I built a hearing aid mic streaming app — because I needed it

Hearing Loss Apps
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I’m hard of hearing. In classrooms and meetings, hearing aid users like me often rely on a separate device called a “table mic” — a little streamer that sits on the desk, picks up sound, and sends it to our hearing aids.

When mine broke (and I saw the price to replace it), I had a simple thought:

Why can’t my phone just do that?

So I built it.

Hark is a minimal Android app that turns your phone into a live mic and streams the sound directly to your hearing aid. No extra device. No pairing dongle. Just one button.

It runs on any Android phone with Bluetooth. For newer hearing aids that support ASHA (Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids), it works seamlessly. If I can develop an interest in this idea, I am more than excited to develop for iOS, iPadOS, MacOS… I will just have to get my hands on a MacBook! :laughing:

EDIT: I’ve been made aware of Apple’s Live Listen for MFi hearing aids. While my app (currently Android-only) imitates that core function, Android doesn’t offer a built-in equivalent. When I eventually bring Hark to Apple devices, my goal is to expand beyond Live Listen — with added features and more user control.

It’s not fancy. It’s ~100 lines of Kotlin. But it solves a real problem — for me, and hopefully others too.

Would love feedback from anyone in the hearing aid communities. I’m 18 and still learning — but this works, and I’m proud of it. You can access it via GitHub: GitHub - bellic-code/hark-app: Android hearing aid streaming app

Please leave any comments and suggestions on this post. I will try to respond and interact when I get a chance. I appreciate any comments, as they all make a better app!

Even if you don’t feel like commenting, please upvote to show support. I feel like that is a good measure to show if this is a demanded product or not.

Cheers,
Thivyan.

Built by me. Free to use. Please don’t steal it.
If you want to collaborate, build on it, or contribute — reach out first.
This isn’t open-source (yet), but I’m open to good intentions.

“Hearing aid tech should be accessible — not locked behind overpriced accessories.”

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Thanks so much for this. I installed the app on my Motorola phone and tested it for streaming to my Infinio Spheres. I placed my phone near to my wife and went into a different room. I could hear her perfectly. However, there was a slight echo when I was close to the phone but I guess the idea of the app is that you are some distance from the phone. I wonder if this would work with a TV? Will test and feed back. But hey, great work!

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Thank you so much for the feedback. Yes the idea is that you wouldn’t be so close. Or if you are, youre probably in a noisy environment where you couldn’t hear anyway. The delay or lag you may experience is latency, which I will work on in some later version.

This was just a prototype and it took off much better than I expected (also on Reddit). So I actually need to work on it, perhaps later on. Version 0.2.0 should allow you to close the app. It will take a while since, again, I am trying to figure this whole thing out :rofl:

Thank you for your feedback again :slight_smile:

Thivyan.

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Massively cool. Thanks for posting this. Great to see other Android Studio developers here. I can confirm that it works on Pixel 5A running Lineage 22.1 with no apparent problems. It would be great if you put this on Google Play.

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Development has switched to .NET for easier platform expansion :rofl:

I will put on Google play once I can get it to look a bit more… pretty and i can get it to work in the background.

I am enthusiastic but I need to learn a bit more first :crazy_face:

Thivyan.

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Hi Thivyan, this is so useful - thank you! I spent a while last year experimenting with connecting my hearing aids to external bluetooth microphones via my phone, but the latency was really bad and I gave up. Your app seems to have much less latency (slightly less than a second, which makes sense since it’s only one bluetooth connection instead of two) and seems so much more useful and so much cheaper than a proprietary external mic.

I’ve tried out the app with Phonaks (so standard bluetooth, not LE) and the latency is noticeable if I’m close enough to hear the source. That’s not a huge bother since I can play around with input levels to cut out any amplification from the hearing aid microphone.

It works well on my Samsung Galaxy running LineageOS. The only thing is that when the screen times out your app stops transmitting. I guess I can just stop the screen from timing out, but leaving the phone unlocked on a lectern or a table in a room full of strangers is a potential security concern.

I will keep an eye out for any updates and try them out.

Thanks again for the app!

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Thanks! :heart:

Since this is a proof of concept, it was really only designed to do that one purpose: record and end access to the microphone. Now I’m debating what platform to build on, what tools to use and most of all, what to learn.

This is something really cool and I hope I will be able to do more that just this – I want to enter the industry with my hearing problem and an intent to play around, quite literally, allowing people to benefit from what is pure fun for me.

If you have any opinions, especially what platform to build for (Android and/or iOS) please do let me know!

Thanks for trying out the software. I’m hoping to have my next release out in June. Sorry for the long delay, its just that I have my mid year exams coming up. But I’m glad people are still giving me feedback about my app!

Thivyan.

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Seeing as iOS ↔ MFI already has this functionality built in it would benefit the most people if you developed the Android app first. As you say in your first post, there are possibilities to develop the Apple functionality further but right now there’s nothing convincing for Android users.

Good luck in your mid-year exams. I look forward to seeing what you come up with after June :slight_smile:

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Yup. I’ll focus on Android exclusively now. I dont have access to (m)any Apple devices nor the expensive monetary startup or an awareness of the restrictiveness.

Also given Android has no native solution, I think I will get more reception here. And its easier to develop and work with.

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Hi, thanks for building this for the Android phone users.
It may be useful for you to know that Live Listen on iPhones is frustrating to me as an iPhone user. This is because Apple has not enabled the feature Voice Isolation for Live Listen - this feature is available to people making ordinary phone calls using their iPhone (see Mic Mode for iPhones)
The feature enhances the caller’s voice so it is clearer to the person they are calling.
So hopefully your app has tone controls (Bass/Middle/Treble) to help finetune the sounds that the microphone generates.

Another idea to consider is that I use my iPhone as a remote ‘table microphone’ but it does not work very well. You may look at how your app could be made to emulate a boundary microphone = table talk microphone - very useful when listening to a group meeting in a cafe where I put the iPhone on the table in the centre of the group.

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I am confused because the app is meant to be a table microphone replacement? Like the Oticon ConnectClip. :rofl:

Also I will keep this in mind for the long run. For now I only intend to develop for Android (trying to not jump the gun!) and may scale or get partners or funding if it really does grow into something.

And yes I do plan for the app to have bass, treble, mid, etc. control (not right now) at some point.

Thivyan.

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Version 0.2.0 is out. Check it out here: Release v0.2.0 · bellic-code/hark-app · GitHub

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Apologies as my statement above confused you. What I was trying to say was that people will often attempt to use their cellphone as a boundary microphone that then feeds sound into your app. There may be behaviours that you can program into your app that enhances voice clarity under this use case.
Regards

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Thank you for the wonderful Apps! Play hard and study hard!.

As there are many types of hearing loss in the world, so it is hard to satisfies everyone. I think HA’s company sell a lot of their aids in the mild to moderate hearing loss range. Some work better with Iphone and some better with Android phones.

Buying an assisted hearing device (AHD) such as ConnectClip or Roger can be very expensive. The internal Li-Polymer battery will run down in a few years. As technology is moving very fast, these AHD is slowly becoming the dinosaur. Auracast is coming. Take a look at FlooGoo. (Company)

ConnectClip (CC) is simple as compare to Roger On. Roger On has 4 microphones to pick up the sound around the table or meeting room. I think Android phone do not have that many microphones. Not sure whether HA companies will stop future production due the Auracast connecting devices.

You can also add loudness button, sound equilibrium (5-8 frequencies). word caption (sound and words on phone screen), AI to suppress the surrounding noise & etc etc in the future updates.

Regards.

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Thanks! :heart:

Please let me know if you’d be willing to try the trial before it gets released to the Play Store. I need testers, as it is part of the requirements. If so, please send an email to thivyanstudios@gmail.com.

This is open to anyone else reading this message too :smiley:

Thivyan.

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