Picture being able to fine-tune the volume, treble, and bass on your hearing aids as discretely and easily as checking the time on your wrist. Or picture fine-tuning your hearing aids for any listening situation 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 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 adjustments and settings can be accessed from a software program within the watch—meaning you’ll never have to touch your hearing aids or constantly fumble through your cell phone again.
Here are 10 cool things you can do with your Apple Watch and compatible hearing aids.
1. Ditch the hearing aid remote control
The problem with modern hearing aids is that as they become smaller, more effective, and furnished with more capabilities, they become harder to handle. This makes a remote control a must, but who wants to haul 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 alter a setting, you just raise 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 subtly raise 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 perfect 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 suggest 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 labeled “environmental presets,” or settings that enhance sounds in accordance to the environment.
With the Apple Watch, you can easily access and switch among presets, switching 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, name it, and access it in the future.
5. Stream music and phone calls
You’re out for a walk and you want to listen to your favorite album. That would typically 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 way, your hearing aids have the twin 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 transmitted wirelessly to your hearing aids just like the music.
6. Find your lost hearing aids
We all lose important things, like our car keys, and we waste a lot of time attempting to find them. But when we lose our hearing aids, it’s not only inconvenient—we risk harming the gadget that links us to sound, which can be distressing.
Using the Apple Watch, if you lose your hearing aids, you can promptly track them down as the watch can pin point their specific location and display it on a map.
7. Focus on speech and filter out background noise
Most digital hearing aids feature directional microphones and other background-noise eliminating capability. With the Apple Watch, you have access to these capabilities on the fly, with the capacity 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 stranded without sound. You can conveniently keep tabs on your hearing aid battery life directly on the Apple Watch.
9. Make your hearing aids invisible
You can’t literally make your hearing aids invisible with the Apple Watch, but with the appropriate hearing aid, it will appear that way to the people around you. The Apple Watch, when combined with a completely-in-the-ear-canal hearing aid, will be totally out of sight. And when you’re altering your hearing aid settings on your watch, people will think you’re checking the time.
10. Regulate 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 adjusted to match 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, a number of hearing aid models currently are, and we anticipate additional models to be developed in the future. The Apple Watch is the ultimate answer to several of the issues expressed by our patients and provides for a degree of interaction and control like never before.
Give us a call today to learn more about this phenomenal technology.
Do you own an Apple Watch? Do you use it to control your hearing aids? Tell us about your experience in a comment.