Relative to getting Android 10 on one’s phone to be able to use MFA (along with needed support from HA OEM’s), The Verge has a great review today of why Android phones are so absymal about getting Android updates, including a graph of how few Android phones are updated and with what relative time lag.
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It’s not surprising they pair using the accessibility menu, because ASHA is BLE, which is what’s used by the Opn app. However, the HAs have to support the ASHA service, which they won’t until there is a firmware update. I sent my audiologist an email asking about this.
On the other hand, a post in one of the other threads states that Bluetooth 5 is required. I think the OPN range might pre-date Bluetooth 5. It amazes me that the hearing aid industry can’t get it together- or prefers not- to provide their customers with basic information about their products. Like… will your OPN 1 work with ASHA? Don’t they know? Don’t they care, because they’ve already sold you the OPN 1? They don’t think that we care? A bit of respect please.
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@d_Wooluf
no you don’t need 5.0,
From ASHA specification…
implement a compliant BT 4.2 or higher controller. LE Secure Connections is highly recommended.
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I agree fully. It is amazing that we have to do so much “divining of tea leaves.” The manufacturers knew this was coming for some time. It doesn’t seem like that it would be that tough to give people a headsup like “these models will be supported” or “we’re working on a new model that will support this feature.” Same could be said of phone manufacturers as well.
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@AbramBaileyAuD Do you have somebody that you could contact to clarify whether BT5 is required or not? If you haven’t been following, original ASHA specs say BT4.2, but in the recent press announcement, it says 5.0. Thanks.
They would love for you to pay 300 dollars for bluetooth streamer device junk that mediate between your hearing aid and phone.
Android 10 support for ASHA is a threat to their big, fat profit margin.
I would think the prospect of another $6000 sale in a few years would outweigh that desire.
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Thinking about this, it might help if we all contacted customer support of both our hearing aid and smartphone companies and let them know we want info. I’ve already contacted Nokia. I’ll start another thread if I get a response.
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I am excited about losing the intermediary connector device, and as soon as I confirm that this will work with Oticon I will buy a Pixel phone, as it makes sense for me convenience wise. I have had the ReSound clip (two generations), and also the Oticon one, and they both have kinda sucked. In the case of the Oticon one, the fact that it doesn’t support multipoint (be connected to a phone and a computer) is really a show stopper for me.
That said, as someone who has used my Oticon HAs with my iPad using the native (no clip) connnectivity, direct streaming to “open” HAs is not exactly great, even on iOS. This has more to do with nature of open HAs then the streaming technology.
Two gotcha problems with direct streaming 1) you don’t get full fidelity (e.g bass) 2) there is the microphone problem.
I have found that I can’t really get the audio loud enough, especially if there’s other noise (e.g. the car), and while turning off the HA’s mikes helps, it still weak compared to what one might hear with over the ear headphones. If I stick my hands over my ears, I hear much better in these situations, but not a great solution.
While cumbersome, high quality wireless headsets built for office environments (Jabra) beat direct streaming hands down from a user experience and audio quality standpoint.
Regarding the “mike” problem, to be effective for voice calls in noisier environment in the direct streaming situation, one has to literally hold the smartphone up close to your mouth to give the person on the other side a decent experience without a ton of noise. I have wondered why there is not yet a good noise cancelling array BT microphone that’s small enough to clip to a lapel.
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I just brought my streamer on ebay for $50 so that I can stream from my DAW (digital audio work station) with true stereo with the left channel going to my Resound aid and the right channel to my Cochlear implant. The mini mic 2 using the 3.5 input only sends a mono signal to both devices. Due to my experience with Google phones I think that Android 10 support for ASHA will take quite some time to mature. Cochlear N7 will support ASHA but most likely will require a firmware update. I have not heard a official announcement from Cochlear yet and most likely require a trip to the audiologist to install the firmware update.
Excellent idea. I’ve just contacted Signia and will post feedback here when/if I receive a receive a response.
I have a question, but first I have to provide some feedback to you. I use Signia Pure 312 nx7 HAs, with their “Streamline” phone clip paired to my S10+. And I find that it works very well. Sound quality is quite good, and while I can easily turn up the volume with buttons on the clip I seldom find the need to do that. With that said, I think that I would prefer to do away with the clip and go with ASHA device(s). I do get tired of answering the question, “what’s that thing on your shirt?”…
However, you sound like your less than thrilled with the performance when connected to a MFi device? Feedback/observations appreciated.
My take is that if you’ve found something that works, don’t go looking for a “better” solution unless you really like playing around with tweaking stuff.
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Unfortunately, I do… 
Great! Then it’s not a problem unless you get frustrated by things “not working.”
I used to be strictly an Android user. Then I got the iPhone 7 and never look back. It just works well without glitching like on my two Android phones. The Cochlear app just works better in more WiFi environments on the iPhone. The Cochlear app requires web access in order to pair and sometimes looses the pairing information and had to sign off and back again. Never had to do this with the iPhone.
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Which one specifically?
This one: GN Hearing first to support direct Android streaming using ASHA Scroll down to bottom of post to asterisk. It mentions requiring Bluetooth 5.0 and Android 10