I’m currently looking into getting hearing aids and would love some advice. I use an iphone, so compatibility is super important to me especially for streaming calls, music, and being able to control settings through an app.
If you’ve had any good (or bad) experiences with iphone compatible hearing aids, I’d really appreciate your thoughts. What’s worked for you? Any features you didn’t know you needed until you had them?
MFi HAs predated ASHA. Any aid you try is likely to have connected to ios earlier than to Android. I had enough trouble with my high end Samsung phone that I swicthed to a low end iphone. I find Android better in every respect than ios, except in controlling HAs.
I’ve had success with Costco’s Jabra hearing aids both the original 2021 version and the current ones.
Almost all he brands that I know (Widex, Signia/Rexton, Oticon, Resound/Jabra) are Apple MFi “certified” (MFi=made for iPhone, a low energy protocol made by Apple). I’ve had a good experience with Widex and I had terrible experiences with Signia/Rexton. Below is a link that shows the list of Mfi certified devices.
Phonak does not use MFi, It uses standard/classic bluetooth. IMHO, nothing beats Phonak when it comes to BT strengths and capabilities, it works like any other bluetooth headset. You can be on a phone call and have your iPhone in another room – the connection just works. You can connect it to your computer, TV, phone, anything that has bluetooth. MFi only works with your iphone/ipad and the device must be very near you (mine sometimes breaks when I put my iPhone in my pocket).
The drawback is that the Phonak BT protocol draws more power when streaming. If BT functionality and robustness is extremely important, Phonak is the king,
I have the Rexton Reach and they are great with iPhone as most mfi aids are. The Rexton app really stands out and has many more features than the rest. The one I use most is the directional settings, in a noisy environment I can turn the mic’s to narrow forward and hear my wife across the table and not the people behind or next to me. The other feature that is very useful in the phone app is the Rexton assistant it allows me or you to make changes to the automatic program to better understand someone or change how your voice sounds to you among other things. And if I like the change I can make it permanent. Even after a reboot. The changes you make are not drastic but do really help. When you go back to Costco they can see the changes you made and improve on them or keep or remove them. There is a video on YouTube by “the Hearing club” on the Rexton app.
Interesting how our experiences are completely the opposite. I detested the Rexton app and the Bluetooth connection broke when the phone was in my pocket and many times, during a call, one of the aids would randomly disconnect.
I thought they were good HAs but for my BT needs , they just didn’t work for me —I returned them .
I really like the guy from the hearing club, his reviews are good and his tutorial on how to do DIY with the Phillips software is excellent
Apple spent the money and the time working with the hearing aid manufacturers over 10 years ago. The result was MFi software. In a pinch you can control your hearing aids directly from the iPhone. Once your hearing aids are connected to the iPhone, three clicks on the hang up button brings up the hearing aid menu.
It’s a known fact that Bluetooth has trouble passing through body parts, many people report problems when keeping a phone in a front pants pocket, I also have that problem with my Rextons and my KS10 ‘s before that and Bernafon before that. I have had no problems with Bluetooth calls with all 3 HA’s the Rexton and Bernafon are MFi .
MFi is LE and that’s why it has an issue with range. It was designed like this to enhance the HA battery life. ASHA has the same issues. It’s not the Bluetooth, it’s the use of LE .
Phonak users Bluetooth classic , its range is significantly bigger at the expense of using more battery. You can use a Phonak BT two rooms away and it will still work, use it with a computer , TV , anything you want without any accessories that other manufacturers require.
This is why the Infinio (non-Sphere) has 16 hrs battery life vs Widex SmartRic has 37 hours . The Rexton Reach can do about the same. The Starkey edge claims 51 hours!!
Each protocol has its weakness and strengths. The choice depends on what you need it for .
I mentioned Phonak because the OP said Bluetooth functionality is very important . For others, battery life is important.
Seems like Signia (the same company that makes Rexton) heard and understood complaints of people like me and they included Bluetooth classic in their latest model
Thanks for this information. I was not aware that MFi was Bluetooth LE. Thanks.
Just to make specific, ‘BT LE’ (BlueTooth Low Energy) is not ‘BT LE Audio.’
BT, BT LE, and BT LE Audio are 3 different protocols.
Any idea if IOS will support BT LE Audio in the next release?
Supposedly, IOS already supports BT LE. However, the first hearing aid company to offer auracasr in their app, is GN, in both Jabra and Resound iPhone apps.
As @philbob57 said : bt le and bt le audio are not the same. iOS does not have auracast or bt le audio ( I wish they could have named them differently)
I’m a humanist by training who started an IT career in a pretty esoteric part of IT. Technologists tend to be illiterate.
You are correct that IOS doesn’t support Auracast directly. However, both Jabra and Resound apps do support Auracast on an iPhone through their apps. Unfortunately, I haven’t found an Auracast broadcast to try it out.
That doesn’t make sense to me because that’s something that needs to be supported at hardware level and the OS.
I checked with Resound: Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast are not supported on iPhones per their web page below. Only limited models from Samsung and Google are supported.
I
(In the link below, look for the devices that have two asterisks, those are the current devices that support auracast)
It’s LEA and BLE, so this would possibly help clear some confusion.
It is as @Flyboybob said the Resound/Jabra iOS app lets you search for and connect the Jabra Pro 30s to an Auracast broadcast. The Auracast broadcast isn’t coming from the phone but somewhere else.
Jabra/Resound documentation sucks and I would not be surprised if their own compatibility list is out of date.
