Apple’s latest health features just landed in Malaysia. The AirPods Pro 2 now pack a hearing test and hearing aid mode, while the Apple Watch Series 9, Series 10, and Ultra 2 can track sleep apnea by spotting breathing issues overnight.
Hearing Health features
There’s a quick, 5-minute Hearing Test that checks your ears using the same method doctors use. It gives you a breakdown of your hearing health and stores the results in your Health app—handy for sharing with your doctor.
If you have mild to moderate hearing loss, your AirPods can now double as a hearing aid, tweaking sounds in real time to help you hear conversations and media better.
Plus, the Loud Sound Reduction feature protects your ears in noisy places (like concerts) by softening harsh sounds while keeping the vibe alive.
With over 1.5 billion people worldwide dealing with hearing loss, these updates could be a game-changer for many.
These features only works if paired with a compatible iPhone or iPad with iOS 18.1 or iPadOS 18.1 and later. The Hearing Aid feature is also supported on Mac running macOS Sequoia and later.
Sleep apnea monitoring
Sleep apnea is a common but often undiagnosed condition where your breathing stops briefly during sleep, cutting off oxygen. It affects over 1 billion people worldwide and, if ignored, can lead to serious issues like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart problems.
Now, your Apple Watch can help spot it. A new feature called Breathing Disturbances tracks tiny wrist movements linked to irregular breathing while you sleep. Every month, it checks for patterns that might mean moderate to severe sleep apnea and nudges you to talk to a doctor if needed.
It also tracks how restful your sleep is—things like alcohol, meds, or sleep position can mess with your breathing. You can see your nightly stats in the Health app, labeled as “elevated” or not, and even export a 3-month PDF report for your doctor.
Apple says they trained the system with clinical sleep apnea data and tested it in a real study, so it’s legit.