditionally…is most people think about their health when they're sick, they don't actually [think about it] when there's something wrong,” says Desai. “I think we just wanna continue to pull on the thread of like, ‘how do we educate people more to be proactive around their health?’”

This year, the Apple Watch—which is for all intents and purposes has been the core health hardware in the Apple lineup—turns 10, and it has gained much along the way: fall detection, crash detection, sleep apnea detection, cycle tracking, a pulse oximeter during a once-in-a-century pandemic—the list goes on. The Watch has, at mass scale, changed the way we see our health. Will the next decade of hearing aid functionality cause a similar shift? We wouldn't be surprised.

More Great Wellness Stories From GQ

The Only 6 Exercises You Need to Get a Six-Pack

You Should Be Doing Hamstring Stretches Every Day—Here’s Why (and 7 To Try)

The Many Stealthy Ways Creatine Boosts Your Health

Flexibility Is a Key to Longevity. Here’s How to Improve Yours, According to Experts

How to Actually Build Muscle When You Work Out

Not a subscriber? Join GQ to receive full access to GQ.com.

Ali Finney is GQ's associate commerce director, having covered Black Friday and Cyber Monday in varying capacities for over a decade and having stood in many frigid Black Friday lines in the aught to get a deal on a TV. Today from the comfort of her own home, she knows... Read moreRelated Stories for GQAppleHealth