#41

No, you cannot unlock the bootloader on the S7 or higher. Believe me, I tried.

Stop giving people false hope that Android Q will solve the streaming problem. It depends on the driver/HAL/firmware to support Android Q streaming.
You can boot Android Q on a device that didn’t come with Q but the problem is that it is not using Q drivers for Bluetooth HA streaming feature, and it will not work.

#42

jtoxx - Thank you for the information. In summary, you are able to stream directly from your Pixel 2 and 3 phones that are running Android Q beta to your OPN 1 (not the newer OPN S) HAs, and the streaming works well. So, the question that you posed at the beginning of this thread still stands - does anyone else have experience streaming with Android Q beta? If so, which phones (is this limited to Pixels at the moment?) and which HAs?

#43

Whether Android Q will install on my phone or yours and whether our phones will then be able to stream to hearing aids are not the biggest issues I think. I’m assuming that I’d need to buy a Pixel or wait for some future model of my favorite brand.

@jtoxx is making two very big statements:

  1. OPN1 aids will play audio directly from an Android phone with the right hardware and software.

  2. That phone (with the right hardware and software) can act as an intermediate device to stream audio from any device that transmits Bluetooth audio.

That’s a bit of a game changer. We assumed that we’d either have to upgrade our hearing aids or hope for a firmware update. The phone-as-intermediate-device functionality is totally unexpected. I still can’t find any of the Android sites that mention it at all.

I’d be interested in any comments from jtoxx regarding audio quality. I’m also interested in the specifics of how you connect to Bluetooth transmitters. Do you pair to the device in Bluetooth settings and then go to the connection and check ‘receive audio’ somewhere?

#44

The audio from a TV is as good as from the Oticon Connect TV 3.0, maybe a bit better.
You must turn on Bluetooth on a device you wish to pair your phone with, make sure it is in Discovery Mode, place the aids near the device, open the battery door and close it, this puts the OPN’s in pairing mode. The device you are paring with, should indicate when it is paired and devices that are available. In the case of a TV (an LG OLED in my case) it shows 2 possible devices, listed as JOHN and JOHN. I select these devices by clicking them with the TV remote that has a pointer. The Television menu “Sound Settings” has several output settings. Internal Speaker, HDMI output, Bluetooth out, SPDIF out …etc Select Bluetooth out and the audio from the television is heard from the AIDs. Volume can be adjusted on the hearing aids and from the television remote also, this may vary with different TV’s. Your television must have Bluetooth output as would any device you wish to stream, naturally. The bluetooth output must be selected in the Television menu settings. Some televisions permit the internal speakers to remain on with Bluetooth. Some do not. One of my TV’s mutes the internal speaker when in the bluetooth output mode. My car radio which is an aftermarket Chinese Android Radio/Navigation head unit leaves the car speakers on as well as outputting Bluetooth audio. The car radio is running Android 8.01 and has Bluetooth 4.2. Television Bluetooth version, no idea. I had considerable trouble pairing the aids with a Windows 10 computer. Tried several times before it just decided to pair. The computer kept giving a paring code which I had no way to enter in the aids. It just finally started working. Paring a PixelBook laptop paired without a problem. The Pixelbook runs the Chrome operating system. I tried to pair the aids using an External Bluetooth transmitter that uses APTX without success.

SSA - You might try these steps to unlock a Galaxy S7. Worked in the past, anyway.

**Steps to Unlock Bootloader on **Samsung Galaxy S7

  • First of all, Enable Developer Mode on **the Galaxy S7 (may take multiple taps)
  • Launch the Settings application.
  • Scroll down and tap on the Developer Options option.
  • Toggle the OEM Unlock option on.
  • Confirm by tapping the enable option.
#45

The toggle does nothing on S7. It is only for the pixel. family. It does not unlock the bootloader.

I am calling this BS because Opn nor Opn S does not support Bluetooth Classic.

Can anyone verify what jtoxx is saying? Show us a video, Screenshot, or picture that proves it…

#46

If Android becomes ready for direct hearing aid interaction, wouldn’t hearing aid models then need to be introduced to interact with that?

#47

@Don The Quattro was advertised back in August, 2018, as already made for MFA. @ssa has tried his with a Pixel running Android Q and finds it doesn’t work. um_bongo mentioned in another thread that a firmware update is expected from ReSound sometime in the 3rd quarter of 2019 that will make MFA go live on the Quattro’s when used in conjunction with the right phone. So that’s why @jtoxx’s report is intriguing: it seems strange that the OPN 1 is reported ready to join the party but Oticon never made an official announcement, apparently, unlike GN ReSound.

#48

@jtoxx. Thanks for your reply. I read it a few times. You seem to be saying that the OPN 1 aids connect directly to a Bluetooth transmitter (which is impossible, they just don’t have the radio for it). Or your phone is representing your aids to the transmitting device as a Bluetooth Classic device. Still a bit confused.

#49

Android phones and hearing aids have been connecting and talking to each other for years. They just haven’t been doing audio. It’s possible that the Bluetooth chips supplied to Oticon and the rest have far more capability onboard than has been used up to now. This may include hardware audio decoding. They may have been ready to go all along. Note: I have no technical knowledge of Bluetooth Low Energy connections, so this may be simplistic or plain stupid. How this gels with announcements of future firmware updates to enable mfa compatibility I have no idea. Just speculating while we await real information.

1 Like
#50

in my opinion BT chip on HA is same thats why they writing BT 4.2 and up for mobile compatibility.
confront opn streaming capablity only if you have android q and opn/ other ha with latest beta v2

#51

Here is a list of Android Q “compatible” phones. Phones issued with Android Oreo on them will receive Android Q but earlier phones such as the Galaxy Note 8 issued with Android Nougat are listed as “compatible” but the OEM would have to go the extra mile to engineer Q to go on the Note 8 with the typical Samsung custom UI, etc. The website predicts that Google’s Project Treble will make it easier for OEM’s to go this extra mile but for myself, given Samsung’s predilection to sell you a new phone as often as possible, I wouldn’t want to bet on it (for Samsung).

#52

who know that android q on other phone except pixel has all features they always reserve some features for pixel specific

#53

I don’t think that ReSound would advertise Quattro’s as offering direct Android connectivity in “a future version of Android” if the connectivity only worked with Pixels. The ASHA standard is an open source standard, which means that any OEM is free to adopt it and Google specifies in detail the specs for the standard, not keeping anything secret.

(same old link offered in quite a few posts on this forum)
https://source.android.com/devices/bluetooth/asha

And I don’t know how the “compatible” table was compiled but I would bet that any phone listed in it as “compatible” probably has the specs to support ASHA, since as you point out ASHA is based on BT LE 4.2 and above.

1 Like
#54

Jim, How reliable do you think this source is? Seems to me that they did a quick (but not all that thorough) look at phones that came out with Oreo and called it good.

#55

Hardware manufactures such as Samsung, LG, others don’t support a hardware feature that Android Q has because it take development time to fix their firmware and add in HAL/driver support. It is in their best interest to get the software update out the door ASAP.

#56

Hardware that comes with Q will be supported because they start writing drivers/HAL that are made for Q for the device…

#57

I think the “compatible” list also includes high-end, hardware-compatible phones that have been updated to Oreo (e.g., Note 8 came out with Nougat, has BT 5 specs). The reason for compatibility has something to do with Project Treble being in Oreo (stuff I know little about) but explained beginning in this section of AOSP (Android Open Source Project):

https://source.android.com/devices/architecture#hidl

Starting lines: ## HAL interface definition language (HIDL)

“Android 8.0 re-architected the Android OS framework (in a project known as Treble ) to make it easier, faster, and less costly for manufacturers to update devices to a new version of Android. In this new architecture, the HAL interface definition language (HIDL, pronounced “hide-l”) specifies the interface between a HAL and its users, enabling the Android framework to be replaced without rebuilding the HALs.”

In Android 7.x and earlier, no formal vendor interface exists, so device makers must update large portions of the Android code to move a device to a newer version of Android
image

In Android 8.0 and higher, a new stable vendor interface provides access to the hardware-specific parts of Android, so device makers can deliver new Android releases simply by updating the Android OS framework—without additional work required from the silicon manufacturers:
image

So basically if a phone has high-end hardware and has implemented Oreo, it shouldn’t be too hard to update to Pie, then to Q (and if a phone has BT 4.2 or higher and a BT HAL already, does ASHA really require much more HAL plumbing on top of that?!).

But here’s somebody’s take on why Samsung high-end phones are not too likely to benefit as much as others from Project Treble. I guess only time will tell, as far as Samsung moving on to Q with “old stuff” like the Note 8, or not.

#58

You need more work to make ASHA work, In the source code I examined, it requires a few files copied over to the vendor partition. If they don’t update the vendor partition aka TARGET_COPY_OUT_VENDOR to enable ASHA… You can’t have a non Q vendor partition and expect that the Q system partition to enable ASHA support. It does not work that way…

Proof but not entire proof:
$(LOCAL_PATH)/audio_policy_configuration_bluetooth_hal_enabled.xml:$(TARGET_COPY_OUT_VENDOR)/etc/audio_policy_configuration_bluetooth_hal_enabled.xml
$(LOCAL_PATH)/a2dp_in_audio_policy_configuration.xml:$(TARGET_COPY_OUT_VENDOR)/etc/a2dp_in_audio_policy_configuration.xml
$(LOCAL_PATH)/bluetooth_hearing_aid_audio_policy_configuration.xml:$(TARGET_COPY_OUT_VENDOR)/etc/bluetooth_hearing_aid_audio_policy_configuration.xml \

1 Like
#59

Pixel 1 (1st Gen), no SIM.
Android 9 (Beta 2, Build QPP2.190228.023, Security Patch level: April 5 2019
OPN1, Firmware 6.0

Direct Streaming NOT working.

First guess, since jtoxx has this working (his/her phone was a Pixel2?),
1st gen Pixel bluetooth hardware differs from the later gens.
(haven’t researched that idea)

…System/Advanced/Developer Options/Feature flags:
…settings_audio_switcher : true
…settings_bluetooth_hearing_aid : true
…
…System/Advanced/Developer Options
…Disable Bluetooth A2DP Hardware offload:
…(off)
…Bluetooth AVRCP Version:
…AVRCP 1.4 (default)
…Bluetooth Audio Codec:
…Use System Selection (Default)
…Bluetooth Audio Sample Rate:
…Use System Selection (Default)
…Bluetooth Audio Bits Per Sample:
…Use System Selection (Default)
…Bluetooth Audio Channel Mode:
…Use System Selection (Default)
…Bluetooth Audio LDAC Codec PlayBack Quality:
…Use System Selection (Default, Best Effort (Adaptive Bit Rate)
…Maximum connected Bluetooth audio devices:
…Use System Default: 5

From the Accessibility/Hearing Aids, OPN1’s are visible as choices for
pairing, but when asked to pair, we see “Pairing…” for about 1sec,
but, they’re not made “Active”
(“Accessibility/Hearing Aids” shows “No hearing aids connected”)

ConnectClip (v1.10.0(6582) seems to work fine. f.ex, we’ll see prompts
w/ radio buttons for “Device”, and “ConnectClip”

We can connect/pair OPN1’s via the “Connected Devices” menu, but
that does nothing insofar as seeing the OPN1’s available for audio output
(this mirrors my experience w/ other android devices/versions)

OPN app mostly works (1.10.0(6582)). “Mostly” means we usu. have to
go through the OPN app’s “Reset App” after each power-on. That’s not
too different from my experience w/ other android devices/versions;
The app is perhaps a bit more reliable (f.ex: can enable/disable BT,
and the ON app will (usually) still work.)

2 Likes
#60

Hi jtoxx,

Could you describe your settings to pair your pixel Android Q with the Oticon opn? I’ve got a Pixel 3 with Android Q beta 3 and Opn1 (about 1,5 years old, firmware 6), but my pixel doesn’t identify the hearing aids as hearing aids. I can pair them via Bluetooth to use the Oticon app, however direct streaming is not possible.
Thank you in advance. Best J