Question:
Does the in ear mic act as a microphone for phone calls?
Background:
I am on the phone 4+ hours a day. And I just gained bluetooth capability. One of the big things I struggling with is the microphone. When on a call my Samsung Note20 Ultra uses the handset microphone. And not in speakerphone mode, as a traditional phone mic.
Being used to Bluetooth headphone, I find myself walking away or placing the phone in my pocket, which makes me inaudible to the caller.
As of now Android devices with hearing aids compatibility doesn’t have the compatibility to use the hearing aids microphones for hands free capability. But Phonak aids with classic Bluetooth will work as hands free with Android. And most hearing aids with MFI, on iPhones do I believe have hands free capability.
What is the oldest model Phonak that supports M&RIE?
None of the Phonak hearing aids support M&RIE. Microphone & Receiver in the Ear.
Receiver = Speaker
Don’t get confused by M&RIE and hands free phone calls.
The M&RIE receiver (microphone and receiver in the ear) is only optional available for GN ReSound One RIE, ReSound OMNIA RIE and the new ReSound Nexia RIE models (and latest Cosco Jabra Models)
ReSound propretary M&RIE Technology – offer an additional unique microphone design utilizing a microphone in the receiver (in ear speaker) in addition to the standard two microphones on the hearing aid behind the ear. This have nothing to do with hands free phone
A unique feature found in both OMNIA and ReSound One RIE models is the Microphone & Receiver-in-Ear (M&RIE) receiver ( optional ). And by choosing an M&RIE receiver this combines the two traditional hearing aid microphones with an extra third microphone that sits in the ear to collect sounds. M&RIE is consistent with ReSound’s “Organic Hearing” philosophy for providing natural sound by placing an additional microphone at the entry-point of the ear canal.
Normaly two microphones on the hearing aids are located in the hearing aids housing behind the ear.
The Phonak hearing aids Marvel , Paradise , Lumity ( RIC and BTE aids ) support fully hands free phone calls with all Android and iPhone.
Thank you. Do any resound models support fully hands free?
You did not mention what hearing aid models you are using with your Samsung Note20 Ultra phone.
Here is a link to the ReSound website where you can find information about phone compatibilty
https://www.resound.com/en-us/help/compatibility
Here is an older article (from 2018) about truly hands-free calling without additional accessory.
Quote from reply of this article
Several brands stream the calls directly to your hearing devices, among them Signia, Oticon, ReSound, & Starkey. So hearing the other party is simple. For them to hear you, however, you either have to hold the phone near your mouth or, put the phone upside down in the shirt pocket or, put the phone in a lanyard phone case and hang this around your neck or, put the phone up in your visor while driving. So that people on the phone can hear you well.
Since i do not own a ReSound One/Omnia hearing aid, i do not know if a ReSound model support fully hands free with android phones.
Maybe other members can chime in, to give you an answer for this question.
With Jabra Pro 10s (Apparently equivalent to the ReSound Omnia) and a Samsung S20 5G (not on compatibility list), as of last February, my HA microphones were used for phone calls. IIRC, the doc said the accessory was needed, but it wasn’t.
Because the Android app didn’t work well for me, I switched to an iphone SE, so I don’t know the current status, but I doubt they took the feature away.
Sorry, I thought I had listed my hearing aid model. ReSound Quattro. Specifically, re561-dsrw