How to Monitor Decibels from Your iPhone? In the United States alone, it is estimated that approximately 37.5 million adults have hearing problems. Of these, men are considered to be twice as likely to experience a decline in their listening experience as women.
This is indicated by the data shared by the National Institute of Deafness in the United States.
For this reason, some companies have already gone to work to minimize this problem among their users. Apple is one of them, and both in its iPhone and iPad, as in the Apple Watch, those of Cupertino include tracking tools for ambient and musical noises.
In addition, they help us set off alarms when we exceed the limit of decibels to which we can be exposed daily.
Here’s how your iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch can help protect your hearing; and to activate it you just have to follow a few fairly simple steps.
How much noise can we be exposed to?
Sure, not all noise levels offer the same damage to our hearing. Moreover, it will also depend on how much time we spend exposed to certain decibel bands.
According to the information offered by Apple from its Health application, these are the levels and the times during which we may experience noise before experiencing progressive hearing loss.
- 80 dB: About 5 hours and 30 minutes per day
- 85 dB: About 1h45 per day
- 90 dB: about 30 minutes per day
- 95 dB: only 10 minutes a day
- 100 dB: Even a few minutes a day
How to monitor decibels from your iPhone or iPad?
Although iPhones don’t offer a tool like the Noise app on the Apple Watch, it does have some functionality in iOS and iPadOS so that we can monitor the noise level to which we are exposed.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
- Go to Control Center.
- Scroll down and tap the Plus (+) icon next to the Hearing option.
- Now open your iPhone Control Center by swiping up (iPhone 8 and earlier); or by swiping down from the top right corner of the iPhone or iPad (iPhone X and later).
- You will see an ear icon at the bottom.
now that we have the apple shortcut set we just have to configure it.
- To enable loud audio alerts on your iPhone or iPad, go to Settings.
- Go to Accessibility.
- Go to Audio/Visuals.
- Enable the Hearing Aid Notifications feature.
- This will alert you when your hearing aids exceed the recommended time and volume for daily audio listening.
Now, let’s set the audio limit that our hearing aids can replicate, whether they’re Apple or not.
- In Settings, go to the Sounds and vibrations section.
- Go to Hearing aid safety.
- Enable Reduce Loud Sounds.
More measures from Apple to protect your hearing
Once you have configured all these sections, your iPhone or iPad will tell you the decibel level when you listen to music through your headphones. To see this measurement you just have to go to the control center and tap the ear icon that we configured earlier.
According to the colors on the screen, you will find yourself at one threshold or another. While green means everything is fine, the meter will turn yellow when listening at a potentially dangerous volume.
Besides, you can use the tool Listen live Located at the bottom of the Hearing tool, you can perform a measurement of sounds in your environment. This way you can check if you are in an area that is free from noise that could harm your hearing.
Enter the tab Hearing in the Health app from Apple, you can view your listening history. This way you will be able to see how long you have been exposed to certain noise levels over the past few days.
Monitor decibels on your Apple Watch
Noise levels on Apple Watch, 9to5Mac
In addition to doing it from your iPhone, the Apple Watch has an interesting function with which we can monitor the decibels of our hearing aids and the sounds of the environment.
- Go to the Noise app on your Apple Watch.
- Activate the function if you have never done so before.
- The app will show you a message telling you if everything is ok or if you are in a too noisy place. Additionally, by clicking Learn More, you can see more details about the sounds around you.
As well you can create a face for your apple watch which displays information about the noise around you.
You can also quickly access noise information from your hearing aids by swiping the Control Center on your Apple Watch.
Here you enter the ear icon located at the bottom and you will be able to see all the information about the hearing level at which your hearing aids are.
