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Phonak Infinio Sphere and iPhone

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I have recently purchased the Phonak Infinio Sphere i70 hearing aids after wearing Signia Pure Charge and Go for 4 years.

I am 80 years old and have used Windows forever, but am not technologically competent on Apple products!!

I use an iPhone because the Signia’s worked SO WELL with MFI. But I also am totally Google based and was thrilled when iPhone let you select Google apps as your default.

I am still having a few issues with the streaming (equalizing the volume for my 2 ears which have majorly different hearing profiles) and connection to my Google calendar notifications and my Text notifications.

With my Signia’s when my Google Calendar sent a notification, it READ ME THE EVENT TITLE in my hearing aids. Now I just get a “sound” notification and have to pull out my phone to see what it was for.

Likewise for Text notifications (do not think that is a Google App). I get a sound that a text has arrived, but it would read the text to me with my Signia’s.

If anyone is using Phonak and iPhone and can help me - - - I will be greatly appreciative!!

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Even with announcements turned on, Phonak never announced my text messages.

It worked when wearing Oticon Aids tho but not Phonak.

Thanks so much to everyone who has answered and confirmed my problems! I have kept the Signia’s since I usually use a second set of hearing aids to listen to audio books at night and there are places where I want the . I may just have to “play around” more to figure out when I want Signia’s and when I want Phonak. I purchased the Phonak’s for their ability to let me hear/understand speech in noisy environments. I can even understand the radio in the car much better with them. But I may want to limit their use to those situations.

In reply to @tori.naess50

@tori.naess50 said:

f you get a Garmin or Apple watch, you can at least read the text without pulling out your phone. Better than nothing!

I agree. Getting a smartwatch that displays iPhone notifications is better than switching between two sets of hearing aids or going back to a set that doesn’t work as well to suppress loud noise. I have i90 Spheres and an (expensive) Apple Watch Ultra. Used to use a more basic Apple Watch Series 6.

Also, I find it somewhat unnerving to be in the middle of a conversation with someone and suddenly hear in my head an extensive text read back to me, forcing me to say “ Excuse me for a minute, my hearing aids are talking to me…” Phonaks have the advantage of being a bit more subtle!

Many thanks for all your replies. I live in a Senior Living Community where 90% or more of the time, the Signia’s work really, really well. We have a Hearing Loop in our auditorium and I use in there so will plan to wear the Signia’s for those activities.

I really do not want an Apple Watch - - I love my old analog TIMEX!! And I do not want ANOTHER “gadget” to have to charge and deal with. Since the Signia’s are MFI, I can keep both sets connected - - I do not have to disconnect and re-pair when I change aids. I am even seriously considering getting a small case to keep the pair I am not wearing in my pocket . . . .

Edited
@lsmith77025 said:

I really do not want an Apple Watch - - I love my old analog TIMEX!! And I do not want ANOTHER “gadget” to have to charge and deal with.

An Apple Watch (or any good smartwatch) has lots of other uses besides assisting in hearing and relaying notifications, etc. For instance, if you fall or your heart stops, it can automatically call 911 and also notify your emergency contacts at the same time, and let them track your location. I have a cellular Apple Watch Ultra, so those sorts of things will work for me even if I’m nowhere near my iPhone. The fitness aspects of the watch can track my heart rate variability, my resting heart beat, my breathing rate, and my blood oxygen saturation (and the latest Apple Watch now has approval to track blood pressure). When I had acute bronchitis this past February, I was trying to “tough it out,” but I knew it was time to go to an express med clinic when my resting heart rate and breathing rate rose markedly and my oxygen saturation started dipping into the 80-percentiles. So, for me, a smartphone is more of a social/networking device, whereas an Apple Watch is a “stayin’ alive” device. I do have a loop recorder implanted in my chest that does a much better and more complete job of recording my heart’s behavior, but, unlike an , it doesn’t even alert me or anyone else if my heart has an immediate problem. I get image alerts on my Apple Watch, too, from various security cameras on our property, which can be set to only respond to people or to packages left on my doorstep, etc. I love the fitness and sleep tracking aspects of the Apple Watch. It’s basically like an iPhone that’s always with you and does things the iPhone can’t. My main gripe as an user is that Phonak hasn’t bothered making a smartwatch app, but then, since Phonak seems to have problems making a decent smartphone app GUI, a good smartwatch app may be beyond Phonak’s acumen.

Excellent points!

I bought my mother an Apple watch, she lives alone in her house. The biggest reason I got it for her was the fall detection feature (Help, I can’t get up commercials got me worried). The heath monitoring features are very useful.

Besides put in it on a charger nightly, there is nothing else you need to do if you don’t want to deal with the additional tech. She didn’t want it at first for the same reasons @lsmith77025 explained. She is 86 .

The same probably applies to rechargeable hearing aids, too. For Li-ion batteries, depth of discharge, time spent at very high or very low states of charge, and heat (especially at high states of charge) are the greatest enemies of battery long-term lifespan. Since my iPhone 14 Pro Max and Apple Watch Ultra in 2022 with accessories set me back about $2,500, I want them to last as long as possible (~6 years), although Apple can replace the batteries on both for a fee.

Being an old retiree mostly at home, I can partially charge the devices several times a day. I keep the % SOC of each between 40% and 60% SOC most times . After three years, both devices have 100% of their original battery capacity left according to the Battery Health monitor built into iOS and WatchOS. By maintaining charge while I’m awake, I get the benefit of monitoring sleep at night. To give my left wrist a break, I wear my watch on my right wrist while I’m sleeping.

The Apple Watch Ultra is supposedly built to withstand high environmental temperatures. For summer yard work, I don’t wear either my i90 Spheres or my iPhone outside for prolonged times if it’s over 85° F. And when I’m doing noisy work, I wear protective ear muffs, so wearing my hearing aids would be pointless anyway. In July and August, sometimes into September, it’s often around 100° F or more from mid-afternoon into the early evening in San Antonio.

In reply to @OcramSagev

I am so glad your mother is pleased.

Please understand, I live in a Senior Independent Living Facility and my apartment is FULL of technology - - Alexa, Wifi plugs, etc. And fortunately, we have Wifi pendants that notify the front desk where we are (anyplace on the property which consists of about 30 or 40 acres) if we press the button! I have so many USB chargers it is hard to keep up with them!! 2 or more in the bathroom, 3 or more in the bedroom including the 2 sets of hearing aids, and probably 6 or 8 in the main room!!

I have just drawn the line at the Apple Watch!! I have difficulty reading things on the phone and tend to use a large font so cannot immagine being able to “read” anything on the watch. We laugh a lot here at the people walking around with their wrist to their ear trying to hear a phone call on their watch!!

I LOVE my Signia’s except in noisy situations. I probably had some auditory processing issues BEFORE losing some hearing. I have ALWAYS had trouble understanding speech in a large group. So the Phonak Infinio is a real game changer for me in those situations. But, I was very disappointed to find out that I lost so many phone features by going to classic Bluetooth.

I will just have to learn to look at my calendar and see what my day’s activities include to decide which hearing aids to wear.

I fully understand - at one point one more is too much :slight_smile: Completely different living situations

Well, it is not true that iPhone cannot announce notifications to Phonak hearing aids: Apple has something called a handshake (?) that prevents it on purpose! I used google to get info how to bypass Apple restrictions by fooling iPhone that I was wearing a headset rather than and using Roger on as intermediary. After several permutations with AI and iPhone settings, I gave up and disconnected the Roger from iPhone (pulled the special Phonak audio cable). Guess what, I started getting announced notifications, just as when I use my HAs! It was evening. It worked that night and next day until I needed to restart the HA. The iPhone figured out the deception (ha ha, that’s what AI said) and it has not worked since. So Apple must be getting $ for MFi HA and squashes those that do not pay!!!

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