Picture being able to adjust the volume, treble, and bass on your hearing aids as discretely and effortlessly as checking the time on your wrist. Or imagine fine-tuning your hearing aids for any listening environment without ever having to touch your hearing aids.
Sound too good to be true? A few years ago, it was; but with the Apple Watch, hearing aid users are changing the way they engage with their hearing aids.
With Apple’s most personal gadget to date, you can now leave your hearing aid remote control at home, your cell phone in your pocket, and your fingers out of your ears. All hearing aid modifications and settings can be easily accessed from a software program within the watch—meaning you’ll never have to touch your hearing aids or habitually fumble through your cell phone again.
Here are 10 cool things you can do with your Apple Watch and compatible hearing aids.
1. Abandon the hearing aid remote control
The problem with contemporary hearing aids is that as they become smaller, more powerful, and equipped with more features, they become harder to handle. This makes a remote control a necessity, but who wants to lug around yet another device?
Even using your cell phone as the remote control can get tiring, but with the Apple Watch, if you want to modify a setting, you just lift your wrist. It can’t get any easier than that.
2. Effortlessly adjust the volume, treble, and bass
Need the hearing aid volume adjusted? No problem, just discreetly lift your wrist, tap the hearing aid app on the watch, and swipe your finger to modify the volume control slider. You can also quickly fine-tune the treble and bass to create the ideal sound quality in any hearing scenario.
3. Mute your hearing aids
Circumstances occur when you don’t want to amplify sound, and with the Apple Watch, you can turn off the hearing aids with the push of a button.
Although we don’t endorse using this feature on your spouse.
4. Create and save custom sound settings
Having a discussion in a restaurant is very different than having one at home; that’s why hearing aids have what are referred to as “environmental presets,” or settings that enhance sounds with respect to the environment.
With the Apple Watch, you can effortlessly access and change between presets, adjusting settings on the fly depending on where you are. And as you render your modifications, if there is a particular setting that works especially well, you can save the setting, name it, and access it later.
5. Stream music and phone calls
You’re out for a jog and you want to play your favorite album. That would ordinarily require you to take out your hearing aids, but with Apple Watch, you can stream music wirelessly from the watch to your hearing aids. In this regard, your hearing aids have the double purpose of a sound amplification device and a set of high-quality headphones.
Additionally, you can effortlessly answer or forward phone calls right from the watch, as the audio is directed wirelessly to your hearing aids not unlike the music.
6. Find your missing hearing aids
We all lose valuable things, like our car keys, and we use up a great deal of time attempting to find them. But when we lose our hearing aids, it’s not only inconvenient—we risk breaking the gadget that links us to sound, which can be distressing.
With the Apple Watch, if you lose your hearing aids, you can instantly track them down as the watch can identify their location and display it on a map.
7. Concentrate on speech and block out background noise
Most digital hearing aids come with directional microphones and other background-noise eliminating functionality. With the Apple Watch, you have continuous access to these capabilities, with the ability to narrow the focus in a busy room, for example, by tuning in to the person you’re talking to while blocking the background noise.
8. View your battery and connection status
You no longer have to worry about running out of battery power and being stranded without sound. You can conveniently monitor your hearing aid battery life right on the Apple Watch.
9. Make your hearing aids invisible
You can’t really make your hearing aids invisible with the Apple Watch, but with the appropriate hearing aid, it will seem that way to those around you. The Apple Watch, along with a completely-in-the-ear-canal hearing aid, will be fully out of sight. And when you’re adjusting your hearing aid controls on your watch, people will think you’re checking the time.
10. Control your tinnitus
Sound therapy in the form of white noise, music, or nature sounds can be streamed wirelessly to your hearing aids, and the sounds can be adapted to fit the frequency of your tinnitus—all from the Apple Watch.
Individualize your hearing experience
While the Apple Watch is not compatible with all types of hearing aid, several hearing aid models currently are, and we anticipate more models to be made in the near future. The Apple Watch is the perfect resolution to several of the problems conveyed by our patients and provides for a degree of interaction and control like never before.
Give us a call today to find out more about this impressive technology.
Do you have an Apple Watch? Do you use it to control your hearing aids? Tell us about your experience in a comment.