14:24Machine-translated from Azerbaijani by AIRead in Azerbaijani
Two Samsung Earbud Models Approved as Hearing Aids in South Korea
Samsung has received medical approval in South Korea for its Galaxy Buds4 Pro and Galaxy Buds3 Pro earbuds to function as hearing aids without a doctor’s prescription. The country’s Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has registered the “Hearing Test” and “Hearing Aid” features as medical device software. The features will be added to the earbuds through a software update. The update will begin rolling out in South Korea in early 2027.
“Hearing Test” will be launched from the Galaxy Buds settings on a compatible smartphone and will take about 5 minutes. The test will play sounds at different frequencies to separately determine the quietest tone each ear can hear. This method is based on the pure-tone hearing test performed in clinics. Based on the results, the hearing chart produced at the end classifies the user’s hearing into one of 7 levels and tells them what to do next.
“Hearing Aid” does not amplify all surrounding sounds equally. Based on the test results, the feature amplifies only the frequencies that the person has difficulty hearing. The system works using the NAL-NL2 formula developed by Australia’s National Acoustic Laboratories. This formula is widely used in hearing aids. People over the age of 18 who believe they have mild or moderate hearing loss will be able to adjust sound amplification to suit their needs without visiting a specialist.
A compatible Galaxy smartphone running One UI 9 or later is required for all the features to work. The user’s level of exposure to loud sounds, hearing test results and other information will be displayed in the Samsung Health app. The system is intended to make hearing assistance more accessible, but it does not replace professional diagnosis and treatment.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized the “Hearing Aid” feature in August 2026. Samsung previously announced that the feature would become available in the U.S. and selected markets in the final quarter of 2026. The new announcement for South Korea did not confirm the exact rollout date in the U.S. Similar hearing assistance is already available on Apple’s AirPods Pro earbuds.
Samsung added a personalized sound amplification feature to the Galaxy Buds+ model in 2020. A clinical trial conducted in 2021 showed that the feature helped people with hearing loss during everyday conversations. This week, the company also improved the feature that detects sleep apnea on Galaxy Ring and Galaxy Watch devices. Samsung is thus expanding health monitoring capabilities across its other devices as well as its earbuds.