Apple locked hearing assistance inside AirPods. So I built an open-source version for any earbuds.

Short summary

A developer built OpenHearing, a free Android app providing clinical hearing tests and real-time hearing assistance through any earbuds—addressing the accessibility gap for 1B+ Android users priced out of $4,700 hearing aids. Key engineering decisions: safety-first architecture with mandatory limiters, independent per-ear DSP chains for asymmetric loss, and zero-permission design guaranteeing no data collection. The post navigates FDA regulations, showing how open-source health-adjacent software can earn trust through technical constraints rather than promises.

• •OpenHearing brings clinical-grade hearing assistance to any Android phone and earbuds, bypassing the $4,700 barrier of traditional hearing aids
• •Safety architecture enforces limits via code (lookahead limiters) and platform constraints (no INTERNET permission) rather than code review
• •Asymmetric hearing loss solved by running independent DSP chains per ear from mono input; FDA regulatory guidance shaped every product decision

Generated with AI, which can make mistakes.