How to use Live Listen and AirPods with iPhone

by Jonny Evans · March 2, 2023

March 3 is World Hearing Day. To commemorate it, we’re looking at some of the accessibility tech Apple provides. With Live Listen, you can use your AirPods and iPhone to hear conversations better, or even listen to people from across the room. This is how to use the feature.

Live Listen helps you hear

Introduced in 2018, Live Listen uses the microphone in your iPad or iPhone to capture the sound. It then streams what’s said to your AirPods. The idea behind it is that it can make it a little easier to hear in some situations, while also being of some help if you have moderate hearing problems but don’t have a hearing aid available.

Apple does stress that Live Listen should not be seen as a replacement for hearing aids and recommends those with hearing problems seek medical support. This was previously only available to compatible, third-party devices like hearing aids or implants under the Made for iPhone scheme.

This video shows the kind of difference it can make:

How to use Live Listen

To enable Live Listen for use, open Settings>Control Centre and scroll through to the Add button which you’ll see beside the blue hearing icon, which looks a little like an ear. Then tap Settings to add that change.

Live Listen is now ready for use. To use it, open Control Center and tap the Hearing button. You will see a menu of options appear, so long as you are connected to a compatible audio device you will be able to tap Live Listen.