Connect hearing aids to office phone

I have described this many times but here is a short ad/article that also explains it. This is basically an ad from a vendor who sells these items. I know nothing about the vendor and I’m not recommending them.

I have used this setup with the Resound Phone Clip+, the Signia/Rexton Streamline Mic / Smart Mic, and the Phonak Com Pilot 2. I believe it would work with the others too.

I would be glad to answer questions about my experience.

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Good article but the kicker towards the end is the large line of bold type that reads: “Certain Bluetooth Hearing Aids designed specifically for iPhone or Android are not compatible with this set up.” Then there is no list of exactly which brands and models those are - guess you have to do business with the company or do some research on your own to find out.

I don’t think that is true. Probably they just didn’t completely understand all the details. Even the Made for iPhone hearing aids can still use the Bluetooth device.

Are you interested in connecting to either an office phone or computer soft phone (like Skype or Cisco Jabber)?

I’m interested in part because of Russ’s office phone predicament - the MDA200 now being potentially his best solution.

We also have a set of Panasonic cordless handsets that are working as a slaves to an AT&T Wireless Home Phone. When I’m home, I normally forward my cell to the AT&T Wireless Home Phone - I don’t believe it has Bluetooth. So it would be interesting if I could hook up either the “master” or the “slave” to the MDA200 to get BT calls directly to my HA’s through the Phone Clip+ - then I wouldn’t have to go pick up the phone but as it is, with my Quattro’s and the Panasonic cordless, I hear voices on the other end GREAT! So it’s more idle curiosity (and laziness about going to the phone) that motivate me, rather than dire necessity.

P.S. The point of turning my $1,000 Galaxy Note 8 off when I’m home is just to save its “irreplaceable” battery. No sense having it on just to answer the phone when we have lots of good phones all over the house and I don’t have to carry a cell around with me to answer the phone. I like using our “landline” for business calls, too, that either my wife or I could deal with and we avoid using each other’s cells for that sort of thing.

Actually, for a home landline, the much cheaper option is a Panasonic phone with Link to Cell. It does one of two things. You can pair your cell phone to the Panasonic base, and take or make cell calls on the wireless Panasonic handsets. Or you can pair your Phone Clip+ to the Panasonic base and take landline calls on your hearing aid. I have that and it actually works pretty well. The limitation is that you are connected to the base so your range is limited to 30 feet from the base.

As an alternative, I switched from RIC to InTheEar so that I could just hold the phone to my ear. Landline, cell, whatever. I gave up on streaming. YMMV.

Thanks for the Panasonic Link to Cell tip, Don. Sounds like it could be pretty useful if one could answer the home phone line either with one’s cell phone or one’s HA’s (through a Phone Clip+ in my case) - I’ll have to look up how many Bluetooth pairings a Panasonic with Link to Cell capability supports since my wife might like to answer the home phone with her cell, too - if I’m out, say shopping, and want a consult on what to buy, it’s always a guessing game as to whether she’s going to be closer to her cell or the home phone so a Panasonic with Link to Cell might solve that conundrum as well as give me, too, expanded choices on how to answer the home phone myself. Too bad the Link to Cell is just in the base unit and not in every handset - that would help overcome the 30-ft distance limit.

Actually it is the other way around. You can answer a cell call with the Panasonic handsets. So, you could answer landline or cell calls with the handsets. You can’t answer landline calls with your cell phone.

Or, instead of answering cell calls with the handset, you can use the Panasonic Bluetooth connection to answer landline calls with your hearing aids. The Panasonic can do one Bluetooth function only, not both functions at the same time.

I’m sorry if I misstated that before.

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No problem! Thanks for the clarification. I think the most important thing about our next (“landline”) home phone will be to get a set-up where we have caller ID and ability to report SPAM and block numbers in the future. One advantage when I forward our AT&T wireless home phone to my cell phone is I can do that, even for numbers placed originally to our home # but with the Panasonic cordless handsets hooked up as “slaves” to the AT&T cellular home phone device, although the number calling appears on our handsets, we get no SPAM warning and no capacity (without mucking around to klutzy software built-into the handsets) to report or block the calling number.

I guess that’s the thing about answering a call with one’s HA’s. So HA’s of the future needed to be coupled with “Google Glasses” of the future so you can not only hear and answer an incoming ring-ring but in your heads-up display, see if it’s known or suspected SPAM or even a contact that you know.

Almost all the calls we get on our landline these days, except when we’re engaged in being serviced by some business we deal with, are SPAM calls, many of them robocalls. We’re on the FTC Do-Not-Call list, etc. And the AT&T device we have by itself offers no call screening facility. It’s just a box to hook a telephone handset to.

Work are buying me an Avaya phone with Bluetooth capability.

Avaya 9641

I should be able to connect my ConnectClip and then answer as well as make calls. Will see very soon!

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I’m kind of late to this thread - my solution has been to forward all work calls to my cell phone when In the office. Since cell service is spotty this is not a great solution.

ToriNi - did the 9641 work for you?

I have a Cisco 8851 phone. It has bluetooth. For non-bluetooth phones the Plantronics MDA200 (or MDA220) with the bluetooth dongle works really well.