Just imagine 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 picture fine-tuning your hearing aids for any hearing environment without ever having to touch your hearing aids.
Sound too good to be true? A couple of years ago, it was; but with the Apple Watch, hearing aid users are redefining the way they engage with their hearing aids.
With Apple’s most personal device to date, you can now leave behind your hearing aid remote control at home, your cell phone in your pocket, and your fingers out of your ears. All hearing aid adjustments and settings can be easily accessed from an application within the watch—meaning you’ll never have to touch your hearing aids or habitually fumble through your phone again.
Here are 10 cool things you can do with your Apple Watch and compatible hearing aids.
1. Forget the hearing aid remote control
The problem with modern hearing aids is that as they become smaller, more powerful, and furnished with more capabilities, 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 simpler 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 adjust the volume control slider. You can also quickly fine-tune the treble and bass to create the best sound quality in any hearing environment.
3. Mute your hearing aids
Circumstances arise when you don’t want to amplify sound, and with the Apple Watch, you can turn off the hearing aids with the press of a button.
Although we don’t recommend 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 labeled “environmental presets,” or settings that enhance sounds with respect to the environment.
With the Apple Watch, you can conveniently access and switch among presets, adjusting settings on the fly depending on your location. And as you render your adjustments, if there is a specific setting that works particularly well, you can save the setting, name it, and access it in the future.
5. Stream music and phone calls
You’re out for a jog and you want to play your favorite music album. That would in general call for you to remove your hearing aids, but with Apple Watch, you can stream music wirelessly from the watch to your hearing aids. In this way, your hearing aids have the double purpose of a sound amplification device and a set of high-quality earphones.
Additionally, you can effortlessly answer or forward phone calls right from the watch, as the audio is sent wirelessly to your hearing aids not unlike the music.
6. Find your misplaced hearing aids
We all lose valuable things, like our car keys, and we waste a lot of time trying to find them. But when we misplace our hearing aids, it’s not only inconvenient—we risk ruining the gadget that connects us to sound, which can be scary.
With the Apple Watch, if you misplace your hearing aids, you can expediently track them down as the watch can identify their location and present it on a map.
7. Focus on speech and filter out background noise
Most digital hearing aids come with directional microphones and other background-noise canceling functionality. With the Apple Watch, you have continuous access to these capabilities, with the ability to narrow the focus in a hectic room, for example, by tuning in to the person you’re speaking with 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 stuck without sound. You can easily track your hearing aid battery life directly 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 proper hearing aid, it will look that way to those around you. The Apple Watch, when combined with a completely-in-the-ear-canal hearing aid, will be entirely out of sight. And when you’re changing your hearing aid settings on your watch, people will think you’re checking the time.
10. Manage your tinnitus
Sound therapy in the form of music, white noise, or nature sounds can be streamed wirelessly to your hearing aids, and the sounds can be adjusted to fit the frequency of your tinnitus—all from the Apple Watch.
Tailor your hearing experience
Although the Apple Watch is not compatible with all types of hearing aid, several hearing aid models currently are, and we expect more models to be developed in the near future. The Apple Watch is the ultimate solution to several of the concerns conveyed by our patients and permits a level of interaction and control like never before.
Contact us today to learn more about this impressive technology.
Do you own an Apple Watch? Do you use it to control your hearing aids? Let us know about your experience in a comment.