Sunday, March 24, 2024

How To Use Iphone As A Hearing Aid

Don't Miss

Hearing Aid Brands To Consider

Beltone First Hearing Aid iPhone App Overview: How to Use HearPlus

Less than 20 percent of people who would benefit from a hearing aid wear one,1 even though untreated hearing loss can lead to additional health problems. Many say high prices keep them from getting hearing aids, and others worry about a negative stigma around hearing loss. Whatever the reason, millions of people in America are struggling with their hearing.

Luckily, for many older adults with mild hearing loss, wireless earbuds like AirPods can be used as an assisted listening device when paired with a smartphone. They are cheaper than hearing aids, and the wearer doesn’t have to let anyone know that they’re using the devices to amplify sounds. Inexpensive and discreet? We like the sound of that. In this guide, we’ll show you how to set up and use your AirPods to help with hearing step by step.

How To Pair Your Hearing Aids With Your Iphone:

1. Re-boot your iPhone

2. Take your hearing aids out of your ears and open the battery doors

3. Go to Settings on your iPhone

4. Go to General

6. Go to Hearing Aids

7. Close your battery doors

8. Your name and the hearing aids will pop up under devices

9. If you wear 2 hearing aids you will see L + R

10. If you only wear 1 you will see either L or R depending on which side you wear your aid

11. Click on the box with your aids labeled

12. You will then get a pop up box to PAIR your aids with your phone click PAIR

13. If you wear 2 aids this box will pop up 2 times and you have to hit PAIR a second time.

14. Your aids are now paired with your iPhone. Enjoy!

Hearing aids available with direct-to-iPhone Bluetooth capability include Oticon Opn, Resound Linx, Starkey Halo, and Widex Beyond. Coming soon– Phonak Direct which will have direct to iPhone and Android phone Bluetooth connectivity. All these and more available at The Center for Audiology-Houston, and The Center for Audiology-Pearland. Call today at 713-255-0035 to schedule a free demo and 2 week trial of made-for-iPhone hearing aids!

Text Size:

Brands Offering Made For Iphone And Ipad Hearing Aids

ReSound Specializing in smart hearing aids, ReSound is a market leader in Apple-compatible auditory devices, and have the largest selection for iPhone users. Models like the Linx 3D are cutting edge options with situational awareness features, high-quality background noise screening and crucially the Smart 3D app, which runs on iOS. Other ReSound hearing aids to consider include their Sola, Cala, and ENZO ranges, all of which work with the iOS app.

Audibel Audibels A3i is another popular made for iPhone option. In their case, the Hearing Control App provides a range of options to customize your hearing aid, and it also works with the Apple Watch, iPad, and iPod Touch, so its a great option for those with a large Apple collection.

Beltone Beltone has joined the iPhone compatibility trend, launching their own HearPlus app for iOS devices. Working with Beltone Plus, First, and Legend hearing aids, it provides the ability to check battery levels, change sound settings, and create custom settings for your hearing device .

Cochlear Cochlears Baha range is another leading made-for-iPhone hearing product. Relying on the Nucleus Smart app, their devices are optimized to stream audio and video footage from iPhones, as well as FaceTime calls, and they come with the standard range of phone-based hearing aid controls.

Danavox Spanish company Danavox have come up with their Aio, Gaia, and Logar hearing aids all of which are completely iPhone and iPad ready.

You May Like: How To Clean Your Ears With Hydrogen

Activating Hearing Aid Compatibility

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Devices to activate Hearing Aid Compatibility for iOS 13 or newer iPhones.

You can even activate Hearing Aid Mode if you have an iPhone 6 or older version. Go to Settings > General > Accessibility to activate Hearing Aid mode. Hearing Aid Mode limits cellular radio transmission power in the 1900 MHz GSM band, leading to a decrease in 2G cellular coverage.

You should also download hearing aid applications that suit your hearing needs.

Spoken Directions While Navigating

Steps to Connect Made For iPhone Hearing Aids with compatible iPhone

In the car, my wife and I often use Apple Maps to guide us. The first time we started navigation when I was wearing my new hearing devices, my wife noticed instantly that she didnt hear any directions. As you might guess, the iPhone sends audio from Maps to the hearing aids by default.

Looking at the iPhone screen, we did not see a way to reroute the spoken directions to the iPhone speaker, since its helpful for the passenger to be able to hear the spoken directions too. It would be even more of a problem if my wife was driving but only I was hearing the directions. Being somewhat in a hurry at the time, however, we left it at that. Later I looked at the Apple Maps interface again, but I still couldnt figure out how to route the audio. On my next visit to the hearing system specialist, I asked the friendly people there, but they didnt know either. A Google search finally gave me the answer. Would you have known?

You can pull up the sheet from the bottom of the navigation screen to reveal more buttons. One of them is an Audio button that, when tapped, brings up a sheet where you can switch the voice output to the iPhone speaker.

This, in my opinion, is a bad case of hidden functions. How is the average user who doesnt read manuals to know that he can pull this sheet up? At the very least, a hint that there is a hidden part should be present in the visible part of the sheet, perhaps a small arrow.

Recommended Reading: What Hearing Loss Requires A Hearing Aid

Changing Audio Routing Defaults

Its obvious by now that the default behavior of the iOS hearing aid integration is to send all audio to your hearing devices. There should be a way to change this, and there is.

Back in Settings > Accessibility > Hearing > Hearing Devices, the screen where you connected your hearing aids contains more controls, one of which is labeled Audio Routing.

Tapping Audio Routing > Media Audio shows three choices.

The default here is Automatic. Changing it to Never Hearing Devices sends all audio to the iPhone speaker. So this would have been one solution to the Voice Memos problem: switch to Never Hearing Devices, play the memo, and then switch back to Automatic.

Always Hearing Devices is, in my testing, poorly labeled it should be Always Hearing Devices . Heres why: If your hearing devices are connected to the iPhone, this option sends audio to them if they are not connected, sounds play through the iPhones speaker. The question remains: what does Automatic do? In my testing, its the same as Always Hearing Devices . Apples support document has this to say:

Audio Routing

Choose the default device for audio playback.

Well, thats helpful. If you know what Automatic does, please leave a comment.

How To Turn On Subtitles And Closed Captions On Iphone And Ipad

Subtitles and closed captioning work by layering text over the video so you can read instead of listening. You can create different display styles so you can make them as easy to see and enjoyable to read as possible.

  • Launch the Settings app from the Home screen of your iPhone or iPad.
  • Tap on Accessibility.
  • Choose Subtitles & Captioning under the Media section.
  • Select the switch for Closed Captions + SDH to turn them on.
  • Tap on Style in order to customize how closed captions work if you’d like.
  • Choose on Create New Style… to choose your own font type and size.
  • Just keep in mind that closed caption and subtitles will work where available, but third-party apps may have settings you’ll have to use.

    Don’t Miss: How To Say Want In Sign Language

    Ios 14 Headphone Accommodation Settings

    Among the new features and upgrades of the new iOS 14 update, one in particular is of great interest to those with hearing aids or hearing loss. Apples new Headphone Accommodation Settings allow the user to customize headphone audio to a new level amplifying sounds and adjusting frequencies like one would with traditional hearing aids.

    The range and level of customization is somewhat lacking, however, and the list of supported headphones is still very short. For those who can and wish to try it out, simply navigate to Settings -> Accessibility -> Audio/Visual -> Headphone Accommodations on your iPhone.

    How To Control Audio Balance On Iphone Or Ipad

    iPhone 13/13 Pro: How to Enable/Disable Hearing Aid Compatibility

    If you don’t hear as well in one ear, you can toggle the audio balance so that it’s louder on one side. Here’s how:

  • Launch the Settings app from your Home screen.
  • Tap on Accessibility.
  • Choose Audio/Visual.
  • Tap and drag the slider that appears at the end of the Hearing section. This will move audio between the right and left channels.
  • Recommended Reading: Do Ear Drops Help Middle Ear Infection

    Hearing Aids Made Specifically For Iphone

    Compare the latest hearing aids made for iPhone and save

    Do you wear hearing aids?

    On this page

    Fast forward to 2019, Apple now owns an enormous share of the cell phone market, with reports claiming that they take the lions share and then some, with an estimated 80% of all 2016s smartphone profits going into Apples pockets.

    With this absolutely gargantuan domination over the smartphone market, its only expected that other companies would try to attach themselves to Apple and eke out whatever profit they can. One such industry is the hearing aid industry.

    If youd like to learn everything there is to know about iPhone compatible hearing aids, then you could do a lot worse than using our free online form to arrange a free consultation with a hearing specialist near you.

    Connect Your Phone To Your Hearing Aids

    Apples iPhones and iPads are renowned for their technological sophistication, their range of features, and their high-quality designs. This may be why, as of 2017, there were around 85 million iPhone users in the USA. As around 15 percent of Americans also report some degree of hearing impairment , its a fair bet that there are millions of people who use iPhones or iPads and also struggle to hear. But what if the two could be brought together, helping those with auditory issues improve their hearing? Actually, thats definitely a possibility, with plenty of iPhone or iPad compatible hearing devices on the market. Lets find out more about them.

    Read Also: How To Get Water Out Of My Ear After Swimming

    Hearing In Control Center

    You can add a Hearing option to your Control Center so you can easily see your headphones audio level. If this is enabled, you will see a Headphone Level that displays your headphones audio level in decibels.

    Go to Settings > Control Center and add Hearing to do so.

    Many wired and wireless headphones, including Apples AirPods, are compatible with this feature.

    Bioaid App Turns The Iphone Into A Hearing Aid

    New Made

    Its so obvious when you think about it. The iPhone has a microphone, a computer that can process audio, and earphones why not use it as hearing aid? Thats just what a group of scientists from the University of Essex have done, with their BioAid app. It has the potential to replace thousand-dollar hearing aids with a free download … as long as users dont mind keeping their phone close at hand.

    BioAid works with the iPhone , iPod touch and iPad. Once users have installed the app, they start by going through a setup procedure in which they determine the settings that best address their particular type of hearing loss. There are six fixed settings to choose from, each one of which has four fine-tuning sub-settings. These allow users to target the specific frequencies that they have difficulty hearing.

    No hearing tests or visits to hearing aid specialists are required.

    The app doesnt simply boost all audio levels within a given frequency, however, as that would make loud sounds extra unpleasant. This boosting of already-loud sounds is one of the reasons that some hearing aid-users avoid noisy settings such as social gatherings, or simply choose not to use their hearing aids.

    Instead, BioAid is able to bring up low sounds, while turning down loud noises in the users earphones. Its inspired by the biology that allows the human ear to do the same sort of thing, hence its name.

    Also Check: Can You Use Hydrogen Peroxide To Remove Ear Wax

    The Technology Of Hearing Aids That Are Compatible With Iphones

    Hearing aids that are compatible with iPhone, Nano Sigma Plus for example, or in other words, hearing aids for iPhone are designed specifically for providing optimum sound quality when used alongside iPhones. When you connect your iPhone with certain hearing aids, your iPhone will be able to send audio feeds directly to the speakers of your hearing aids. This helps to deliver a much clearer conversation. Using the phone also gets a lot easier.

    The battery life of the hearing aids can be tracked easily with the iOS hearing aid apps that you will be using through your iPhone. You will also be able to adjust the settings of your hearing aids and change the volumes. Moreover, with the Live Listen feature that’s specifically designed for people with hearing impairment, your phone will become an additional microphone.

    For example, while having a conversation with someone in a noisy environment, you can place your iPhone near them which will amplify the sound of their voice and will help to screen out the background noises too.

    Made For Iphone Hearing Aids

    One of the biggest and most significant recent advances in hearing aid technology is the ability to connect them directly to your smartphone. Some hearing aids known as Made for iPhone hearing aids allow you to connect your hearing aid to your iPhone through Bluetooth, letting you answer calls directly through the hearing aid, stream music, and adjust settings.

    To start, here are the directions to pair your hearing aids to your iPhone, and a list of devices and their hearing aid compatibility ratings.

  • Launch the Settings app from your Home screen.
  • Tap on Accessibility.
  • Choose Hearing Devices under the Hearing section.
  • Close the battery doors on your hearing device and your iPhone will search for your hearing device.
  • Tap the name of your hearing device under MFi Hearing Devices.
  • Tap Pair when you see the pairing request on the screen. If you have two hearing devices, you will get two requests.
  • Once pairing is complete, you can use your hearing aids with your iPhone.
  • Apple has also created a Hearing Control function that can quickly be accessed in the Control Center.

    For hearing aids paired to an iPhone, this feature lets you quickly and easily adjust hearing aid volume or change sensitivity.

    Read Also: How To Use Candle Wax To Clean Ears

    How To Use Your Phone As A Hearing Aid

    If you are suffering from hearing loss, hearing aid is a must-have device for you. It enables you to hear the sounds around you and take part in active conversation. Without a hearing aid, life can get harder for a person with hearing problems.

    However, hearing aids can cost even $4000, and you may wonder why hearing aids are so expensive. But this is the reality you have to live with. Anyways, there is a much cheaper option, a temporary one to be honest. You can use your phone as a temporary hearing aid.

    Background Sounds For Tinnitus

    Using AirPods As Hearing Aids (MacMost #1775)

    While Apple doesnt specifically say anything about tinnitus, its clear that this new accessibility feature will be welcomed by the large community of people suffering from tinnitus:

    Everyday sounds can be distracting, discomforting, or overwhelming, and in support of neurodiversity, Apple is introducing new background sounds to help minimize distractions and help users focus, stay calm, or rest. Balanced, bright, or dark noise, as well as ocean, rain, or stream sounds continuously play in the background to mask unwanted environmental or external noise, and the sounds mix into or duck under other audio and system sounds.

    Apple’s new Background Sounds will offer sounds such as as ocean, rain, and stream sounds, help minimize distractions and help users focus, stay calm, or rest.

    Don’t Miss: Will Medicare Pay For Hearing Aids

    Live Listen With Apple Airpods

    Live Listen is a handy feature, but if you dont have AirPods or PowerBeats Pro headphones you won’t be able to take advantage of it. AirPods are very popular and provide advanced features such as Live Listen, but theyre quite expensive.

    Learn more about AirPods and their features to decide if theyre worth your money before buying.

    What About Live Listen

    If you don’t have a pair of AirPods Pro, you can still amplify your surroundings temporarily using a feature called Live Listen.

    It allows your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch to act like a microphone that sends sound to your AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max or Powerbeats Pro, helping you to hear conversations in noisy areas or hear someone speaking from across the room.

    To use the feature, your device must be running iOS or iPadOS 14.3 or later.

    Firstly, add Live Listen to your devices Control Centre by going to Settings > Control Centre. Then, tap the Add button next to the Hearing button, and finally, tap Settings to save your changes.

    When you want to use the feature, you just need to open the Control Centre, tap the hearing icon, and tap Live Listen. Place your device in front of the person you want to hear more clearly, adjusting the volume on your device as needed. Youll even be able to see your headphones audio levels in real time and see detailed decibel information as you listen.

    You May Like: How To Know If Baby Has Ear Infection Or Teething

    More articles

    Popular Articles