Anyone know why Phonak hasn't come out with an Apple Watch app?

Very valid point, @LarryJD! Oticon, Starkey and Resound all have Apple Watch support.

And just anecdotally: my mom, who is in her 80s, loves that she can control the volume of her Oticon Intents from her Apple watch. It’s not just for young people.

Just as with Auracast, Signia and Phonak are once again the laggards.

Phonak using Bluetooth classic is an advantage in my book. I wore Cticon aids for 15 years, and always struggled because Oticon aids didn’t connect to all my devices, and required extra devices to connect to some of them. My Phonak Spheres connect to all of my devices without the need for extra devices. They even pair to my watch for streaming. What we really need is a standard that all devices support. Until then my Phonak Spheres are awesome.

Why would they? Blutooth Classic works so much better for calls and streaming. Many of the other manufacturers, make their aids MFI (Made for iPhone). That’s a red flag for me. The battery hit isn’t that great either.

To be clear, adding support for Apple Watch would not require Phonak to also support MFI.

It would be nice if they would support MFI, but I’m not holding my breath.

Auracast is nice because it allows for easy switching between the various Bluetooth streams.

It’s true that Phonak’s support for Bluetooth classic makes it widely compatible. But the fact that there is no way to explicitly select which Bluetooth device to connect to is a real bummer.

I think it’s clear that an Apple Watch would be greatly appreciated by the community. There are many times each day that I need to change something on my Phonaks that requires me to take out my iPhone and fire up the Phonak app. It would be SO nice to be able to quickly make the changes on my Apple Watch. But what I really want to know is whether there is a technical or legal impediment to a Phonak Apple Watch app, or its it that they just haven’t got around to it (maybe because they don’t think it’s worth the effort or a priority). It would even be great to know that they’re working on it

@JordanK You can have your HAs setup so that a long press on the down button will mute them. I use that sometimes.

(And don’t get me started on how limited Phonak’s setup options for the buttons are… It’s stupid!)

@LarryJD, there are no technical or legal reasons why Phonak has no Apple watch support.

I suspect that

1. Phonak doesn’t think that it significantly impacts peoples purchasing decisions and therefore there is no ‘Return on Investment’ if they allocate engineering resources for it.

2. Audiologists (who are the real customers!) might even see it as a negative because now they have to support their customers when they have problems related to the Apple watch.

Might be the same logic behind limiting DIY fitting: protecting a clinic-centric model rather than moving toward Apple-style user control.

I have the Oticon Intent 1 hearing aids, but regularly test new releases from many manufacturers as it helps my audiologist in her practice from my experience. I have tried the Phonak Sphere 90’s but wasn’t impressed over the Oticon Intents, and after two weeks went back to the Oticon’s. Of course, I sorely missed the watch app for the Oticon.

I finally figured out how to open a Hearing Aid App on my watch even though a watch app is not offered and bypasses the need for a watch face complication. Now I can choose from any watch face, not just the few that offered a hearing aid complication.

On the phone:

1. First install the Manufacturer’s app on the phone.

2. Using the Shortcuts App, create a new Shortcut and for the action select “Open App” from the Controls tab.

3. Select the Hearing Aid app you want to open (in my case: Oticon Companion).

4. Rename the new shortcut to identify it later. Save it.

On the watch:

1. Open the Control Center (side button on the watch).

2. Click the Edit button at the bottom, then press the + icon.

3. Scroll down until you find Shortcuts, press that, then press the Shortcuts icon.

4. Select the new shortcut you created, then exit the edit menu, which saves your changes.

Now when you open the Control Center on your watch, pressing the Shortcut Icon will open the hearing aid app on your watch allowing you to discreetly make whatever adjustments the manufacturer allows on a watch app. Starkey does not offer a watch app, but after creating a shortcut, it did open. I don’t know what features can be mimicked on the watch, but it’s an alternative solution.

I only tried this with Oticon, Phonak and Resound, so testing was limited.

I couldn’t get it to work with Phonak. It creates the shortcut on the Watch’s control panel, but it doesn’t open when tapped. It must be because there is no Phonak app for the watch.

I did the same with Widex: when clicked, it opens the Widex Watch app.

If your aids are MFi, try adding the hearing icon on the watch Control Panel

(1) Open Control Panel on Watch, scroll down and click on Edit.

(2) Click on (+)
(3) Click on accessibility → hearing and select this.
(4) You will get the native WatchOS app on the control panel for MFi aids.

Alas, you are correct, my testing was flawed and I would agree that it will not work for apps that do not have a corresponding watch app. However, on the bright side, many watch faces do not include complications, so adding the hearing aid watch app to the Control Center is a quick way to access the app when needed allowing me to choose any watch face I want and still have the quick access.

There is another quick way of doing this:

On your phone

Watch App → settings → accessibility → accessibility shortcuts → hearing devices

With this , if you press the watch’s crown three times, you get the hearing aid control app