Hearing test on a phone? Well,
in this video I’m talking about the Mimi hearing test app. Coming Up!
Hi, I'm Dr. Derek - audiologist, audio engineer, and musician with Pro Fit
Hearing.com bringing you the best insight in today's latest hearing aids, headphones,
and audio technology to improve your life. If you have concerns about your hearing,
always consult with your local physician or audiologist.
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Today, I’m talking about the Mimi hearing test app for Apple iOS.
It’s also available for Android devices.
The Mimi hearing test app is considered a tool for hearing screening. The website
states the following: “Mimi Hearing Test does not supersede or replace a diagnosis
by a physician and is not intended to be used for monitoring,
treatment or alleviation of any disease or disability. If you have questions or
concerns with regards to your hearing health, please consult a medical professional.“
If you are using an iPhone, the Mimi hearing test app results are also visible within
the Apple Health app. You can then use these results to calibrate your Apple Airpods Pro
with the headphone accommodations feature in Apple iOS 14. For more information on using audiogram
data with Airpods Pro, check out my suggested video above or look for the link in the description below.
So let’s take a look at the Mimi hearing test app.
So when you first open the app, you have three options to choose from:
Profile, Explore, or Test Results. I’ll come back to the Profile page once I’ve completed my test.
The Explore page has a Google Doc questionnaire for input on how to make the app better.
Under test results we can start a new test.
First find a quiet place for your test that is also free of any distractions.
Make sure your headphones are connected. Next select the headphones that you're using.
You have the option of using in ear, over ear, on ear, or
unknown headphones. So as you can see it has the option to select Apple AirPods,
and they’re circled green so that means that these are calibrated headphones for the app.
So you want to go ahead and adjust your device volume so you're at the 50% mark. It says press
the button while you can hear the beep and release when you stop hearing something. So once you start
your hearing test, you'll hear a continuous tone that changes in pitch and also volume.
This entire test takes about five minutes. Okay, so I’ve completed the Mimi hearing test.
So my test shows that I have no hearing loss. It has hearing loss grade: none, slight, mild,
moderate, or severe. So when I close that screen, you can see it has a list of all the hearing tests
I’ve completed. So let's take a closer look at the results. If I click on the hearing test results,
you can see it shows my results in an audiogram format.
The hearing test threshold levels indicated by the app can be confusing if you're familiar with
how to read an audiogram. This app uses an O to mark threshold results for both ears. An audiogram
indicates left ear results with an X and right ear results with an O. You can also see from the key
below that a solid orange circle means reliable data. My threshold data appears as a white
circle which is indicated as being unreliable. I did complete my hearing test in a quiet room,
and I used Apple AirPods Pro. Apple AirPods Pro are considered calibrated earphones for this test,
so I’m not sure why it's considering my threshold data to be unreliable. I do know that the last
time I had my hearing tested by an audiologist in a sound booth, my hearing was within a
normal range. This app indicates that my hearing thresholds are still within a normal range today.
This app also lists a percentage of hearing for both ears. For the Mimi hearing test app,
the meaning of this percentage is unclear and it doesn't seem to indicate anything of clinical
significance. An audiogram that your provider completes uses percentages to indicate how many
words you can correctly repeat back out of 25. So if you understand 20 out of 25 words, that
would be 80 correct word recognition. So let's take another look at Profile. Under Profile you
can see the following: hearing capacity, hearing loss grade, your better ear, and how you compare.
Hearing capacity lists the percentage of hearing detected in both ears. Again,
I don't think there's any clinical significance to this percentage
because I did not complete any word recognition testing. Hearing loss grade indicates the degree
of assumed hearing loss that is detected by the app: none, slight, mild, moderate, or severe.
This is using the World Health Organization classification criteria which is different
from the commonly used criteria by the American Speech Language Hearing Association.
Your better ear indicates whether you have symmetrical or asymmetrical hearing.
Clinically, a significant difference in hearing
between ears would be a difference in hearing thresholds of 15 dB or greater.
Under how you compare, you can see how well you hear in your age group:
worse hearing, average hearing, or better hearing. There's no norms for hearing loss
by age, however our hearing ability does decrease gradually over time as we get older. I can only
assume that this data is based upon the sample of people that have used the Mimi hearing test app.
I recommended that you see your local physician or audiologist if you have
concerns about your hearing. Seeing a medical professional is still required to accurately
diagnose and treat hearing loss. Once you've been seen by a hearing healthcare provider,
you can then compare your audiogram to the results obtained with the Mimi hearing test app.
So for today’s question, have you tried the Mimi hearing app and are the results
consistent with your last audiogram from your provider? Let’s connect in the comments below.
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Make sure to check out the notes in the description below for more information,
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If you're interested in hearing aids, click on the link in the description below for my
free ebook “How to Buy Hearing Aids.” Know what to ask your audiologist or hearing aid
dispenser so that your hearing aids are easy to use and have all the features you're looking for.
Remember Pro Fit Hearing brings you the best insight in today's latest hearing aids,
headphones, and audio technology to improve your life. If you have
concerns about your hearing, always consult with your local physician or audiologist.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you in the next video.