Hearlink 9050 Bluetooth LE Audio issues

I’m wondering whether I’m the only one. This is a short list of some of the stuff that was happening to me last night and this morning. Pixel 8 Pro.

Aids would not disconnect from phone. At least, they would reconnect immediately. This would only happen with LE Audio switched on.

Button controls on the aids were controlling streaming volume, not the volume of ambient sounds. This morning they were simultaneously controlling the volume on my phone and the laptop (LE Audio enabled) that I bought my son in the black friday sales. That’s actually an impressive trick but I don’t see the use case.

Streaming from the laptop was silent even though the aids were shown as being connected and the current output device in settings (LE Audio streaming does work on the laptop when the stars are in alignment) and the video was playing.

This one has happened a few times now: One of other of the aids loses connectivity to the app even though the aids are shown as connected in Bluetooth settings and streaming works.

I haven’t been systematic in documenting this stuff, though I’ll start as of now. Anyway, just a prelminary reach out to 9050 owners who are using LE Audio. How’s your experience been?

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Ok. It looks like controlling streaming volume with the hearing aid buttons might be intended behaviour. Embarrassing if I’m the only one who didn’t know this! If not streaming the buttons control mic gain.

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So one thing every HA buyer needs to remember to ask the fitter is:

What are my options for buttons?

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Good point I am left-handed and the volume was put on the right aid, I changed that DIY in the fitting software

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Controlling streaming volume with buttons is behaviour specific to LE Audio. If you change back to ASHA it doesn’t work. Interesting that I can change the volume on the laptop using the buttons on the aid or the volume controls on my phone. The laptop has its own volume controls but it could be a useful feature for controlling the volume on devices without their own volume control or that might be out of reach (tv streamer?). It feels a bit like an ecosystem under construction.

The aids are definitely holding on to their connections. I can’t simply disconnect them from either the phone or the laptop. They also don’t play well with either device after they’ve been streaming from the other device. Further investigation required but I’ve had to turn off and restart the aids to enable playback on the new device. Turning off Bluetooth on the relinquishing device doesn’t seem to help.

Those who expect to be able to stream from their laptop and take a call on their phone when one comes through might be disappointed. I haven’t tried that specific scenario however.

I have had many of these same issues with the 9050 and Pixel 7a. I have found the same issue that they do not want to disconnect. If I disconnect from the bluetooth menu they briefly disconnect then immediately reconnect. My current work around to disconnect is to turn bluetooth off on the phone, or if I want to connect to earbuds instead of the hearing aids, to power off the hearing aids.

Have had the same issue as you with one or the other aid saying it isn’t connected in the app, but does stream just fine despite that. Turning bluetooth on and off sometimes works to fix it, but otherwise rebooting the phone solves this issue for me.

I haven’t use them much for phone calls as while I can hear just fine, the person I am talking say my voice is very garbled and hard to hear and understand. Kind of disappointing.

I have not yet been able to connect to a computer with the 9050’s I purchased the FlairMesh FlooGoo FMA120 but was not able to get it to work. Contacted the company - below is my note and their reply:

----------my email to them -----------------
Hello,
Just purchased the FMA120 usb dongle and am having issues pairing with my Philips Hearlink 9050 hearing aid. I plug in the FMA120 and turn the hearing aids on which puts them in pairing mode, but no devices show up in the app. Have the latest firmware on the Hearlink 9050 as well as the FMA120 (1.0.5).

The Philips Hearlink 9050 is LE Audio compatible and is a sister to the Oticon Intent hearing aid.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated.

------------their reply------------------------
Thank you for choosing our product. This is a known issue, and we’re
working with other Oticon customers to enhance the firmware to address
it. I’ll email you once the update is confirmed.
----------------------_--------------------------

This was back in mid September. They responded very quickly to my email, but I haven’t heard anything new since.

An update to my Pixel 7a last week took away the “developer option” for the LE audio switch and so I am back on the ASHA protocol.

For me the cons are: the connection isn’t quite strong (cuts out more if I am farther away or walking with the phone in my pocket) and “hands free” no longer works.

The pros: I can actually disconnect from the bluetooth menu without having to turn bluetooth off completely on the phone. Calls actually work better as people can hear me thru the phone mic vs with LE audio uses the hearing aid mic which was garbled for other the people on the other end of the connection.

I am hoping Google reintroduce LE Audio to the Pixel 7a again soon (and that they get some of the bugs worked out)

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That is truly sad to hear. LE Audio has been working pretty darn well of late with my Jabras and Galaxy S23 Ultra. I hope Samsung does not pull the plug also. I really appreciate the hands free calling and others have not been reporting my voice as being garbled at all.

I have 9050s and Google Pixel 8. I have not tried to connect to laptop as I suspect it would cause issues- like you are experiencing. I have had issues in the aids interfering with another Bluetooth use that I rely on for my work - I am a Realtor and I have trouble using the bluetooth lockboxes. The aids seem to interfere. I have turned them off to use the lockbox but they do go right back on - very hard to disconnect them and get a window to use this other Bluetooth device. And when on the phone, I have noticed that if it is very difficult to get a word in and often the other person cannot hear when I start speaking, If the other person is speaking I think the mics block out my voice responding- so they just keep speaking and don’t hear me trying to talk.

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