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When Will Auracast Actually Be Enabled for Phonak, Oticon, Signia, etc.? (From a Device Maker’s Perspective)

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Edited

Both good suggestions.

(I found that the Feedback function in the app asks a lot of tedious questions before you get to mention and it goes to a research company for compiling.

Enrolling in their guinea pig group is also cumbersome.)

Maybe one of the advantages of putting the feedback on the myPhonak app review area is that Phonak can judge how many people are interested in it. And so can we. It also only takes a couple of minutes.

In reply to @platypus

It won’t speed things up. I remembered how it was with Phonak paradise when it had some bugs and people kept complaining about those problems on google play. It took them quite a while to fix the problem.

I think you should stop buying hearing aids when the manufacturer promises support for something. You should buy only when it arrives, then you have the choice to go to the competition.

Edited

In reply to @philbury

My Yamaha AV receiver has digital audio processing and several tweeks to optimize its performance. One of those is the distance from each speaker to the listener. The intent is to have the sound from each speaker perfectly in sync.

The receiver starts with the furthest speaker and then delays the audio from closer speakers accordingly so the sound arrives in sync. I did not want to mess up the sound from my 7 surround sound speakers, so added the fake distance to the subwooofer. The sub would have to have its timing way off to perceive an echo or timing issue. And yes, I figured out the sub distance was the one to use to eliminate my hearing aid echo. The only issue I have is when the audio is set to Straight, the receiver can ignore the sub distance.

In reply to @PhoebeY

The GN Resound Smart 3D app which is used for Nexia and Vivia, both of which have Low Energy Audio and , had the Auracast selector introduced for the last IOS app update, which was released about a month ago.

Jabra is just Resound rebranded so the very low Costco prices don’t pollute the whole market for Resound aids. The Jabra and Resound aids and apps are identical apart from the branding.

The model of all the mfrs works this way. “See your .” Im not saying that’s a best practice, but that’s how it goes.

Phonak provides direct support in very limited situations. Much more likely through a call via your HCP. I know it is coming, I just don’t have the crystal ball tuned for “This month,” “This summer,” vs “This year.”

Summer IS coming. I don’t usually expect big things out of Europe during their holiday time. If I knew it was coded and just needed testing, I’d feel a lot confident about it being around the corner. I feel more like they have a design, but no code to make it work yet. Anybody got a crystal ball tuner?

WH

In reply to @PhoebeY

I wear Jabra Enhance Pro 20’s. Yesterday I updated my ’s to 9.68.1.0, and today, when I launched the MyEnhance Pro app, a message appeared that read: Find a broadcast/Listen to broadcasts. When I tapped the More button, Auracast Assistant was on. This happened on my iPhone 7+, as well as on this iPad. SiriusXM was playing, so that may be why I got the broadcast notice.

I’ve recently purchased both an Avantree Voyager and a MoerLab Audio USB dongle, and have also been trying to find native Auracast support on Windows 11 and Linux.
Bottom line: Microsoft and Apple have both been dragging their feet incredibly on the whole Auracast thing. Windows 11 claims to have Auracast, but this apparently works on only the very latest (2025) Intel hardware; the problem seems to be the lack of decent “” compression support in HW.
I’m still looking for a USB 5.4 dongle that Windows 11 will recognize and enable Auracast – please reply here if you know of such a device.

Have you looked at floogoo? They need windows to upgrade their firmware. They seem extremely responsive here. I bet you’d get great support with any issues. @Ranson has been the rep, iirc.

WH

Yep.
The FlooGoo is a wonder gadget that just works.
Once you’ve paired it successfully to your hearing aids, it remembers the settings and is plug and play.
Handy if you have a different work computer to a home computer.

And @Ranson is one of life’s great guys. Very grateful they are on the forum.

In reply to @Nerdrunner

We offer a complete solution for adding support to legacy devices.

For transmitting Auracast (note: there are several vendors available for this function),

Bluetooth dongle with Auracast support - FlooGoo FMA120
We’ve been waiting for such a beast for a while. Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CN71FL92/ Manufacturer’s product page: https://www.flairmesh.com/Dongle/FMA120.html I emailed them asking for information and they replied. I’ll copy it verbatim. I don’t think there’s anything there that they want to keep private. My take is that Auracast is working assuming you have a phone that supports it (which is probably Samsung) but point-to-point LE Audio is a work in progress for hear…

For receiving Auracast on legacy hearing aids — FlooGoo is currently the only solution available. It works with almost all hearing aids, except when used with iOS + Phonak (A2DP-only models), due to platform limitations (We’re actively working on a solution for this).

Bring Auracast to Any Hearing Aids with the FlooGoo FMA120
First, I’d like to thank @d_Wooluf for introducing our FMA120 as an Auracast and LE Audio transmitter last year. Without that introduction, we might never have discovered this wonderful place to connect directly with our customers. Since we launched the FlooGoo FMA120 in November 2023 on Amazon, we’ve received tremendous feedback from early adopters of LE Audio and Auracast, especially from the hearing aid community. As with any new technology, Auracast faces some compatibility challenges, an…

In reply to @WhiteHat

Thank you for recommending our FMA120.

Users do not need to update the FMA120 firmware if they only intend to use it as an transmitter. The default firmware included with units purchased from Amazon already supports this functionality.

A firmware update is only required if users wish to enable one-to-one pairing or additional features such as Auracast receiving or relay mode.

Phoebe,
What Always gets missed is the Bluetooth part of the discussion. I know some have brought it up but here’s my opinion.
Nothing will until more of the base support is in place, an vendor must do the LE portion to be an Auracast player.
HA Vendors
Resound is clearest of the bunch with Published info and public demos
Phonak is the least and most secretive with hints by reps in November but nothing useful and concrete in any place I can find. The hints point to the Infinio Sphere as having the full Auracast package. I do not believe a word they say. (Product purchaser- wife) but we paid the money to be ignored.
Signia has some info out and they make a pitch that we need Classic first but several of their devices will do BT LE Audio now not Auracast. So, expect base support but nothing higher like Auracast.
Apple oh I have to agree apple is the WORST, ignoring much of BT anything but there are workarounds listed here.

To be useful HA need a device connecting them to Auracast broadcasts or built in ability to receive. Many with newer Android device get this now. The rest of us need gap fillers to counter HA vendors and Apple. Make your product work around them and you might get a following…
Please let your devices have unique names for broadcast channels.
Let them adjust foreground audio sources from background sources, no blasting TV vs sounds in the room battles. Connect via BT LE audio and allow some adjustment of the rates and codecs as some devices are not conforming to the supposed standards.

And last give feedback to the BT SIG this was an awful job by the HA vendors in general with secrets being more important than transparency. We spend REAL money on the HA devices and take very poorly to fake support and fake timelines. All the tradeshows in the world pale in comparison to a demo in our audiologist’s office with a real device available and working now.

Best of luck as I liked a lot of your earlier products but did not get one because they were not Auracast capable.
George

In reply to @Nerdrunner

I have the Avantree Voyager. It works with all the 3.5 mm and usb c (with 3.5 usbc converter) I have plugged it into. I mainly use it with my MacBook and iPad.

It connects seamlessly with my Jabra EP 30s. It enables me to use my to connect with a variety of devices.

My only reservation has been that the audio stream is public but @PhoebeY tells me an update is imminent enabling it to be switched to private.

(You can update the firmware on a Mac in addition to Windows.)

In reply to @Nerdrunner

Thanks to all for their suggestions – e.g., FlooGoo & Voyager. As I mentioned before, I already have a Voyager, and the FlooGoo device appears to be similar to the MoerLab Audio USB dongle. The MoerLab USB dongle has a single button on it that allows switching between Classic and BT Auracast, and it has an LED whose color indicates what’s going on. The very cool part of the MoerLab USB dongle is that I can connect it up to my Android phone, and the phone will recognize and use it to transmit audio via either classic BT or Auracast. But the MoerLab USB dongle also works in both a Windows PC and a Linux PC. I believe that this is because the MoerLab dongle appears to the PC or the Android as a simple audio output device, and the PC/Android has no idea that it is utilizing BT. I’m guessing that the FlooGoo device works similarly, and doesn’t utilize the PC and/or Android BT SW at all.
But what I’m looking for right now is a USB dongle that has BT 5.4 capabilities – including the audio compressor, and is recognized by Win 11 as a first-class BT LE device, so that the Win 11 BT SW stack is then used for BT connections, rather than having everything BT hidden inside the dongle.

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