![]() ![]() We talk about these streamers below.įollowing are Bluetooth solutions from the top hearing aid brands. The bottom line is you should talk with your hearing provider about the wireless connectivity features that are important to you prior to purchasing any devices.Īnd a word of caution: Some hearing aid manufacturers promote “Bluetooth compatibility,” but they require an intermediate streamer to receive and retransmit Bluetooth audio to their hearing aids from all Bluetooth devices. So knowing the basics about MFi, ASHA, and Sonova’s MFA can help.īecause connectivity is a sought-after feature in hearing aids, this technology is improving very quickly. Bluetooth- and smartphone-compatible hearing instruments come in dozens of different flavors. Shopping for a Bluetooth hearing aid can be confusing. Costco's now-discontinued Kirkland Signature 10.0 hearing aid, also manufactured by Sonova, offered universal Bluetooth as well. Phonak Lumity, Paradise and Unitron Vivante and Blu are the latest Sonova products to offer MFA technology, and models from both product families support two simultaneous Bluetooth connections. Sonova calls their technology “Made For All” or MFA, a tongue in cheek nod to Apple’s “Made For iPhone”. This is accomplished via Bluetooth Classic’s A2DP and HFP protocols for audio streaming and hands-free calling, respectively. Only Sonova, the world’s largest hearing aid manufacturer, offers true, hands-free universal Bluetooth connectivity. In addition to iPhone and Android connectivity, Phonak and Unitron (owned by Sonova), offer models that provide wireless audio streaming from any Bluetooth-audio device. Most ASHA compatible aids also support MFi. However, ASHA must be enabled by each phone manufacturer and service carrier, so it pays to check with your carrier about whether your specific Android model can support ASHA connectivity (Samsung, Google Pixel, and OnePlus offer the best support). In general, any phone with Bluetooth 5.0+ and Android 10 (or higher) is capable of providing wireless streaming via ASHA. ![]() While Made-for-iPhone is supported by all iOS devices (from recent years), Android ASHA is only supported on select Android phones. To achieve hands-free calling with Android you’ll either need to purchase a Bluetooth streamer or pursue hearing aids that use the Bluetooth Classic Hands-Free Protocol (HFP), like Phonak Lumity. One caveat to ASHA-based Android compatibility: it won’t be a true hands-free experience. You’ll still need to talk into the phone for the caller to hear your voice. The announcement from Google signaled their intention to pair hearing aids with the much larger universe of Android phones.įlash forward to 2023, and we now have all major hearing aid manufacturers- Phonak, Starkey, Oticon, Signia, ReSound and Widex-with Android compatible hearing aids on the market. In 2018, Google finally announced a new Android streaming spec for hearing aids- Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA). You might expect to see this functionality starting in the fall of 2023. Previously, iPhones, iPod Touch, and iPad tablets were the only devices that could pair directly with MFi hearing aids without workarounds or accessories. However, with the recent release of Bluetooth version 5.2, two-way communication is now available within the MFi protocol. Keep in mind though, that not all hearing aid manufacturers have incorporated Bluetooth 5.2, so hands-free calling isn’t an option for every MFi hearing aid.Īnd some good news for Mac computer users: in May 2023, Apple announced that MFi hearing aids will soon be able to pair directly with “select Mac devices” that use the M1 chip and all devices that use the M2 chip. For hearing aid wearers, this meant no hands-free calling as the hearing aid microphones couldn’t pick up the sound of your voice and transmit back to the phone. That is, the connected device could stream to your hearing aids but the hearing aids could not send data back to the device. Historically, one drawback of the MFi protocol is that it did not allow for two-way communication. All major manufacturers now sell at least some MFi-compatible hearing aids. MFi hearing aids allow you to stream audio directly from your iPhone and iPad-no wireless streamer required. "Made-for-iPhone" (MFi) hearing aids were first introduced in 2015 by GN ReSound and launched an entirely new era of connectivity.
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