Oticon Users: How Do You Like The ON App?

Hearing Aids
#1

I’ve been using the app for a couple of weeks now. I like that I can easily change programs and volume level using my iPhone SE, and the equalizer is of some use to me when I’m listening to music.

On the negative side, the Hearing Fitness feature is not very helpful since it only works when the aids are connected. Since the app seems to drop its connection to my devices several times a day, the record of my use time is regularly understated.

I’ve been busy today, and didn’t realize that my hearing aids had been disconnected for hours: is it merely a coincidence that my battery charge is much higher than usual for this time .

What are your impressions of this app?

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#2

For me it is useful and also a pain. I use it to be able to use more than 1 TV adapters. I also use the simple equalizer. And also to adjust the tinnitus sounds. The pain is the connective can be slow and even drop. I also have the Apple watch and the app on the watch is helpful but very limited. I can’t adjust the equalizer or the tinnitus or select the different TV adapters.

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#3

I almost never use my ON app. The EQ feature for when streaming is only for the OPN S and More so it doesn’t work on my OPN, but even if it does, I wouldn’t use it anyway because I wouldn’t want to color my music more than the High value I already have set in Genie 2 for the Power Bass setting in the iPhone, TV Adapter and ConnectClip setting for streaming.

All the other program changes and volume changes can be done on my iPhone Hearing Aids setting page already, so the ON app is redundant in this respect. But I’d rather just use my hard buttons to change my programs or volume or mute instead. Much more direct and immediate without having to grab the iPhone then wake it up, get in, open up the app, wait for it to connect with the hearing aids -> at least 4 extra steps before I can do the same thing I can with the hard buttons.

And yes, not to count the drain on the batteries when staying connected to the ON app, which I can do without.

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#4

Thanks for this information, @Volusiano. Can you tell me where to find the Power Bass setting on my iPhone, please?

#5

It’s not on your iPhone. This has to be programmed by your audi in the Genie 2 software. See the bottom of the screenshot below for the iPhone menu. The same setting is also available in the TV Adapter and ConnectClip menus as well.

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#6

:astonished:Oh WOW! Thanks for the information, once more! I’m going to have to get a separate little notebook in which to record my questions, as well as these pointers!

I’m very confident in my new audiologist, so my main challenge as an OldCodger®️ will be to REMEMBER all this useful stuff.

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#7

What do is have a health journal, within my normal daily journal, and I keep questions I have for my doctors and Audiologist. I have logged what has been good and bad along with my wishlist. Also about a week before my Audiologist appointment I email my Audiologist with things I want to ask, and would like changed along with my praise list.

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#8

Great idea! I have such a log for our 5 cats (4 rescues) and 2 Newfoundland dogs, but not for myself ! :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

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#9

Not claiming anything about ReSound HA’s relative to Oticon but perhaps the Oticon results simply reflect the amount of effort Oticon put into the iPhone and Apple Watch apps. Perhaps Oticon figures a lot of its users are like Volusiano and just prefer to use the buttons. But the ReSound app is a lot more useful than the iOS Hearing Devices settings. The app is very responsive and you can almost run the full app on the Apple Watch, too. The sound enhancer fine tuning features with equalizer, noise and wind reduction, directionality settings, bog down performance on the Watch and ReSound gives you the options just to go with essentially the Hearing Devices settings on the Watch but with a better interface. But since in the iPhone and the Watch interface you have a menu to switch between 4 basic programs and up to three connected TV streamer or remote microphone devices, it’s a lot faster to use some version of the ReSound app than cycling thru programs and listening to confirmation tones in your ear. Again, no invidious comparison intended but Oticon is one of the very best HA firms, I’m sure if it put its mind to it, it could probably come up with an improved app for both iPhone and Apple Watch. Main idea is that both iPhone and Apple Watch are VERY responsive when it comes to controlling and interfacing with HA’s, at least compared to my Android experience.

#10

Lots of people judge the performance of the hearing aids by how robust their phone app is. Therefore some people look down on the Oticon ON app, asking why it’s so rudimentary without giving users enough control.

What they don’t understand is that the Oticon OPN/S/More are designed to be quite automatic inherently already. The whole idea is that you just put on your hearing aids and it does all the adjustments for you as you transition between simple and complex environments, so well in fact that you really don’t need to fiddle much with it to turn on/off noise reduction, directionality, speech focus, etc. With the Oticon OPN/S/More, “less is more” when it comes to adjustability -> the hearing aids already does it for you so you don’t have to do it yourself.

I can just put on my OPN 1 and go pretty all day without having to adjust for anything, even if I transition from the home environment to the car environment to the work environment to the lunch environment. The default program works 95% of the time just about anywhere already, so really the only thing I normally would need to change is to either mute the HAs or adjust the volume and that’s it. So why bother to take out the phone from your pocket, turn it on, find the app, open the app, wait for it to connect, just to adjust the volumes when the buttons are right there?

That’s why I virtually don’t need to use the ON app at all for anything. Not because it’s so limited that I don’t find it useful, but because it’s not even necessary to keep it chocked full of features because the hearing aids already do all the adjustments I need for me.

That should be the ultimate goal -> hassle free listening -> not having to worry about changing this and adjusting that all day long.

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#11

My comment was more about the performance of the iPhone and the Apple Watch. Oticon is one of the very best hearing aids and I’m sure its technology is as good as any. I just meant that inherently the OS of the iPhone and the Apple Watch can give great performance, if one wants to make the substantial investment in optimizing an app for that operating environment. Perhaps for the reasons you cite, Volusiano, or some other, Oticon hasn’t felt the need to take its app further just yet. Phonak had a bad rep for its smartphone app and now My Phonak is regarded as one of the best, so things can always change.

I don’t feel the need to change my HA settings throughout the day but situations do come up - using the Multi Mic with my wife while driving and grocery shopping so I can hear her clearly aisles away in the grocery store, switch between my All-Around program and the music program or the restaurant program or turn on noise suppression to the max and turn down volume when confronted with a very loud annoying or even painful noise (my occlusive fits makes my molds like modest ear plugs). So I do find certain situations where always having ~complete control on my wrist, never having to look for my iPhone, very handy. Maybe that consideration is inconsequential for most people but I like not having to look for my phone, even when it’s nearby, or not having to pull my phone out of my pocket when I want to switch on or off a remote microphone or deal with a sudden loud noise problem.

I would agree having a great hearing aid is more important than exactly how good the smartphone app is that goes with it.

#12

Exactly… however, I was asking about what people’s opinion on the “ON” app is, and neither the iPhone nor Apple Watch.

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#13

Oops! I didn’t realize in an OP’s thread that we’re only allowed to discuss what the OP is interested in. Sorry 'bout that! My comments were more in response to what cvkemp said about connectivity and performance with the iPhone and the Apple Watch, not in response to anything you said.

One funny thing about HA apps no matter where from is they all seem to fare relatively badly compared to many other types of apps for iOS or Android that are often rated much more highly, e.g. 4.4, 4.6, average stars, etc., in app store ratings. It’s been a while since I’ve checked but in the past, it was hard to find a HA smartphone app that even rated close to 4 stars. I wonder if it’s many HA users having paid a bundle for premium HA’s expect a stellar smartphone app to go along with it - or what? - and apparently based on ratings for most HA smartphone apps, users aren’t finding what they expect.

I don’t think that you can divorce an app from the platform that it runs on, even though you might like to. The HA, the smartphone, and the app are a three-legged stool (or a 4-legged table, if you throw in the Apple Watch!). It’s how they interoperate that determines the user satisfaction with the app and maybe how far you can take the app. I wonder if it’s harder to interface some HA brand firmware with MFi than others? Other HA brands have had quite a few years to come around to the MFi standard on the iPhone but since it was originated between ReSound and Apple maybe that has something to do with relative performance, not dropping connections, etc. (although connectivity problems do happen with ReSound devices, too).

I didn’t want take the thread off topic, just to suggest in the three-legged stool view, I would bet it’s the ON app that needs to be improved the most - not that Apple is entirely blameless as shown by iPhone 12 problems, etc.

#14

@jim_lewis:,On what experience are you basing your comments about ON? Have you used it on a day-to-day basis?

What did tou like about the app?

What didn’t work for you?

Sorry, but what you have posted so far read like rants to me … your comments are generating more heat than light, as far as I’m concerned.

And - FWIW - I think it’s just courteous to at least try to address an OPs particular request for insights …

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#15

You might want to check out a previous post of cvkemp:

#16

I’m not going to get into this with you, jim - either here, in public, or by PM.

Besides, I believe you’re taking Chuck’s post out of context anyway.

I suggest that if you want to discuss apps, you maybe start your own topic. I, speaking for myself, am not interested in it.

[And that’s my LAST comment to you on this, sir. This is Doc Abram’s house, and I’m not going to argue with his other guests.]

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#17

@cvkemp and @Volusiano: Based on your observations and my own lacklustre experience using it, I have removed ON from active duty on my iPhone SE 2.

I find that it offers no compensation for the energy it costs to run it.

As @Volusiano said

“Oticon OPN/S/More are designed to be quite automatic inherently already. The whole idea is that you just put on your hearing aids and it does all the adjustments for you as you transition between simple and complex environments, so well in fact that you really don’t need to fiddle much with it to turn on/off noise reduction, directionality, speech focus, etc. With the Oticon OPN/S/More, “less is more” when it comes to adjustability -> the hearing aids already does it for you so you don’t have to do it yourself.”

I concur…

#18

I almost never use it except on occasion to look at battery strength. I may be an old fart, but I haven’t lost the ability to press a button behind my ear to raise/lower volume or change amoung the 3 programs.

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#19

That I is your option, I haven’t noticed that much extra battery usage. And like I said the ON for me is a love dislike issue. I cannot be without it, but I don’t use it all the time.

#20

Chuck - doesn’t any app that connects via Bluetooth and is always running in the background use more battery power than apps that don’t use Bluetooth?

1 Like