Gone are the analogue hearing aid days where the bulky pinkish devices were mostly just amplifiers sitting on your ears. Today, we have digital hearing aid technology and with that come a multitude of possibilities and one of those possibilities is the use of Bluetooth technology.
What is Bluetooth?
Bluetooth is a wireless technology that allows the transfer of data e.g. music from one device to another. It works by sending radio waves through the air over a given distance (roughly less than 10metres). Bluetooth uses radio waves at 2.4GHz and allows a continuous and smooth transfer of information e.g. when you listen to your playlist when your phone is connected to a Bluetooth speaker. This process requires a significant amount of power. Hearing aids generally use Bluetooth low energy or BLE, this means that it remains in sleep mode until a connection is required and therefore, it consumes less power than standard Bluetooth, this is perfect for such a small listening device.
Bluetooth allows you to connect to your smartphone and other Bluetooth compatible devices.
Why have Bluetooth in hearing aids?
Bluetooth allows you to connect directly with your compatible iPhone ® and Android ™ mobile phones and other listening devices. This means you can stay more connected. Instead of requiring wireless headphones to listen to your music or phone call, for example, you could stream directly to your hearing aids. Here is just a few of the things that you can do with a Bluetooth enabled hearing aid:
Bluetooth allows you to control your hearing aids e.g. adjust the volume.
It allows you to store or adjust your preferred settings.
It allows you to control each hearing aids independently without needing to touch the hearing aid.
You can stream music directly to you hearing aids.
You can take calls directly through your hearing aids.
Alert you when the battery is low.
Help to locate a lost hearing aid.
How does Bluetooth in hearing aids work?
Most iPhones are already BLE enabled, all you need to look out for is Made for iPhone (MFI) hearing aids and these will work with any devices on the iOS platform, such as an iPad. If you have Android version 10 onwards then your phone will also be BLE enabled. Older versions of Android, however, still use standard Bluetooth technology and won’t work the same way. You can still get the benefits of streaming directly to your hearing aids with older Android devices by using an intermediary streamer such as the Oticon Clip which allows two-way streaming so you can take phone calls or listen to music through your hearing aids.
Are there any disadvantages to using Bluetooth?
Even with Bluetooth LE, if you are always connected, like any device, this will use up more battery power. Having rechargeable hearing aids is a good workaround as you can pop them in your charging station over night and they are ready to go by the next day. Not everyone wants high tech and that is OK, the more you understand about hearing aids the better your choice, after all you need to be comfortable wearing them.
Take Away Message
There are several advantages to using hearing aids with Bluetooth technology, particularly if you want more functionality from your hearing aids. If you'd like to learn more about how Bluetooth technology can help you, get in touch.
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