Anker Is Making Hearing Aids Now — Here's What's Going On

Anker announced its first over-the-counter hearing aids at IFA 2026 on September 3. The Verge's senior reviewer John Higgins reported the announcement, which is Anker's first step beyond everyday consumer audio into a product category with medical regulations attached.

The devices use a design called receiver-in-canal, or RIC. The main body of the hearing aid sits behind the ear, and a thin tube carries sound into the ear canal. This design is common in prescription hearing aids because it balances power, comfort, and a low-profile look. Anker's version includes four beam-forming microphones — microphones that focus on sound coming from directly in front of the user, which helps pick up the person you are talking to while reducing background noise.

The audio processing is handled by a chip called Thus, which Anker first announced in April and already uses in its Soundcore Liberty 5 Pro earbuds. Taking a chip designed for consumer earbuds and using it in a hearing aid is a notable engineering and supply-chain decision. The Thus chip presumably handles both the hearing-loss compensation and the directional microphone processing, though Anker has not explained the details of how it all works.

Battery life is rated at up to 12 hours on a single charge, extending to 36 hours with the included charging case. Anker also claims a five-minute fast charge gives two additional hours of use, and says this is the fastest charging rate among OTC hearing aid competitors. That claim has not been independently verified.

Anker did not share exact model names, US pricing, or when the devices will be available. More details are expected by the end of 2026.

The background here is important. In August 2022, the FDA finalized a rule allowing hearing aids to be sold over the counter without a prescription. Many expected this would draw consumer-electronics companies into a category long dominated by specialized manufacturers. Nearly four years later, adoption has been uneven. Medicare still does not cover hearing aids as of 2026, so consumers pay the full cost themselves — which makes cheaper OTC options more appealing.

The picture is not entirely positive. LXE Hearing, the parent company of Eargo and Lexie Hearing, decided to shut down its US operations and exit the OTC hearing aid market about two months before Anker's announcement. Two of the most visible OTC brands collapsing under one company is a stark reminder that a government rule change does not guarantee a business will succeed. The OTC hearing aid market has proven harder to crack than expected, with problems including lack of insurance coverage, low consumer awareness, fit-and-comfort issues, and competition from increasingly capable audio devices that blur the line between earbuds and hearing assistance.

Looking at Anker specifically, the company's strength is consumer audio hardware at competitive prices. The fact that the Thus chip comes from the Liberty 5 Pro earbuds suggests Anker is reusing its existing technology rather than building a hearing-aid system from scratch. That could lower costs and speed up the product's arrival. Whether the result is something audiologists and users find good enough for real hearing loss is a separate question that cannot be answered until people can actually buy and use the devices.

Entering a market that a major competitor just left could be a bold move, or it could simply reflect that Anker has a different cost structure and way of selling. Anker's global distribution, strong brand in consumer audio, and experience shipping tens of millions of earbuds give it advantages that smaller hearing-aid-only companies did not have. But the difficulties in the OTC hearing aid category have not mainly been about the hardware. Insurance reimbursement, clinical credibility, the process of fitting the device to a user's ears, and consumer trust are where companies have struggled — and a good chip or fast charging does not solve those problems.

In this author's view, Anker's presence could push prices down in a category where devices often cost anywhere from several hundred to a few thousand dollars. If Anker applies the aggressive pricing that its Soundcore brand is known for, OTC hearing aids could become more affordable for more people. The open question is whether Anker will invest in the software, customer support, and fitting tools that make OTC hearing aids genuinely usable for people who do not have an audiologist helping them — or whether it will treat these as just another product in its lineup.

For now, the announcement is more a statement of intent than a finished product. Anker has the chip, the design, and the distribution network. What it does not yet have is a shipping product, a price, or a proven answer to the challenges that have tripped up the companies before it.