Mario jumps out of a phone with a victory #1 foam finger.

The Washington Post

0430-TF-AppleCracks

An image of a flapper showing off her hip flask during the Prohibition against alcohol in the 1920s, but the flask has been replaced with a TikTok app.

0426-TF-TikTokQuestions

A collage with an image of a person on TikTok

0423-help-TIKTOKUSERS

A no smoking sign at the German airport

iStock

An abstract illustration of a phone with shortcuts.

0418-help-SHORTCUTS-final

For The Washington Post

Goth characters hide in app-shaped holes in a phone.

0416-tf-gothapps

An illustration of a cereal box with internet symbols.

4120-TF-InternetLabels

Kyiv,,Ukraine,-,August,25,,2023:,Engraved,Apple,On,Iphone

ILLUSTRATION

An illustration of the Earth orbiting YouTube

0409-TF-YOUTUBE

Graphics reporter

Shooting the eclipse with your phone

A yellow tote bag with dotted lines showing the contents: a power bar to charge a phone, a solar-powered charger, a compass, a waterproof phone case, a weather radio, and an N95 mask

0719-help-emergencykit

0405-TF-TechHype

help-walkingdesk

0401-help-IOSDUMBPHONE 

0402-TF-EclipsePhones

An illustration by Lena Tokens of a fantasy Google Search world

help-google2.0

The US Capitol building holds up a browser window.

0329-tf-irs

A figure holds up an app in front of the US Capitol building. 

0326-TF-YouLobbying

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

The Rick Steves guide to life

The sad, stale state of in-flight vegetarian meals

How to train for a marathon on vacation

King Charles is back at work after cancer diagnosis. He looks good.

In a ‘meat grinder’ of a war, Russian and Ukrainian casualties rise

Middle East conflict live updates: Netanyahu vows to invade Rafah regardless of cease-fire deal; Blinken in region

Brave Little Hunter is free: Baby orca escapes lagoon for open seas

I learned to heal my sadness by cradling dying chickens 

Soldiers reunite with their pets from overseas: ‘It meant everything to me’

How to confront antisemitism, deal with protests — and respect free speech

Is student loan debt an emergency? Take our quiz.

Humans might need to re-engineer the climate

Nationals sweep away the Marlins to get back to .500

Blinken calls proposed Israeli cease-fire deal ‘extraordinarily generous’

Jayden Daniels is latest in Washington’s checkered history of first-round QBs

In photos: Flash floods kill over 100 people in Kenya

Americans are sleeping more than ever. See how you compare.

Parenting in Gaza today is so much more than keeping your children alive

Mike Johnson works to boost House GOP funding as ouster threat looms

Election 2024 latest news: Biden heading to Delaware for campaign event; Trump trial resumes

Bill Barr doesn’t mind a little autocracy if your politics are right

Carolyn Hax: Her family left all the kitchen work to her, so she went on strike

Miss Manners: Some audience members ask rambling questions post-lecture

Ask Amy: Why did my friend lie about seeing my ex-girlfriend?

Trump and allies say Biden pays rent for ‘illegals’ in Michigan. Not true.

Eighty percent of Ukraine-Israel bill will be spent in U.S. or by U.S. military

Facts in the Trump courtroom v. ‘facts’ in the court of public opinion

Apple banned this app for years. It’s now America’s No. 1 iPhone app. 

A TikTok ban could also end short-form video as we’ve come to know it

An AI blood test purports to diagnose postpartum depression

Trump Hush Money

Big Tech news and how to take control of your data and devices

See more coverage in your recommendations

Technology

Tips delivered to your inbox twice weekly

The Tech Friend newsletter

Business and Tech alerts

Illustration of an ear wearing a hearing aid with music coming into the ear

Every Friday The Washington Post’s Help Desk<b> </b>answers questions from readers about the technology in their lives. This week, we heard from an 82-year-old reader in Atlanta wondering whether people who use hearing aids can also wear ear buds and whether the tiny in-ear headphones could ever replace hearing aids entirely.

It’s a great moment for this question — the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decided this month to greenlight the sale of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/08/17/over-the-counter-hearing-aids/">over-the-counter hearing aids</a>, the first time Americans with hearing loss can access the aids without a prescription. This also opens the door for tech companies to tailor their ear buds to the FDA’s requirements and market them as hearing devices. Sony, for instance, <a href="https://www.cnet.com/health/medical/sony-will-enter-over-the-counter-hearing-aid-market/">said it has plans</a> to make grab-and-go over-the-counter hearing aids. Audio company Jabra already makes ear buds with what it calls “medical-grade” hearing enhancement.

For people who already wear hearing aids, most contemporary aids come with Bluetooth compatibility, says Lindsay Creed, associate director of audiology practices at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. That means you can connect them to your audio source without any cords. Check with your audiologist or the manufacturer to find out whether your hearing aids are Bluetooth enabled and how to “pair” them with an audio source like a cellphone, computer or MP3 player.

Coming soon to a phone near you: A new wave of accessibility tools

If your hearing aid doesn’t come with Bluetooth, the manufacturer may sell an adapter that acts like a middleman between your phone and hearing aid. Absent that, you can always go with a pair of behind-the-ear, over-the-ear or in-the-ear headphones, audiologists told me — just make sure you’re keeping the volume around 50 percent to avoid further damage.

As for whether a good pair of ear buds could replace a hearing aid entirely — that depends, says Payal Anand, director of audiology at University of California San Francisco.

“Ear buds can provide some amplification, but they're going to be limited in terms of how much amplification they provide and how customized they can get,” she said.

So-called hearables, or ear buds with hearing enhancement, can work great for people with mild hearing loss or trouble in noisy environments, said Anand. Apple, Beats, Bose and Panasonic are the brands her patients have had the best luck with for wireless ear buds with amplification or noise cancellation, she said.

How to tweak your ear buds for better hearing

If you’ve got <a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211218#:~:text=Apple%20EarPods%20(with%203.5%20mm,Powerbeats">later-generation</a> Apple or Beats headphones, Apple devices let you adjust sound levels using an audiogram, or hearing test. The best results will come from a test administered by an audiologist, but in a pinch, an audiogram app can estimate your levels of hearing loss. I used the <a href="https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mimi-hearing-test/id932496645">Mimi Hearing Test</a> app to measure which high and low sounds I could hear at different volumes. Then I shared my results with the Apple Health app. Last, I went to Settings -&gt; Accessibility -&gt; Audio/Visual -&gt; Headphone accommodations. I turned the green slider to the “on” position, then tapped “Custom Audio Setup” to tell the phone to use my unique audiogram to set the amplification, transparency, tone, ambient noise reduction and conversation boost levels on my AirPods.

The Washington Post illustration; iStock; Tatum Hunter/The Washington Post

Your custom AirPod settings should stay the same even if you use the ear buds with an Android device.

To tweak sound settings on an Android phone, try going to Settings -&gt; Sounds and vibration -&gt; Advanced sound settings -&gt; Sound quality and effects -&gt; Adapt sound. Select your age and “preview” the sound to see if the adjustment is helpful. Go to Settings -&gt; Accessibility -&gt; Hearing enhancements to turn on “hearing aid support” for enhanced sound quality, adjust the balance between your left and right ears when using headphones or switch to mono audio (one ear only).

Remember: You can always visit an audiologist for help dialing in your ear buds or over-the-counter hearing aids.

Even though ear buds with advanced features like fall detection and AI-powered sound adjustment may soon be approved as over-the-counter hearing aids, they’ll likely still have limitations in terms of battery life and adjustability compared to standard hearing aids, according to Anand. In short: They’ll be a cost-effective resource for people with mild to moderate hearing loss or who want a specialized, extra pair for exercise or another specific use.

For instance: Creed once had a 90-year-old patient bring in an old pair of hearing aids for some fine-tuning. She’d written a “bucket list” that included skydiving, and she didn’t want her newest hearing aid to fall out at 10,000 feet.

“She proceeded to go skydiving three or four times with those old hearing aids,” said Creed.

Ear buds with fancy hearing-enhancement software are an exciting step toward improving the affordability and accessibility of hearing devices. (Just one out of five people with hearing loss get the treatment they need, Creed noted, and some research has linked hearing loss with dementia.) But if you’ve got moderate to severe hearing loss, don’t toss out those traditional aids just yet.

Xavier University, BA in economics

Tatum Hunter writes about personal technology and its impact on our wallets, brains and environment. She joined The Washington Post from Built In, where she covered software and the tech workforce.

Tatum Hunter

washpost

Can earbuds work like over-the-counter hearing aids?

the-washington-post

Emma Kumer/The Washington Post

0923-askhelpdeskhearingaid

[Help Desk] Earbuds keep getting better. But can they replace hearing aids?

Yes, AirPods can double as hearing aids. Here’s how.

Over-the-counter hearing devices come with pros and cons. But today, hearing help is more accessible than ever.