Phonak P90-R: puzzled by program list

Hearing Aids
#1

I am several weeks into a trial of the Phonak P90-R, and have a question concerning the app (myPhonak 4.0.3, on android, Samsung Galaxy S9+ to be precise).
I open the app and tap the three horizontal bars top left, then My Hearing Aids, then Programs — a long list of programs, many repeated, appears. A screen shot of the first screenful is attached.

All of these ‘programs’ have a name, with “Fitted” written underneath, except for the last three (reached by scrolling down), which are the presets Restaurant, Music, TV, labeled “App preset” in green.

Question: what do all these “fitted” programs represent, I am certain that none of them were created in my audiologist appointments.

If I tap any of these, I can edit the name to anything I fancy, but that is all.

And while I have your attention, here is another puzzle: my hearing aid switches from its default “Autosense OS 4.0” to “Bluetooth streaming + mic 2” at random moments, when there is no bluetooth around at all. Is there an explanation for that behaviour? (No explanation from the audiologist I consulted.)

Thanks for any help.

Screenshot_20210803-083602_myPhonak
Screenshot_20210803-083602_myPhonak1080×2220 232 KB

#2

This screen of myphonak shows all of the programs that are available

Fitted programs are part of the default hearing aid program structure. Some of the programs you’ll never use unless you have a particular accessory but they need to be there in case you do use them.

Your second question is related to something on the phone is generating audio, whether it be an app, system process or notification. Sometimes apps activate Bluetooth streaming when media is available even if you aren’t playing any audio from that media (for example a video in social media app feed). If it happens persistently consider shutting all apps in the background or alternatively set phone to mute notifications.

#3

Your Bluetooth is on your phone and must always be turned on in order for the app to work. Sometimes when your doing a search like you tube it may start streaming automatically even if you have the volume turned down. All those different programs you see listed are incorporate into your priority program. The main program on your hearing aid. Maybe they can be tweaked on the app. I don’t know. Any tweaking I need done I have my audi do on his computer. To be honest with you your audiologist should have explained all of this and I’d be kind of annoyed if he didn’t considering how much the damn things cost. That’s not a criticism of you. Phonak only has one app. He should be able to explain this gs to you. In theory the main program on you hearing aid will switch from I setting to another as needed. So you don’t have to manually change programs

#4

Mine does the same with my iPhone XR. I only connect it when I stream radio while walking the dog. Very occasionally I’ll stream from computer. Otherwise I leave it permanently disconnected.

#5

Thank you for the comments. @bigaltavista @hass5744 @KeithL

  1. So the list of program names appears to be a collection of programs that the app might have to invoke in a variety of conditions beyond the control of the user. Fair enough. One might question the wisdom of naming distinct programs by the same name — but I am not going to question the wisdom of Phonak…

  2. The ‘random’ switching from AutoSense to Bluetooth… is explained by internal ruminations of the phone, a diagnosis which is almost impossible to prove or disprove, considering the complexity of these marvels of technology that are the cell phones. The P90-R’s I had during the first 3 weeks of my trial (at which time they failed), did not show any of that behaviour, the trouble started with this second lot. We have turned off all conceivable ‘notifications’. So my alternative hypothesis would be “faulty HA” (which of course is totally impossible for me to prove). Perhaps I should mention that I do not keep the app open, watching for the program to switch, rather playing at times with the new shiny toy (and if I suspect that the sound has changed), and then finding that I might no longer be in AutoSense. The only streaming that happens is watching TV news.

Meanwhile I am happy to report that there was no such occurrence over the last two days (for no apparent reason). My next audi appointment is in about a fortnight, and we will have a Phonak representative present. Fingers crossed.

Thanks again for your combined efforts.
Paul

#6

After reading your post again, as it is the second Bluetooth program (Bluetooth streaming +mic 2) it could actually be another device you’ve previously paired the hearing aids to which is triggering this program and not your main phone (which would activate Bluetooth streaming + mic 1) which the app is installed onto

As it is another device entirely, this could account for the random nature.

Have a think as to whether you have paired the P90s to anything else and disconnect/unpair from it if necessary.

Al

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#7

I had a similar issue with my KS10s. I had paired them to my phone, but occasionally the HAs seemed to stop, but then 20 seconds later start up again. Or, if I were streaming music from my phone, the music would randomly stop.

After this happened several times, I found that AutoSense had switched to Bluetooth streaming + mic2. It turns out my Mac was sending notifications to the HAs and then stayed connected for 20-30 seconds. To resolve the randomness, I updated the notifications preferences on my Mac and turned off sound notifications versus unpairing the Mac from the HAs.

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#8

Thanks to your insights @bigaltavista and @Jeepster I may have found the solution to my problem.

My hearing aids are paired with a Sennheiser BT-T100 bluetooth TV audio transmitter which I had set up long ago for use with headphones. Now I paired this with the P90-R and things were generally working well for better listening to the TV news. When I did not want to have my wife’s TV programs streamed into my ears, I turned bluetooth off by switching the T100 input from Toslink to the unused analog line. Very simple, but it seems that the fact that the T100 was still powered up created some spurious bluetooth signal, which on rare occasions threw the P90-R’s program off AutoSense and to “Bluetooth streaming + mic 2”.

I have now changed my practice, and when I do not require streamed audio from the TV, I power the T100 down. That has now worked fine for a couple of days, and long may it remain like that.

I do not understand why the problem did not manifest itself in the first 3 weeks of my trial (when I had a different set of P90-Rs - they developed a fault), under identical circumstances. However, if the present setup proves stable, I don’t really need to understand that.

I am grateful for the help of this community.
Paul