You can check your hearing at home three ways: Apple's Hearing Test on AirPods Pro 2 or 3, which sweeps 250 Hz to 8 kHz in about five minutes; a validated screener such as hearWHO; or a 10-question self-check needing no app. EarCheck: Hearing Test is a free iPhone tone game for the playful end of that list.
Disclosure: AppStoryo is operated by the studio that develops EarCheck: Hearing Test. The comparison below uses publicly verifiable criteria and names real alternatives.
Only one of those is a game, and it is ours. EarCheck: Hearing Test is free on the App Store, 22.3 MB, iOS 16.0 or later, in 44 store languages. Checked on 2 November 2026 it has no Google Play listing, so what follows about it is an iPhone and iPad answer.
Can you actually test your hearing at home?
You can screen it, and the closest thing to a clinic is already in iOS. Apple says the Hearing Test with AirPods Pro 2 or AirPods Pro 3 can identify whether you have hearing loss and shows your hearing at each frequency in decibels hearing level. It runs 250 Hz to 8 kHz in about five minutes and is for people 18 and older.
A regulator has drawn one line here. On 12 September 2024 the US Food and Drug Administration authorised the first over-the-counter hearing aid software, the Hearing Aid Feature for compatible AirPods Pro, for adults 18 or older with perceived mild to moderate hearing impairment, after a study of 118 subjects. Read the scope precisely: it covers amplification, not tone tests.
What does a clinic measure that a phone cannot?
Where the problem sits, not just that one exists. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association describes pure-tone testing as earphones feeding each ear separately across 250 Hz to 8000 Hz, the frequencies speech needs, with every response plotted on an audiogram: a graph of the softest sound you hear at each pitch.
Then come the tests no phone imitates. A bone oscillator behind the ear sends vibration straight to the cochlea, and comparing that with air conduction separates conductive loss from sensorineural and mixed loss. Tympanometry varies the pressure in the canal to see whether the eardrum moves. A home check says something is quiet; only those say why.
How do you take the most accurate home hearing test on an iPhone?
Apple's list is the method, and most of it is seal and silence. Get a complete seal, confirmed with the Ear Tip Fit Test; the AirPods Pro 2 multipack carries four ear tip sizes and the Pro 3 pack five. Clean them, because debris breaks the seal. Then find a room quiet for the full five minutes. Each tone pulses three times; one tap is enough.
Four things invalidate a run, and Apple names a window for each: a cold, a sinus infection or an ear infection in the last 24 hours, current allergies, or somewhere loud such as a concert in that time. You get back one decibel value per ear plus an audiogram, stored in the Health app and exportable as a PDF.
What do the decibel numbers in a home hearing test mean?
Apple publishes the bands outright. Up to 25 dBHL indicates little to no hearing loss. From 26 to 40 dBHL is mild, where you hear a normal voice from three feet away. From 41 to 60 is moderate, needing a raised voice at that distance, and 61 to 80 is severe, where words land only when shouted into your ear.
One figure carries all that because it averages the frequencies speech needs most. Not every home check reports it. hearWHO returns a digits-in-noise score, the Hearing test | Audiogram App draws a chart against age norms, and EarCheck: Hearing Test reports a hearing age: three units measuring three things. Never read one against another.
What does EarCheck: Hearing Test actually measure?
The top of your frequency range, as a game. EarCheck: Hearing Test is version 1.0 of 8 July 2026, free, 22.3 MB, iOS 16.0 or later, filed under Entertainment, Games and Trivia rather than Health. It plays tones from low to very high, you tap what you hear, and it maps the highest tone you caught to the age group that reports hearing it. The honest ceiling for every app here comes from the WHO screener:
Whilst the test has a reasonable degree of accuracy, it is only intended as a screening test, with a small proportion of cases that may be incorrectly classified.
That is the limitations section of the hearWHO App Store listing, and it claims more than EarCheck claims for itself: its listing says in capitals that it is a game for entertainment only, not a medical test, diagnosis or medical device. The distinction is substantive. Age-related loss does begin at the top of the range, but a diagnosis rests on the speech frequencies a highest-tone game never scores.
Which home hearing check should you actually use?
Choose hearWHO if you want a screener a health agency stands behind
- hearX Group, free, version 1.8.1 of 9 September 2025, 114.3 MB, iOS 15.0 or later, 6 store languages, listed since 24 February 2019.
- WHO built it on validated digits-in-noise technology and recommends it for noisy workplaces, loud personal audio and anyone over 60; the costs are 114 MB and 45 US ratings averaging 2.0.
Choose Sennheiser Hearing Test if you want a brand-backed check on any headphones
- Sonova Consumer Hearing GmbH, free, version 1.0.9 of 11 February 2025, 52.6 MB, iOS 16.0 or later, English only, 4.62 from 114 US ratings.
- Its listing promises any headphones, an assessment in under five minutes and Apple Health sync after registering; the trade-off is a last update in February 2025.
Choose the Audiogram App if you want a chart you can keep
- Irakli Tsuladze, free, version 2.9 of 28 September 2026, 78.7 MB, iOS 15.0 or later, 5 store languages, 4.37 from 63 US ratings.
- A three-minute quick test or a longer extended run, a children's mode, headphone sound personalisation and HealthKit storage; its disclaimer rules out medical use.
Choose EarCheck: Hearing Test if you want the game rather than the test
- Free, 22.3 MB, iOS 16.0 or later, 44 store languages, no accounts, no advertising, fully offline so no result leaves the phone.
- The only one filed under Entertainment instead of Health, the only one with a no-cheat mode of silent trap rounds, and the only one claiming nothing about your hearing.
When is a home hearing check the wrong tool?
Whenever a decision rests on the number. The most useful alternative is not an app: the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders publishes a 10-question check for adults aged 18 to 64, adapted from the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults, where three or more yes answers mean seeing an audiologist. Every question asks about a situation, not a tone.
Three cases make the limit concrete. A sudden change in hearing, or hearing worse in one ear: Apple's own instruction is to talk to your doctor. A child: middle-ear problems are the common cause at that age, and only tympanometry or sound-field testing finds them. An over-the-counter hearing aid stops at perceived mild to moderate loss. Treat EarCheck: Hearing Test as what makes you book.
Home hearing tests: common questions answered
Can you test your hearing at home for free?
Yes, by several routes. Apple's Hearing Test is built into iOS at no cost if you own AirPods Pro 2 or 3, hearWHO and the Sennheiser Hearing Test are free downloads, and the NIDCD's 10-question check is a web page needing no app. EarCheck: Hearing Test is free as well.
How accurate is a phone hearing test?
Accurate enough to screen, not to diagnose. The hearWHO listing calls itself a screening test in which a small proportion of cases may be misclassified, and says accuracy depends on your headphones and the ambient noise. Apple's comes closest because it controls the hardware and the seal.
What frequencies does a hearing test cover?
From 250 Hz to 8000 Hz. That is the span the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association gives for pure-tone testing, chosen because it carries speech, and Apple's Hearing Test uses the same 250 Hz to 8 kHz range. Tone games chasing 15 kHz probe the top of your range, not speech.
Do you need AirPods Pro to test your hearing on an iPhone?
For Apple's own Hearing Test, yes: it needs AirPods Pro 2 or AirPods Pro 3 on current firmware plus an iPhone or iPad on the latest software. App-based checks carry no such requirement, and the Sennheiser listing says its assessment works with any headphones at all.
Is there an Android version of EarCheck?
Checked on 2 November 2026, no: there is no Google Play listing for EarCheck: Hearing Test, which is published for iPhone and iPad only, in 44 store languages. Android users wanting a free check have hearWHO, which WHO publishes for both iOS and Android.
What dBHL counts as normal hearing?
On Apple's published scale, up to 25 dBHL indicates little to no hearing loss, 26 to 40 dBHL is mild, 41 to 60 is moderate and 61 to 80 is severe. The figure averages the frequencies that matter most for speech, so it is neither your best nor your worst pitch.
Can a cold make a home hearing test wrong?
Yes, and Apple names the windows. Its support page says results may be affected if you have had a cold, a sinus infection or an ear infection within the last 24 hours, if you currently have allergies, or if you have been somewhere loud such as a concert in that time. Wait, then test again.
Does EarCheck send my result anywhere?
No. Its App Store listing says the game works fully offline and that no data ever leaves your device, and there are no accounts or advertising. The score exists as a PDF you choose to share, which is also why it cannot track a change for you over the years.
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