Any smartphone to suggest/avoid for APPS?

Hearing Loss Apps
#1

Hi all,
I’m going to buy my first smartphone and I’ll use it with Unitron Hearing Aids by BT. I’ve googled and found there’s this app Unitron Remote Plus and I think it’s the right one for this case.
AFAIK to get these kind of apps it’s necessary google play store, isn’t it? Well, a friend of mine told me new Huawei smartphones haven’t got google “certification” and this means they can’t get google play store therefore users can’t get any google app as that Unitron. He said there’re ways to get google apps anyway but they’re a bit tricky and Huawei’s users have got issues anyhow.

All that said, I want to ask you if it’s true this fact about recent Huawei smartphones and, in general, if there’re smartphones to avoid (or suggest) for this reason or other ones. Tell your experiences please.

#2

You don’t need the App to make phone calls or listen to music.

I have Phonak and Oticon and don’t use any of their Apps.

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#3

Definitely my goal is making hands free calls with this new smartphone paired and connected by BT with Unitron HAs. So do you mean no App is necessary for that? I don’t know anything about smartphones but I thought the proprietary app helped in getting a “stronger” BT connection, I mean when HAs go back within the BT’s phone range it connects to them automatically.

If all that is wrong, what are these apps for?

#4

Changing configuration and monitoring status like battery life remaining. The calling uses bt classic, while the apps use bt le. The app pairs in the app while the calling/streaming is paired via the system bt control applet. App not involved at all.

WH

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#5

With my Oticon aids rhe companion app does the pairing to both the app and phone. My phone is the Samsung S23 android phone. My aids and phone can use le audio, but due to a bug in Samsung’s OS le audio isn’t working for phone calls at this time so I have le audio disabled and use the standard ASHA. I don’t have any issues with phone or app connectivity. I stream music, audiobooks, as well as calls. The app isn’t as much as some want but it is all I need, I monitor my aids battery levels I can adjust bass, treble, and high frequency for both streaming and live listening. I can adjust and mute the aids and if I had extra programs change them. It is my choice not to have extra programs.
My belief is if the aids are fitted and adjusted properly extra programs aren’t needed.

#6

Thanks for your experience.

Anyway I guess the adjustments you can do by your proprietary apps is quite limited, I mean I don’t think you can adjust the dBs level within your audiogram field as your audiologist can do by SW; can’t you?
By the way “how much” does it possible to adjust your HAs volume (during calls) by these proprietary apps? Can these apps monitor battery level for rechargeable HAs too?

Definitely you can make hands free calls via BT with all kind of smartphones without installing any app, can’t you? This is really important for me because, after pairing and connecting HAs-smartphone, I want to be sure it’s not necessary to do anything by myself to make/receive a call other than composing numbers and press “call” (making) or just “accept call” (receiving), in other words I wouldn’t have to tell the phone “I want the audio to go directly to my HAs for this call and not to loudspeaker” every time.

#7

i find with Phonak Paradise, that while the phone calls mostly go to my hearing aids, sometimes it goes to the phone, and I have to change it to Bluetooth.

I find it very helpful to have the phonak app to change programs such as to speech in loud noise and to a program to hear a soft spoken person.

Unitron likely has a website which tells you which app to use. Your audiologist should be able to tell you that, and whether it will work with any give smartphone. There are also lists out there on what hearing aids work with what phones.

#8

The SoundTracker article at this link should answer any questions:

#9

I’m afraid of that! Consider I’m going to buy this smartphone for a very old relative of mine who uses HAs so I’d want to set her smartphone for hands free calls only once because she’s able only to accept calls, not to set/adjust anything by herself! Therefore I wondered if these proprietary HAs apps could make a “better” job in keeping on BT connection between HAs and phone but as you said these apps are not useful for that, in other words my problem deals with the smartphone itself, not with apps; is it all right?

#10

I’ve got a pair of Phonak Lumity and these seem to pair in two ways.

Firstly a BT LE connection to my phone (iPhone 15 Pro Max - don’t judge me, I work on mobile apps for cars) and it is this connection that connects to the app (two connections, one for each aid) to allow app based adjustments like tweaking custom programs and checking of battery levels. I assume it is these connections that allow remote programming via the app.

Then there is a second Bluetooth connection that seems to be used for streaming audio. I’ve tried pairing this with my phone, Apple Watch, MacBook laptop, Amazon Echo, TV via AppleTV and our 14 year old Volvo. It all seems to work for both incoming audio and the microphones for picking up speech for Teams meetings, phone calls, Siri, Alexa and ChatGPT. I’m currently listening to an audiobook stream from my watch while I type this on my phone. This connection seems to allow pairing with up to 8 devices but active connections with just two at a time, usually my phone and watch or phone and laptop.

You can pick up a cheap iPhone off Backmarket, which is where I buy phones for the kids, Mum and the MIL. My wife has also bought a second work phone from them. However I would not get anything older than an iPhone SE 2 to maintain a few years of latest OS releases.

The first one is the standard Bluetooth connection (you can rename the device to something meaningful/memorable), the two after are the Bluetooth LE connections.

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#11

Unitron hearing aids have classic Bluetooth , same as Phonak , and no App is needed for hands free calls. Just pair the hearing aids with all three BT connections, then the hands free calls should work without any App

#12

You don’t need (and won’t use) the le pairing if you have no app. You’ll probably need to re-pair those anyway if you later install the app.

I find the “Call audio goes to phone instead of HAs” is from connection not hot, and usually this happens to me when I’ve restarted the aids or the phone in the middle of the day. It seems to reconnect when you come back together after leaving vicinity ok if they were connected when you went away. But restarts sometimes cause me to get caught off guard with no connection, and I didn’t know.

WH

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#13

I haven’t used one of the captioning phone apps, but I suspect that would hold your BT connection to the phone. Innocaption is one I hear the most about.

#14

Do you mean this app? I don’t understand how this app could help in holding my BT connection to my phone; can you explain please?

#15

You can install alternative app store called Aurora and get the Unitron app through it. You don’t even have to use your Google account.

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#16

You are right, maintaining the BT connection to your phone would be independent of the app you use.

#17

This information on best apps for hearing loss might be helpful for selecting your smartphone:

#18

And also this for selecting the best smartphone for streaming, if that is what you are asking

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