So I wear hearing aids now, how am I going to answer phone calls? Is that one of the many questions that you have regarding hearing aids?
Well, did you know most hearing aids nowadays come with Bluetooth connectivity capability? And there is a good chance your hearing aids can become your personalized “earbuds”.
With fast improvements in technologies in today’s world, most hearing aids nowadays also have Bluetooth connectivity capability. With Bluetooth connectivity, you can pair your hearing aids to your smartphone, such as iPhone, Samsung, Android, Google phone, etc.
Once your phone is Bluetooth connected to your hearing aids, any phone calls, videos, music, or audiobooks that you are playing on your phone will directly stream into your ears. Therefore, you don’t need to worry about putting your phone up to your ears when answering phone calls.
You can enjoy listening to music in your ears while you are around the house doing chores. Your hearing aids can totally become your personalized earbuds or headphones.
Side Note: Once your hearing aids and your phone are connected successfully via Bluetooth, your phone and your hearing aids can go pretty far apart from each other and still stay connected; however, just remember during a phone call especially, the person on the other side of the phone still relies on the microphones of your phone for them to hear you. So, even though you can walk pretty far away with your hearing aids from your phone during a phone call, if you walked too far away from the phone, the person on the other side of the conversation would eventually not be able to hear you, since your voice is too far away from the phone microphones.
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How do I know if my hearing aids have Bluetooth connectivity?
This is a great question! Your audiologist would for sure know whether your hearing aids have Bluetooth connectivity capability. Typically speaking any Behind-the-Ear (BTE) hearing aids, and Receiver-in-Canal (RIC) hearing aids nowadays all come with Bluetooth connectivity capability since all the components of a hearing aid are located outside the ear.
There is no limitation in regard to space. On the other hand, for custom hearing aids to have Bluetooth connectivity, the hearing aids need to be relatively big, such as full shell and half shell.
This is because all of the hearing aid components for a custom hearing aid are sitting inside of an individual’s ear, if an individual’s ear is too small, there is not going to be enough space for the hearing aid company to insert the processing chips that enable the hearing aid to has Bluetooth connectivity; as a result, you won’t be able to connect the hearing aids to your phone wirelessly via Bluetooth.
What kind of phone do I need to be able to connect to my hearing aids?
Any phone that comes with Bluetooth connectivity capability can almost always be able to connect to hearing aids.; however, most of the hearing aid brands on the market today have direct connections to iPhone capability.
In other words, if you have an iPhone, you can connect your hearing aids directly to your iPhone via Bluetooth without any additional accessories in between.
If you don’t have an iPhone, instead you have an Android, Samsung, or Google phone you can still be able to connect to your hearing aids; however, some hearing aid brands would require an additional accessory in between the phone and the hearing aids to be able to stream.
Will my phone and my hearing aids always stay connected?
No, not always. Whenever there is an update on your phone system, or an update on the hearing aid company’s APP, or when you turned off the Bluetooth icon on your phone, or you get a new phone, re-connecting your phone to your hearing aids could be needed, and your audiologist would be able to help you with this process.
Ultimately if Bluetooth connectivity is an important feature for you and your lifestyle, during your discussion with the audiologist to decide what kind of hearing aids are best for your hearing loss and for you, you should mention this feature to your audiologist, and let them know what kind of phone that you currently have, or what kind of phone that you are planning to get in the future.
These are some important and helpful information for you and your audiologist when deciding on hearing aids.
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