Whether it’s streaming music to your hearing aids or discreetly adjusting your hearing aid settings from your iPhone, you can now enjoy sounds like never before. Hearing aids have transformed into small and discreet hearing devices that deliver crystal-clear sound quality and an array of state-of-the-art features. Your hearing aids can even connect to your iPhone to ensure you always get the most out of your hearing aids.

Out of all of your devices, your iPhone is likely to be the one you use and rely on the most each day. It can help you with directions, watching TV or video, listening to music and staying in touch with friends and family. Hearing-aid wearers can take advantage of all these benefits and more, including:

• Streaming phone calls directly to your hearing aids
• Control hearing aid accessories such as the remote mic or the TV streamer
• Stream your favourite music and other audio to your hearing aids
• Change the volume of your hearing aids, whether together or separately
• Switch between program settings
• Find your lost hearing aids
• Check the battery status

Pairing hearing aids to an iPhone enables you to take advantage of this technology – here’s how you do it:

• Remove your hearing aids and leave the battery compartment doors open so it won’t power up
• Go to the Settings menu on your iPhone
• Select Bluetooth and check that it is turned on
• Close the battery door on your hearing aids – this will allow your iPhone to find it
• On your phone, go back to the Settings menu and select General and Accessibility
• You should see an MFI Hearing Devices option under Accessibility
• Tap on the model number and name of your hearing aid when it is displayed
• You should see a tick mark next to it once your hearing aids have linked with your iPhone
• You will then need to select Pair to finish the connection
• You will get two pairing requests if you wear two hearing aids

While technology has become more advanced and sophisticated, it can still go wrong sometimes. If you have problems with pairing your hearing aids to your iPhone, these steps may help:

• Refer to the manufacturer’s compatibility list to check that your hearing aids and phone are supported
• Check that Bluetooth is on
• Make sure your hearing aids are within range
• Ensure the hearing aid batteries are fresh and have charge

If you continue to experience problems connecting:

• Try turning your iPhone’s Airplane Mode on and off
• Temporarily turn off your Wi-Fi connections
• Go to Settings on your phone and select Accessibility then choose Hearing Devices or Settings and tap Bluetooth. This will enable your iPhone to effectively forget the hearing aids and you can start the connection process again
• Turn off your iPhone then turn it back on again

By using your iPhone, you can stream a wide range of audio to directly to your hearing aids, such as music and audio from TV and films you are watching. You can even get notification sounds and virtual keyboard clicks if you wish. You may decide you want to try out of all these sounds or just a small selection. To ensure you only hear what you want after pairing hearing aids to iPhone, follow these simple steps:

• Stream only phone calls: Go to the Settings menu on your iPhone and select Accessibility then choose Hearing Devices, Audio Routing and Media Audio, then select the Never Hearing Devices option.
• Stream audio from selected apps: Go to the Settings menu and select Notifications and make sure that Sounds are turned on or off depending on your preferences for each application.
• Touchscreen and keyboard shortcuts: Go to Settings and select Sounds and turn on Keyboard Clicks and Lock Sound.