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Android 16 drops on Pixel phones

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It seems to work as advertised. You can change between the microphone on the phone and that on the aids. You can check for broadcasts. Audio sharing via Auracast is fully operational. If only Auracast were enabled on Demant products…

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There’s more than one place. You can set the default microphone in the Bluetooth settings for the hearing aids. You can change the current microphone with a swipe from the top of the screen to enable the pull down menu.

The person I tested this on thought the aids microphone has the best sound. This was in quiet. You have to hold the phone close to your mouth with the phones mics. It’s not like you’re on speaker. I’ll see what I can do about that screen shot.

This is truly touching. I wonder if this microphone switching feature is compatible with traditional Bluetooth (like the current PHONAK hearing aids).
Thanks a lot!
Jack

Was a bit disappointed with Android 16 as for the Pixel 7a is not supported.

There was an option to turn it on in Android 15 in developer options but after an update it was grayed out and unavailable. I was hoping it would be back for Android 16 but unfortunately it is not. According to here: Google Issue Tracker19 they are no longer planning on supporting LE audio for the Pixel 7a ;(

Would be curious to know from other’s experience here what Pixel phones are working well with LE Audio.

In reply to @jack2

@jack2 said:

I wonder if this microphone switching feature is compatible with traditional Bluetooth (like the current PHONAK hearing aids).

I don’t have Phonak aids, but I doubt it. I think this feature is designed for aids with and Phonak is ‘classic’ audio.

Pixel 8 and higher work well with LE Audio. Pixel 7 always seemed a ‘maybe’ from what people were saying on forums.

In reply to @flashb1024

I had gotten the Pixel 7a as at the time, it was capable with a switch the developer options menu. I figured it would only be a matter of time before it was a full feature. Guess I was wrong and they went the other way and removed it.

I had also seen this *.pdf from Oticon which seemed confirm it was LE audio capable at least at the time the pdf was made.

Thanks for the list. I’ll keep an eye out for Pixel 8 and 9 series sales for an upgrade eventually.

The Pixel Drop has arrived today and Google says that Android 16 will have a wealth of accessibility updates including

  • Contextualised subtitles - if someone shouts YESSSSSSSS! when a goal is scored, that’s what the caption will say
  • Being able to choose the audio output when a call comes in (hearing aids, speakers, phone)
  • Being able to choose the audio input when paired with hearing aids - hearing aid microphones or the phone’s microphones
  • Bluetooth …

I’m on Samsung so I can’t be certain all these features are in my Android 16 beta, but would be interested to know if anyone have got the update and tried these features.

I wrote something about it for my Aurahear blog6, but comes with the caveat that I’m taking Google’s word for it!

Installed Android 16 on my Pixel Pro9 a couple days ago.
There are a number of good things pertaining to hearing and speech but the bad thing I noticed yesterday is battery life. The upgrade used about 25-30 percent more battery life. So at the end of the day I was at 10%. I did have a long phone call with my son, not sure if that could be the difference?? It is streaming to my processors.

Something else I noticed after the 16 update the phone did not stream during a call although the Nucleus app showed ithe phone was connected and streaming. The phones Bluetooth also showed connected.
So I went through the unpair, forget process and repaired and set up audio streaming. All has been great since. No drops of one or both processors.
Now to get some battery life back!

I got the Android 16 drop the other day and lost my connectivity with my Phonak Brio 2 and Compilot II. when using my Google Pixel 7 pro phone on phone calls. The other end can hear me, but I don’t hear them.
I tested a youtube video and the sound does come through.
I have no idea what the settings might need to be, but this is a screenshot.

Screenshot_20250628-115706

I tried downloading the myPhonak app and it couldn’t find my Compilot. I think it only looks for hearing aids.

Help??

Pixel 9 pro
Android 16

In my phone it’s set up with hearing devices rather than headphones in device details. This is with cochlear processors if that makes a difference.

Edited
@Raudrive said:

In my phone it’s set up with hearing devices rather than headphones in device details.

Pixel 7 pro
Android 16
That was part of the answer. Once that was selected & I hit the volume button on my phone I was able to increase the volume enough to hear the other party. There were 2 volume indicators one showed a music note and the other a bluetooth symbol. The bluetooth was what worked. Then I was able to use the + and - buttons on the Compilot II to further refine the phone volume.

Thanks @Raudrive I learnt a few things from you today.
1 - how to improve my phone settings
2 - the importance of posting the phone and OS version.
I appreciate the timely response.

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