Ontario Law Change Could Unlock AirPods Pro Hearing Aid Feature

Ontario plans to change its law so over-the-counter hearing aids can be sold in the province, which could finally open the door for Apple’s AirPods Pro hearing aid feature. The news was reported on October 20 by CityNews and The Canadian Press.

The province says the legislative change will be part of its fall economic update later this year. Right now, Ontario law bans selling a hearing aid unless it’s prescribed by a doctor or audiologist. After the law and regulations are updated, earbud makers will be able to turn on built-in hearing aid features for devices sold in Ontario.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the change will give Ontarians more choice and flexibility to get hearing support when and where they need it. The government says existing prescriptions and coverage won’t be affected.

AirPods Pro owners have waited a long time for this. Health Canada approved the AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid and hearing test features in December 2024, but Apple never switched them on here. We later wrote about Ontario seniors who bought AirPods Pro 2 for the feature and found it missing, and in February we spotted new AirPods Pro firmware, iOS and macOS entries on Apple’s Health Canada medical device licence.

That lines up with an email we got from an iPhone in Canada reader in Regina on the evening of October 20. The reader shared screenshots showing the Hearing Aid feature activated on their AirPods Pro 2, with Hearing Aid and Media Assist both turned on, paired with an iPhone 17 Pro running the iOS 27.2 release candidate. They said they didn’t do anything unusual, and the option wasn’t there in earlier iOS 27.2 betas.

Apple hasn’t announced a Canadian launch, and one report isn’t enough to confirm a wider rollout. It does fit what we’ve reported for months, where federal approval is done and provincial rules are the holdup.

Before this, Canadians who wanted the feature had to get creative. Readers told us it often switched on during trips to the U.S. once their iPhone connected to an American cellular tower, and typically stayed on after they came home. Some in border cities like Windsor and Surrey said a faint U.S. signal was enough. One reader shared a far more involved workaround using a Raspberry Pi and a U.S. VPN to make a Wi-Fi-only iPad think it was in the United States, but that only worked while the spoofed networks and VPN stayed active, and we never tested it ourselves.

For iPhone users in Ontario, the feature still can’t be offered until the law changes, and there’s no firm date yet. Once it does, owners of AirPods Pro 2 and AirPods Pro 3 should be able to take a hearing test at home and use their earbuds as hearing aids for perceived mild to moderate hearing loss, no audiologist visit required.

Are you running the iOS 27.2 release candidate? Let us know in the comments whether the hearing aid feature is showing up on your AirPods Pro or not, and which province you’re in.