Onward Through The Fog: iPhones and Hearing Aids

Oh my, Morgan. Symultaneously laughing myself silly and very frustrated, shaking my head in disbelief that you are experiencing these sort of absurd issues, in 2021. Wow! I am always amuse whenever I get to read something from your desk. It's unbelieveable that these sort of seemingly basic things are still not working together. You would think that, in our present age of tech, none of these problems would even exist anymore. I mean, if Captain Kirk himself is going into real outer space next week, it shouldn't be so hard to get all these communication barriers fixed. I guess those who creat the tech don't need the tech, therefore, people such as yourself and many others are left frantically grabbing for the offending piece of tech, all the while telling your guide dog that you are sorry you just ran him over again. Then, next, you find yourself having to buy your wife flowers and chocolate, once again, because you also piled into her, along the way, knocking her flat yet again, while still grabbing for the techno-jam.

Heres hoping that somebody gets a clew and fixes these ridiculous issues that you deal with, so that you can simply use the tech that you dropped a mortgage payment on the counter for.

Please keep writing. I smile and laugh every time I read.

Be blessed.

Hi Morgan,
I also have an iPhone 12 Mini. My hearing aids are Starkey so not the same manufacturer. I have not experienced the call audio switching bug (knock on wood!) and that does sound terrible. I had a thought: have you tried changing the settings for Audio Routing? I use Automatic which is the default, but perhaps change it to Always Hearing Devices? Btw, if your hearing aids happen to not be connected, Always isn't really Always and sends it back to the speaker. See Settings.Accessibility.Hearing Devices.Audio Routing.
As for directionality as I'm sure you know there are a couple of possibilities. The best case scenario is possibly one of the mics on the aids is malfunctioning a bit and confusing the aid. Sadly more likely is a change in actual hearing. I'd recommend a new hearing test. Possibly the aids can be programmed to treat the change, or perhaps a new more powerful model will be needed. Yeah, gut punch to the wallet.

I have a pair of Phonak Paradise aids and they seem to address many of your issues. First of all these are not MFI aids but I use them with both an iPhone and iPad. The aids connect very well with both. The aids automatically connect to whichever device I'm using at the moment, switching seamlessly to my phone when a call comes in. Then all I need to do is tap my left ear twice to answer the call, and when done tapp again to hang up. The right ear controls play and pause of whatever I'm listening/watching . Really comes in handy when my phone is out of reach or my hands are full and tapping the side of my head with the back of my hand ptoggles the play. One issue though is that pausing audio also mutes voiceover but volume up or down on the aid unmutes. Another feature I really enjoy is stellar noise cancelling on the aids. While listening to audio, I can raise the volume using the button on the aids and ambient sound decreases until it near disappears. Phonak, I hear (hah!), is coming out with an upgrade where the killer feature is ability to use the aids in the shower or in the pool.

Am using Phonak here, but i can not remember there exact series, am using them with compilot, it's like a remote control that is responsible for connecting my Hearing aids to my phone, they are always working with some lags, but they are working.
THe only thing now, is that,in the past, my 2 Hearing aids were connected to my phone, this is ok for me to listen to music and playing games, but it's very bad on street, because i need to listen to the GPS with just 1 ear, tried to do this from my Iphone but failed to do, so i asked the Company to pair only 1 hearing aid to my phone, it's working now, but i can not listen to music in my 2 Hearing aids through my COmpilot remote control, if i can find a way to tell my Iphone to send sound in 1 ear or 2 ears, it will be great to do so, specially now, even calls still in my 2 ears, and i hope to have calls only in 1 ear, is it possible?

Hi Morgan, as a blind hearing aid user I can certainly relate to many of your frustrations
Every hearing impairment is different, so I hesitate to give anything more than general advice. What I will say though is that in demoing the Oticon More 1's vs the paradise aids, the More 1's came up on top for me personally. They are both exceptional aids, however, directionality and natural sounding sound (the ability to localise where sound is coming from) seemed much better, using Oticon's approach.
I also love the fact that you can have the aids remotely adjusted by a hearing aid proffessional without needing to leave home.
Demo both, and pair them with an independent audiologist with a lot of experience. Tell them how important localising sound is to you, and emphasise how dangerous a situation could arrise if you aren't able to propperly hear where an oncoming vehicle is coming from.
Loved the post, and keep them coming. :)
Henry

Response to Morgan Watkins AppleInsider Blog

I have used the MFi enabled Oticon hearing aids for 4 years now and am currently trying a pair of Phonak Paradise. I will give my comments below but first I have a question. In Nay this year Apple announced a number of upgrades to their Accessibility featuresovements Apple indicated that MFi would have : “support for new bi-directional hearing aids. The microphones in these new hearing aids enable those who are deaf or hard of hearing to have hands-free phone and FaceTime conversations. The next-generation models from MFi partners will be available later this year”

So, the question is: does anybody know when hearing aid makers will incorporate this new version of MFi into their hearing aids?

Morgan indicated that he was not getting correct audio location he should get this fixed by his audiologist. All hearing aid makers have their ‘Default’ program and usually this program damps down certain sounds that it assumes that users don’t want. These include noises behind one, loud noises, persistant noises, etc. Your audiologist can tune these features or you can have then set up a program that does not have these automatic ‘features’. Oticon, for example, actually warn users that using these auto features can be dangerous in some situations. Like myself most people with vision impairment rely on sound clues for spacial positioning, etc.

Good features of the Phonak hearing aids are that they have full ‘hands free’ ability for answering phone and FaceTime calls. No need to take the phone out of ones pocket.
They have tap control: right hearing aid answers phone calls or calls Siri, left hearing aid stops or starts current streaming music, book reader, TV streamer, etc. generally works OK, sometimes a bit hit and miss. Sometimes just fiddling with the right hearing aid invokes Siri.
They have good sound for streaming music, books, reading test with VO, etc.
In my case the rechargeable batteries have 40-30% left after a 16 hr day of normal VO use including some hours of reading and some TV streaming.
The things I dislike about the Phonak’s, and may make me decide to wait for the new MFi hearing aids, are the following:
There is a lag when using VO of about 1-2 sec every time one pauses for more than about 4secs(on an iPhone 7+). There is no lag on my Oticon MFi hearing aids.
Each time VO is used the hearing aids have some sort of ‘audio ducking’ which often makes external sound actually sound louder! currently checking with my audiologist if this can be turned off. I have audio ducking turned off in iPhone VO settings.
The hearing aids have an up and down button and this works as one would expect for volume control, up button for louder and down button for softer. These buttons are also used for changing the programs one has available but no matter which button one presses the programs increment upwards … crazy but it’s true!
The My Phonak app is not very VO friendly and for some mysterious reason has a Bluetooth channel of its own and takes a while to connect to the hearing aids every time one uses it. It has no Apple watch app. The oticon has improved their app but one does not have to use it normally as one can use Apple’s built-in Hearing Devices in the Control Centre for all MFi hearing aids.R

Thank you for all your posts. Its great hearing perspectives from people with hearing and sight issues, as so often hearing difficulties in blind people go overlooked IMO.

My ears are weird, as is my hearing loss.
I'm currently trying the Cochlear BAHA 6 Max bone conduction hearing aid on a headband. It's like a sweatband you'd wear at the gym apparently. It works like a total dream with my iPhone. I can adjust options in the hearing devices section of control centre or on the accessibility shortcuts thingy, which is really cool! I really love this device.
It works via bone conduction - a bit like the Aftershokz headphones. The device sits somewhere behind your ear, depending on head shape.This type of device can overcome problems like middle ear blockage or malformation, as the sound is sent directly to the hearing organ itself.

The only thing I wish I had on the actual device was a play/pause button!
There's no lag with VoiceOver, its just as snappy as it usually is.
Music sounds pretty good on it too, from listening to the radio in our living-room on our stereo system. and audiobooks etc are also good streamed from the iPhone.

I haven't really got any bad things to say about it - apart from the fiddliness of getting the thing positioned just right. There's a definite knack to getting it right. It also squeaks like crazy when I touch my hair or have to adjust the device for some reason, so I have named it Elephanteus McSqueakertron

Because there is nothing physically blocking my ear, I can still use what natural hearing I have on my right side, as well as the BAHA, which can only be a good thing.

I get such a kick out of having complete access to my iPhone, without the need for extra accessories between my aid and the phone.

I know this is long, but I wanted to add something that is hopefully useful to the discussion. Thanks again for the wonderful posts.

Since writing my previous comment I have found that Starkey’s Evolv AI Hearing Aids Have The gnew Made for iPhone (MFi) Program for Bidirectional Streaming and were introduced on
October 25.

These hearing aids provide hands-free calling and tap controls like the phonic paradise but also include many other features which seem inappropriate for hearing aids. I assume that the other major hearing aid manufacturers will be adopting the new MFI protocol in the near future.

I was very interested to read your article about Hearing aids.
I experience some of the difficulties you do but not others.
We really need Apple to develop some hearing aids.
i have Phonak aids and these are very good in that I can answer calls and terminate them from the Aids.
The main problem I have is in %80 of answering calls the sound is distorted which is very annoying.
The fact that it is acceptable in %20 makes me believe that this problem can be solved.
When listening to other sources I find that it is better to reduce the volume on the phone which increases the frequency range.
With all the best from
Richard Freeman in London.

Hi Morgan. First, let me say good job on this post. Before I start with my questions, I need to go into a bit of background info. Back in 2019, I started having minor tinnitus episodes that came and went, lasting maybe thirty seconds to five minutes. I mentioned this to my doctor, who basically blew me off, did the hearing test, and all that stuff. Fast forward to this year, actually the summer of this year. My tinnitus had started getting worse, but could still be managed with headphones and music. That brings me to now. My tinnitus has gotten worse, now its a buzzing sound in both ears nearly 24/7 that at times can drive me nuts. I can no longer use headphones because it makes the noise seem louder than it really is. With the background out of the way, I have a few questrions. I'm scheduled to have an evaulation for my tinnitus in a month, that month won't go by fast enough. If the audiologist reccomends hearing aids, do they come with a program for managing tinnitus?What hearing aids would be best to use with an IPhone SE 2020, running the latest version of iOS at the time of this writing. I like to listen to spotify and pandora and watching netflix, hooloo, and my new favorite streaming service, thanks to my dad, discovery plus. If hearing aids are the recomened way for me to go, could I still enjoy my favorite tv shows and music while keeping the monster known as tinnitus under control? What brand of hearing aids work best for an IPhone user? And my last question, about how long would it take to get fitted for hearing aids, and would I be able to use the aids with both my phone and computer?