Imagine being able to fine-tune 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 situation 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 owners are redefining 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 adjustments 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. Forget the hearing aid remote control
The dilemma with contemporary hearing aids is that as they become smaller, more effective, and equipped with more features, they become harder to handle. This makes a remote control a must, but who wants to haul around yet another device?
Even utilizing your cell phone as the remote control can get monotonous, but with the Apple Watch, if you want to revise 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 subtly lift your wrist, tap the hearing aid application on the watch, and swipe your finger to adjust the volume control slider. You can also quickly fine-tune the treble and bass to produce the perfect 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 push of a button.
Although we don’t encourage using this functionality on your spouse.
4. Create and save custom sound settings
Having a conversation in a restaurant is very different than having a quiet conversation at home; that’s why hearing aids have what are termed “environmental presets,” or settings that amplify sounds according to the environment.
With the Apple Watch, you can easily access and change between presets, varying settings on the fly depending on where you are. And as you make your changes, if there is a unique setting that works especially well, you can save the setting, label it, and access it later.
5. Stream music and phone calls
You’re out for a run and you want to play your favorite music album. That would normally call for 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 function of a sound amplification device and a pair of high-quality headphones.
You can also easily answer or forward phone calls straight from the watch, as the audio is sent 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 waste a great deal of time attempting to find them. But when we misplace our hearing aids, it’s not only inconvenient—we risk breaking the gadget that connects us to sound, which can be distressing.
With the Apple Watch, if you lose your hearing aids, you can instantly find them as the watch can pin point their location and present it on a map.
7. Focus on speech and block out background noise
Most digital hearing aids come with directional microphones and other background-noise canceling functionality. With the Apple Watch, you have access to these capabilities on the fly, with the ability to narrow the focus in a hectic room, for example, by listening to the person you’re talking to while blocking the background chatter.
8. View your battery and connection status
You no longer have to worry about running out of battery power and being stranded without audio. You can conveniently track 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 right 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 completely out of sight. And when you’re changing your hearing aid controls on your watch, people will think you’re checking the time.
10. Regulate 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 adapted to correspond to the frequency of your tinnitus—all from the Apple Watch.
Tailor your hearing experience
While the Apple Watch is not compatible with every type of hearing aid, several hearing aid models currently are, and we anticipate additional models to be made in the near future. The Apple Watch is the optimal answer to many of the issues expressed by our patients and provides for a level of interaction and control like never before.
Call us today to find out more about this phenomenal technology.
Do you have an Apple Watch? Do you use it to control your hearing aids? Tell us about your experience in a comment.