MacOS Sonoma and Hearing Aids (MFi)

Apple has just announced the new Mac OS (Sonoma). I read elsewhere that with this new OS it would be possible to connect MFi capable hearing aids to selected Macs. Nothing was mentioned about it at today’s conference though. I am going to enlist in the beta test program as soon as possible and report here whether and (hopefully) how well it works.

Edit: The press release does mention the new feature:

For customers with hearing disabilities, Made for iPhone hearing devices can connect to their Mac for calls and media consumption

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Thank you, I’m eager to see your update on this here. Fingers crossed!

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It seems public beta is expected to be released in July. A few more weeks to go.

This new MFi capability in MacOS will be restricted to Macs with any flavor M2 processor or the M1 Pro or Max. Macs with the original plain M1 processor or an Intel processor will not support this feature. Thankfully I have a M1 Max MacbookPro, so I’m looking forward to this feature.

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I installed it and it is buggy af, it won’t actually connect to HA or CI or both. You can adjust the setting/change program but can’t stream anything to it…

I have the Resound omnia and N8 siound processor…

Running m2 pro macbook pro and running the beta buiild 23A5257q

Thanks for sharing @ssa. Please keep us posted.

I always thought MFI hearing aids would connect to Apple computers. But now I have two Intel iMac and MFI Oticon Xceeds, and I’m frustrated. And it is very stupid solution when MFI cannot work with iMac and even Apple Watch! After the appearance of that “ski mask” I’m absolutely disappointed by Apple!

See Note 3 at the bottom of this Link

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I tried it briefly and it wouldn’t connect to the hearing aids directly. It would show the hearing aids if they were connected to my iphone. It would allow volume and program adjustments but no streaming. When i forgot the hearing aids from my iphone, the hearing aids still showed connected to my mac, but the volume and program adjustments didn’t work. It appears it is routing the requests through the iphone at this point in time. Probably a temporary way of doing things.

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I’m using the developer beta build 23A5257q and it’s not working with my N7 implants. The name of my implants would show up briefly sometimes and then disappear. But most of the time, it doesn’t even detect my implants. Hopefully, the next beta build will fix some of the issues.

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Thanks for testing and sharing @hxk1633, @mindsil, and @ssa. Hopefully, this issue will be sorted out before the public beta release.

xceed do connect to Apple Watch

No, it is a connection to iPhone shown on Watch.

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There was an update yesterday, I believe. Has Apple fixed the ability to connect MFI hearing devices?

Where do you see the update?

I think there was no update. Latest version :14.0

So I have MacBook Air M2 and cochlear implant from MEDEL (Sonnet 2). I tried to connect Sonnet2 to MacBook. It connected successfully with AudioKey2, but CI is not showing in accessibility–>hearing aids. So I can only change programs and volume via AudioKey2. Streaming is not working.
I tried to delete CI from MacBook and install it again. After removing it - CI is showing in Audio Device and it’s impossible to delete (already tried in MIDI or HAL folder). Soo…. I can’t install it again. Ugh

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When is it supposed to be released for the public not part of the beta?

There is going to be a public beta release next month. The final version is scheduled to be released this fall.

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i just got notification - there is new update!

A new beta update for Mac OS Sonoma released today, but I’m still not able to connect my N7 implants. This is not even a known issue under “Accessibility” in the release notes. I’m not even sure if Apple is prioritizing this right now…