the first modern hearing aids were made in the 17th century. even though that was when they first became popular, since the 13th century people had already been making similar devices by hollowing out the horns of animals. hearing aids did not improve very much until electricity and the telephone were created in 1898. this is when the first electric hearing aid was also created, but it was not given out to the public to use until later in the 20th century. over the past century however, the fast development of technology has changed and improved the hearing aid greatly, making new designs and adding new functions to be able to help even more hearing problems.