Apple celebrated Thanksgiving by unveiling its annual “Heartstrings” holiday ad on Thursday — a two-minute ad that highlights the new hearing features of the AirPods Pro 2 and highlights the themes of accessibility and hearing loss.

The two-minute ad, titled “Heartstrings”, is available on the company’s YouTube channel, where it has been viewed more than 1.4 million times, and on X (formerly Twitter), where it has 17.7 million views.

This year’s ad highlights the AirPods Pro 2 and the new hearing health features that were introduced with the release of iOS 18.1 late last month. Notably, Heartstrings appears to be Apple’s first holiday spot to feature disability and accessibility themes prominently in its story.

The ad shows a family unwrapping presents on Christmas morning. The father, who is subtly shown to be suffering from hearing loss, sits quietly as muffled sounds of tearing wrapping paper and chattering fill the room.

The moment becomes touching when he puts in his AirPods and his daughter starts playing the acoustic guitar, and nostalgic clips of her childhood appear on the screen. He hears everything clearly for the first time.

Sharing the X ad, Apple CEO Tim Cook wrote: “I’m so proud that the many teams across Apple are developing powerful technologies that improve people’s lives. The hearing aid feature on AirPods Pro 2 uses your customized sound profile so it can hear the moments that matter.”

X users responded positively, praising both the technology and the emotional tone of the ad, with one saying: “This is one of the best ads ever. As a father of a 3 and 6 year old I have some hearing issues myself, it’s heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time.”

Another explained the benefits: “The best thing about Apple Airpods being able to function as hearing aids is that wearing Airpods is less of a stigma compared to hearing aids. Also, the button that tunes out all the sound is great.”

Another underlined how the ad tugged at the heartstrings, responding to Cook’s post: “Jeez, you guys really tried to tear people’s souls apart with this one, didn’t you.”

Several others responded to Cook’s ad for the new AirPods Pro 2, praising them not for their technology or sentiment but for seemingly having “no wake venom,” calling it “a normal non-awake ad” and praising the Apple CEO for “getting[ting] the difference between patriotic and woke,” with one X user saying, “Make ads great again.”

The second-generation Apple AirPods Pro offer several improvements over their predecessors. They are equipped with the H2 chip, which improves sound quality and active noise cancellation (ANC).

Adaptive Transparency mode allows users to remain aware of their surroundings by reducing the intensity of loud sounds. In addition, the touch controls on the stems allow for easy volume adjustment. Battery life has been extended to up to 6 hours of listening time with ANC enabled, and the charging case now includes a built-in speaker and lanyard loop for added convenience.

As its ad shows, Apple introduced new hearing health features with the AirPods Pro 2 aimed at users with perceived mild to moderate hearing loss. These enhancements include clinical grade hearing aid functionality, a hearing test and active hearing protection.

The Hearing Aid feature allows AirPods Pro 2 to function as over-the-counter hearing aids. Users can take a hearing test using their iPhone or iPad, which will generate a personalized hearing profile stored in the Health app.

This profile adjusts the amplification of sounds in real time, increasing intelligibility during conversations and media playback. This feature is intended for people aged 18 and over with a perceived mild to moderate hearing loss.

The integrated hearing test uses the standard clinical method of pure tone audiometry to assess hearing ability. Users can complete this test in minutes and the results are stored securely in the Health app. This data may also be shared with healthcare providers for further consultation.

Active hearing protection minimizes exposure to loud ambient sounds in all listening modes. Using machine learning, the H2 chip reduces louder, intermittent sounds at a rate of 48,000 times per second, while the ear tips provide passive noise reduction.