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Hands-free calling on Costco hearing aids

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Edited

All Costco hearing aids currently sold have hands-free capability without the need of another device besides a compatible phone.

Bluetooth LE is not backwards compatible with classic Bluetooth and was never meant to be. It is a different protocol.

MFI is Made for iPhone. Proprietary protocol, just like .

@StataHA said:

Bluetooth LE is not backwards compatible with classic Bluetooth and was never meant to be. It is a different protocol

Actually not true, is incorporated in to classic Bluetooth and has been since 4.2 I think, BLE is not LEA ()

In reply to @Raudrive

The phone doesn’t have to be in your hand to answer calls or to talk into while speaking.

You are using the microphone in the hearing aid to speak into and simply tap your hearing aid to answer and disconnect the call.

Think only the KS10s can sync to multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously. This compared to other devices Costco sells currently

In reply to @ctromley

My KS10s are about the same age as yours. I went to Costco looking for new aids and was disappointed that none of the new aids were better. I did send my KS10s in for refurbish and when they came back the software had been updated and they are much better than ever. No comparison so Phonic must have done some significant upgrades to the firmware. Under $400 and like new aides.

I’ve had the Sonova Sennheiser Sonite R for a couple weeks. Completely phone-in-pocket hands free with Galaxy S20. Double tap top of ear to answer/hang up. It also also connects natively to my Sansung laptop for streaming. Reconnects 95% of the time. Not perfect but certainly acceptable.

Phonak/Sonova claims their infinio ERA chip is compatible with and LE audio (and all phonaks have classic). This is an example of a device that uses BT classic and it is also ready for Auracast (I don;t know if the current firmware allows it but they claim it is ready)

Connectivity: Ultra-responsive ERA™ chip at the heart of Infinio | Audiology...2

Outperforming the competition and ready for the future, ERA connects your clients to their digital universe like never before. Learn more in this article.

Yeah it’ll be ready and able because of the bluetooth chip, classic doesn’t come into play for this, I did read an article from SIG about capability being backwards compatible.

In reply to @d_Wooluf

They have mentioned that the Sphere’s have the necessary parts for / buried deep in their literature.

However, Phonak hasn’t said if or when they might update their firmware to make it happen. The problem, the way I see it, is that there is still a market for Bluetooth classic and Auracast isn’t readily available yet.

is being promoted more as a replacement for teleloop systems, but it can be used for TVs, etc. Bluetooth Classic is handy to connect to Windows laptops and some TVs.

Yup, when I lost my KS9s, I read threads here on how what Costco has now (no Sennheisers in my area) do phone calls. In the end, keeping the way the KS9s handled phone calls was important enough to me I got a pair of Lumitys off eBay at a Costco price. Battery models are a plus for me.

Wish I could have waited for the Sennheisers to show up in Costcos here, but my backup aids were okay for a couple weeks, not months or an indefinite longer time.

Switching to an Apple phone is a no and so is buying an expensive phone I don’t want or need when Phonak aids work great with my older, cheap Tracfone. Also, TV Connector I already had works.

When I first got hearing aids three years ago at Costco, I was using an Android phone (still am) and started with Phillips 9030’s. The streaming of telephone sound into my ears was fine. However, I had to use the mic on the phone, requiring that I hold the phone in front of my mouth to talk. I could have lived with that, but I couldn’t live with not being able to hear in courtrooms and a few other issues. I returned the Phillips 9030’s and got KS 10’s. They were wonderful. I recently got the Sennheisers, and they are a nice step up from the KS10’s. BTW, I didn’t think there was a store with Sennheiser around me either, but there is ONE in the State of Oklahoma (and a bunch on the North side of Dallas). I drove to Tulsa (close to 3 hours) two Fridays in a row (testing and pick-up). I am VERY pleased. I cannot comment on the 9050’s, and I have used only Samsung Android phones (an S9 originally and an S23 currently).

My experience is with a Pixel 6 and Pixel 9a (both with Android 15) and Jabra EP20s. The connect to the phones to receive audio, but not to send audio. You have to hold the phone in the normal manner to talk to the other party. I would not call this “hands free”, but I think it is preferable to using the mics in the HAs which would result in poorer audio quality.

In order to connect to the Windows PC or the TV, I have to use the HomeSpot BA210 v2 transmitter. Both my TV and PC have Bluetooth, but are three to four years old and will not connect to the HAs except through the Homespot. I find the Homespot preferable to the FlooGoo USB dongle. The dongle only works with your PC because it is limited to a USB connection, while the Homespot works with the TV because it has a variety of connections. Even though your TV has a USB connection on the back it most likely is for audio input only and does not provide the needed audio output.

In reply to @dowlinglawoffice

@dowlinglawoffice said:

I returned the Phillips 9030’s and got KS 10’s. They were wonderful. I recently got the Sennheisers, and they are a nice step up from the KS10’s. BTW, I didn’t think there was a store with Sennheiser around me either, but there is ONE in the State of Oklahoma (and a bunch on the North side of Dallas). I drove to Tulsa (close to 3 hours) two Fridays in a row (testing and pick-up). I am VERY pleased.

Thanks for this information. It’s very helpful coming from the KS10 aids and more locations that have the new Sennheiser aids.

In reply to @JG1

@JG1 said:

My experience is with a Pixel 6 and Pixel 9a (both with Android 15) and Jabra EP20s. The HAs connect to the phones to receive audio, but not to send audio.

I don’t have Jabra, but it seems to have , and I know the Pixel 9a does, so you need to check your Pixel phone settings.
Go to connected devices> Your Hearing aids> tap the gear on the right> set device type as Hearing device> enable LE Audio.
That should get you hands-free calling.
Android 16 will furher enhance the hearing aid settings, so you won’t even need the hearing aid app.

Edited for spelling

I have had the Philips 9040 and 9050 and I now have the Jabra Pro 20. With each of these, I have streamed cable radio, webinars, and audiobooks from my Android phone all day, hands (and gadget) free. My big frustration was the inability to make hands-free phone calls with any of these using my Samsung phone–I could hear hands free, but I had to speak into the phone for the other party to hear me. But even this problem has been resolved with a recent Android update, so now I can have hands-free phone calls as well. I joke to myself that my HAs are just expensive earbuds! I must add that sometimes I am still heard better when I pull off my HAs and use a cheap earbud for phone conversations, but the HAs are still acceptable for phone calls.

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