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Oticon ON app rant

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Here goes my rant about the Oticon ON app. I had been having connectivity issues with my iPhone and More1 aids, mostly while using the TV adapter but also while using the connect clip and trying to be paired to the iPhone and iPad was a impossible. Over this last week I deleted the ON app from my iPhone and use the iPhone control panel to do what I need for my aids. I have had very few issues with connectivity, I have had better battery life out of my aids and my iPhone, I haven’t had issues with my connect clip, and have been able to be paired to my iPhone and iPad and have the Bluetooth enabled on both, but I still don’t recommend having the iPhone and iPad Bluetooth enabled at the same time yet. I have lost the MoreSoundBoost which I was using for meetings and the restaurants but I haven’t had too much issues by not using it. Also, there is the loss of the equalizer which I don’t use. There is still the one time I had connectivity issues but there was some kind of wifi type inference in the neighborhood, I believe it was due to a maintenance truck with a 2way radio.
I have found I can live without the ON app, and that my hearing aids’ battery life improves as does my iPhone’s battery life. I can do everything I need to do from the the iPhone control panel, except for the MoreSoundBoost that I have managed to do without.

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They don’t believe us is my feelings, I posted this on the App Store and the developers said to contact Apple and complain about my iPhone connectivity issues. It was a copy and paste comment that is all that I have ever seen in the App Store. Now I sent this to my Audiologist and he forwarded it to Oticon USA corporate and the return said yes they know they have problems with the app and was looking into it, so corporate knows of the issues

Edited

I just want to point out that you don’t have to always NOT use the ON app, just like you don’t have to always DO use it. My approach is that I don’t normally use it and have it turned on at all. The hard buttons on my usually suffice in most situations and if not, I’d use the MFI interface first. But if there are things in the ON app that are not available in the MFI interface, then I’d just enable the ON app to use those exclusive features, but just make sure to close the ON app when I’m done using them. Or just don’t bother closing it (if I’m lazy), and just to make sure it’s the first thing I close at the first sign of trouble.

The whole point is that the ON app usage is not an exclusively use-or-no-use situation. Just use it when you need it and not use it when you don’t need it. It’s just a tool in your box of tools. So use your other tools first until/unless you must use that tool to do something other tools can’t do for you.

I tried it that way and even with the Bluetooth denied to the ON app I was having issues with connectivity. As an Electronics technician and software engineer I can’t explain it. But I was still getting bad connectivity with my aids anytime I used the TV adapter and I was getting less battery life of both my aids and iPhone. I just gave up and deleted the app and learned how to work around it.

Maybe you know I am wondering if a program can be created using my default program but enabling the MoreSoundBoost by default. And adding it to my available program list.

@cvkemp said:

except for the MoreSoundBoost that I have managed to do without.

Could theoretically have your clinician pop that into a manual program and just access it with the button or the internet iphone app.

Hearing aid apps on the whole aren’t fantastic, but the ON app sucks specifically.

In reply to @cvkemp

@cvkemp said:

Maybe you know I am wondering if a program can be created using my default program but enabling the MoreSoundBoost by default. And adding it to my available program list.

I don’t see why you can’t have your audi create the equivalent of the MoreSound Booster effect and add it as one of your 4 programs. I’d rather do that than enable it in the ON app because then I can just switch in and out of it via my hard buttons more easily.

The 2 key things for make the equivalent of the MoreSound Booster is to select Full Directional in the Directionality Setting, and to enable high max Neural Noise Suppression. Maybe the simplest is to use the Speech in Noise program but set it to Full Directional manually instead of leaving it in Neural Automatic.

jinx

…
(Oh my goodness, the forum just complained that the body of my message did not include a complete sentence.)

Only value for me with the ON app is to change the program via Apple Watch. The More Sound Booster is somewhat redundant with the Speech in Noise and Directionality program

You can change programs by way of the watch without the ON app just the same as you can can the program from the iPhone control panel.

That works, and swiping the screen up from the bottom.

Edited

I have found it a lot easier to live without the ON app than I had imagined. I have even managed meetings and noisy restaurants much better than expected. I have come to realize that the ON app is just a battery drain on both the aids and iPhone.

2 comments on this post:

  1. My experience when I bought expensive Oticon hearing aids in 2014 was that they just did not perform to specifications, the agent (I later discovered Audio Clinic were an Oticon subsidary, not an un-biased supplier) and everyone else I contacted just played me along, and did nothing effective to rectify things. I later discovered Otican has a track record in Australia - the corporate plod has pinged their subsidiaries, but that does nothing for the customers. Hence I will never look at Oticon again.
  2. I now have Phonak hearing aids under trial, and have similar problems with the myPhonak app. The explanation so far is that Nokia phones can be flaky in supporting the myPhonal App, but I am waiting for more info on this. Before purchase I confirmed my phone had the correct bluetooth version to work with the hearing aids, seems I shou,d have asked if the two were fully compatible. I am staill waiting for advice on which phones work reliably with the myPhonak App.

I have been wearing Oticon aids for 12 years and the aids keep getting better, but the app really isn’t needed for the IOS devices. I have found regardless the brand of aids it is the audiologist or hearing aid specialist that makes the whole process work. I great Audiologist with the true knowledge of the aids make the aids work. If the audiologist doesn’t know how to do the fitting correctly even the best aids are useless. An audiologist that knows the aids can make lesser and average aids great and a poor audiologist can make the best aids useless

This is interesting. I have a More with . Got them about 3 months ago. I have been pretty happy with the set up but have learned some things also.

  1. The streaming issues you describe with the TV streamer are real. As soon as you connect to the streamer to stream the app will stop working about 5 seconds after. If you look in the iPhone’s bluetooth (under the compabilitliy settings, not regular ) you’ll see it trying to connect. I reported this to Oticon support and they confirmed they are aware of the issues but blamed Apple. About what I expected. So, I just live with it and if I want to stop streaming I actually use my receiver remote to mute zone 2 which is what I use for the TV streamer so this works well.
  2. I was eager to get Oticon’s big firmware update they released recently so I went in to my audi to get it. It does switch the More to 2 way audio on calls on the iPhone, meaning it uses the More for the mic, so it is a hands free set up. Problem is it makes audio to the other end much worse. This is true for any manufacturer trying to do this. I had a Phonak Marvel and it was the same thing, I trialed a Paradise and audio to other callers was better but still not great. I would have kept it but battery life with their CROS wasn’t surviving the day so I returned them.
    This latest change was not sitting well with me because I use my phone daily almost all day for calls for work. I contacted my audi and wanted to get the firmware rolled back, but I decided to try Oticon support once again. They actually fixed my issue this time. They advised me to triple click the power button on my iPhone, then go to Input options and turn it off. This returns it to using the iPhone for the mic on calls which I want because sound quality to the other side is better. I don’t mind holding the phone up closer to my mouth when I want to speak and honestly if you’re sitting at a table the iPhone on the table is no big deal, the other side will hear you fine. Now I’m pretty happy once again but the TV streamer app issue is not resolved. I’m surprised, this is pretty lousy on Oticon’s part, looks like they’ve known about it for years and at some point they should fix it and stop blaming Apple.

Yesterday I streamed the TV for 3 hours with no issues, the app is deleted. I haven’t had the app on my iPhone for over a week, haven’t missed it at all and haven’t had any connectivity issues. But I have learned to restart my iPhone in the morning before removing my aids from the charger.

@cvkemp Is your apple watch complication for the Hearing Aids still working? I can’t add the Apple complication (the Oticon one still works) and when i go to the Control Center on the watch and click on the icon, the complication shows a spinning icon on the screen and eventually craps out…

The problem started with AppleWatch 8. I have a Series 6…

I too want to get rid of the Oticon app and are willing to lose the Open Sound Booster but seems I’d also lose the Apple Watch complication…

Grateful for feedback on whether you have this issue or what you did to get around it…

My Apple Watch has a very similar control panel as the iPhone so I can still do most of what I do on the iPhone on the watch.
I never found the ON app on the watch that great anyway

Thanks. Sadly, that functionality from the watch that also exists on the iPhone is not working for me on the watch (works fine on the iPhone)… Saw some posts on the internet with people with similar symptoms but no obvious fix… I do have the latest AppleWach software 8.4.2…

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