Oticon needed to refresh the App. Adding Remote Care is the refresh.
The look is clean and uncluttered with good, easy to understand explanations of how the pieces work, especially for a new user.
I appreciate the simple adjustments the Oticon Apps allow me to make for changing listening environments. I also use the iPhone Control Panel.
Many of us do not have all the accessories you have and the Apps are helpful - thank goodness.
That is what the Oticon Companion app has done it has the remote care built into it.
And he ON app will be phased out.
We need better control of the EQ of the aids when streaming, and preferably to to the L/R separately if we want.
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I guess I am lucky or really deaf the equalizer doesn’t help me at all.
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Another new feature of the Companion App is a Remote Microphone.
I tried it out and I am very impressed so far. Clear, concise speech streamed to my aids while the person speaking was walking around in other rooms. I use Live Listen (iPhone) and this Remote Mic is 100 times better. I use Live Listen often on shared calls on speaker phone. Anxious to try the Remote mic in the car as a passenger and for Doctor visits. Live Listen has not worked well in those areas.
What physical device contains the actual microphone used by the “remote mic” feature?
I theorize that they use data from hearing fitness to find out which 12 million sound scenes to record.
by knowing which are the most common environment they could built the More sound scenes
this is why I think it was used in the first place
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Installed Da Companion app on android Pixel phone.
Looks clean, BUT!!
It does NOT run in the background like the ON app, so useless as a remote!
Maybe it’s still beta?
Will uninstall, and add On App again.
As our resident “Crank” Spud would say “Can’t they do anything right?”
Either the iPhone or iPad depending on what you have the app on, or it can be the connect clip or possibly the EduMic
@flashb1024: Mmmm, 
Flash , I probably would have phrased it : Can they do nothing right?
[My dearly beloved Godmother, Dorothy, owned a nifty crank-operated Spud peeler!]
See, that’s the difference between American English & Canadian English, eh?
[My dearly beloved Grandmother, Sophie, owned a nifty battery operated Potatoe peeler!]
It’s interesting that the Companion is a new app and not an upgrade to the old one which indicates a rewrite…. And they released with important features missing…. Makes me wonder if their product manager really understands their user base…
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@Mago → First off, I assume that you meant the Companion app, not the Champion app like you said, unless there’s a play of word in there that perhaps I missed? Anyway, the Remote Mic has always been a feature of the ConnectClip device, even back in the days of the OPN and OPN S and surely the More. When you’re connected to the ConnectClip and the ConnectClip is connected to a standard Bluetooth device, the Oticon HAs are automatically assigned an add-on program you can go to to activate the ConnectClip’s Remote Mic feature. It basically uses the built-in mic from the ConnectClip to pick up the nearby sounds around it then stream it to your HAs.
Then there’s also an EduMic, which is a different device geared more specifically for teachers to use with hard of hearing children in a classroom environment.
Having said all that above, can you (@Mago) elaborate on how this new Remote Microphone software feature on the new Companion app different or more special/better than the current use model for the ConnectClip Remote Mic? Does it use a different device for this new software feature in Companion, or does it still use the ConnectClip Remote Mic like before? Thanks.
Using the iPhone as a remote mic, used to be a feature I remember using it
when the Open (non S) 2017 ish?
It was also a feature for the Inium instruments, using the app and the streamer
*Simple mistake I have corrected-*Thank you for pointing it out. No play on words so many use on this forum that takes away from otherwise informative posts.
I cannot elaborate further or compare as I do not have Connect Clip or Remote mic/edu other than to say I used the mic feature on the App on my iPhone to test the Remote Mic and it worked as I described. No Oticon accessory was required. Since the accessories devices (Connect clip and Remote Mic) are Extra expenses in Private Hearing Aid purchases (not VA for example) it is nice the function is now built into the Companion App and hopefully will work and those of us without those accessories will benefit.
Yeah, that’s the Live Listen feature on the iPhone. It’s an iPhone specific feature that works with not just hearing aids connected to iPhone, but with Airpods or other Bluetooth headphones that can be connected to the iPhone. So it’s not just a feature for the Oticon OPN back in 2017 only, it should for any Oticon hearing aids through the More (and now Real), and in fact anything other MFI hearing aid brand/model as well, not just limited to the Oticon HAs.
I believe @Mago did mention this and said that the new Remote Microphone in the Companion app is much better than the iPhone Live Listen, even though it uses the mic on the iPhone just the same, apparently, according to @Mago .
There is a microphone icon on the ON App for the More, I just tested it again and I found it a bit echoey. This is different then Live Listen, an MFi function on the iPhone. I do not recall if this ON App microphone feature/icon is available for the OPN.
My test last evening using the new Companion App was a very little 10 minute test. Hopefully others will test it out and report back and it will be a good substitute for the Connect Clip and or Remote Mic.
I downloaded the Companion App yesterday to my iPhone and connected to some More 3s to see what is up:
- In the ON app the home tab has those items for IFTTT, HearingFitness, and stuff like that. I only mention those items during fittings in order to tell patients what NOT to worry about, so I’m glad those have been trimmed off.
- Remote Microphone/Live Listen and MoreSound Booster (SpeechBooster) are still there. I am bothered that it takes two clicks to turn them on and off, though.
- To cycle through programs you need to click through rather than the pleasing swipe you could do with ON.
- Having RemoteCare integrated with Companion is huge, as that is a feature common on most other manufacturers’ apps.
All in all, it seems like the necessary functionality of the ON is maintained in Companion, but other items were adjusted unnecessarily. However, the addition of RemoteCare is big in my opinion.
You don’t have to click through the programs, click the on the one in use then select the option me you want to use.
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