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How can I switch between iPhone mic vs Phonak mic?

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I don’t think it’s fair to blame this on Phonak, but rather iOS. Programatically this isn’t a big deal to switch between two available input sources, no different than when you plug in an audio device to a Windows PC and the OS asks you what you want to do with it, how to configure it, etc.

@adambullock is correct. I went through this with Phonak for my Paradise P90 R hearing aids as well. This is a software limitation that Apple does not permit in iOS. The hearing aids have this option, but Apple will not allow any Bluetooth connected hearing aids to hear through the hearing aids and use the iPhone microphone at the same time.

There used to be somewhere in the app that you could select more background noise or less noise. Those is good when I’m walking on the road and listening to music - I want to hear environment noises around me, like cars etc. In your situation you could turn the background noise to very low so you could hear the person on the other end of your call. All that being said - - I cannot find it in the app. Maybe got changed since app updated to 4.0.3. Maybe someone can identify where that selection is. I looked and couldn’t find it.

In reply to @a13z

Again disagree the Phonak aids work you just can’t turn off the mic on the hearing and aids. My friends have the same issues with the Android phones.

I don’t think anymore that Phonak can be blamed for that.

Once the is paired to the phone as a device with headset capabilities, the phone no more uses its own mic for phone calls.

And next, when for a phone call the connection was established between phone and HA, the protocol does not allow to change this type of connection (back from headset to headphone only functionality).

Finally this also would have to be solved in the phone’s own phone-call-app. A button would be needed to deactivate the HA’s mics and activate the phones mic.

And yes @cvkemp , it is the same situation for Android and IOS.

@Sequoia_Woman: you are right, there are several possibilities to change options for the mics behavior, these are for streaming only (listening music, tv-connector…). But for phone calls the mics cannot be switched off. See my post in:

Mute on Phonak Audeo Paradise P90
You have 3 options to choose from, your fitter can set these using his software (Target): When streaming: Default: your aid’s volume button (up/down) are used to mix the loudness. More of ambient sound or more of streaming source sound. Up -> Streaming is louder. Down -> ambient sound is louder. I found this not satisfiyng, since the ambient sound cannot be switched off completly. And if I want to mute the mics it causes to increase the loudness of the streaming sound. Or Disable the mics w…

In reply to @Nocito

Nocito,

No from me!!! I understand you perfect.

I had the phonak marvel with ‘classic’ Bluetooth. It uses the hearing aids’ receivers for hearing the phone, and it uses the hearing aids own microphones for talking. I tried these in a steel mill. They were useless. Even in moderate noise, the person with whom I was conversing couldn’t understand me well. I could hear them fine.

No… there is no way to use a separate microphone instead of those of the aids.

You will have to move to another hearing aid brand or a non marvel based line of aids from phonak. None are perfect.

Resound Quattro is what I use.

@sufhl said:

Couldn’t Phonak program the BT as a headphone instead of a headset, thereby eliminating the hearing aid mic for phone calls?

Why would they do that?

They are hands free now. Absolutely great!

95% of the time I used the phone they were perfect. The other 5% of the time I usually walked a short distance to get away from the crazy noise and had a great conversation.

Now that I am with Cochlear I truly miss the hands free phone calls.

I’m happy for you that it worked so well @Raudrive. It was almost always unsatisfactory to me. I am switching from Paradise back to Oticon, which I find much more reliable for the user and Oticon doesn’t gouge us like Phonak does on Roger licensing and ridiculous pricing for their remote mics. The in the More sounds wonderful too.

Edited

I love my More1 aids but they aren’t for everyone. You should try them, just make sure they are probably fitted for your needs. The test is extremely important but for me a starting point. If you aren’t use to the Oticon open paradigm it could be hard to get use to.

By the way I haven’t missed the hands free I use to get with the Oticon streamer and streamer pro, the other parties always complained about the noisy background noise, and poor clarity

In reply to @cvkemp

thanks @cvkemp. I had the OPN1 and loved them. Just tried the Paradise for research purposes. I have an audi that does . Feeling hopeful! (and also have a eval in a few weeks).

In reply to @sufhl

It’s tough to assign blame because Apple has their “Made for iPhone” () program that grants hearing aids the ability to use the phone’s microphone during phone calls (Starkey hearing aids work this way). Playing by Apple’s rules has its benefits but I didn’t like how Starkey performed as hearing aids so I returned them. They also could not be used in hands-free mode the way Phonak ones with Bluetooth connection can be used, i.e. Starkey hearing aids did not use their microphone to send my voice on phone calls.

Phonak, as I understand it, chose not to participate in the MFi program because they wanted a more universal hearing aid that used Bluetooth to be compatible with Android phones.

I had hoped I could get a streamer to provide a more stable Bluetooth connection and better sound quality, but none of the Roger products work this way with the new line of Paradise hearing aids. It’s a shame. I had a better experience with my old Phonak Naida hearing aids that used a ComPilot streamer - which is unfortunately not compatible with Paradise even though they have the t-coil option.

So now I use the Bluetooth connection to start phone calls, and if the other person can’t hear me, I switch to t-coil mode and lose hands-free but at least the phone call is functional.

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