Does iPhone’s Headphone Safety setting apply to hearing aids? It does apply to Bluetooth headphones and even external speakers. I’ve noticed that in louder environments I can’t hear streaming or calls well and possibly I need to a adjust this setting (or it could be my aids). I’ve tried to test the setting and I don’t notice a change. iOS also does not seem to track exposure levels for hearing aids. Perhaps I just need to mute the aids so noise doesn’t drown out the streaming/call?
Apple don’t seem to care much about hearing issues: still no sensible tone control for example. They do urge us to buy their official earbuds, which would have a bearing on what levels the phone will deliver to the ear, and there is an alert if you listen at ‘too high’ a level for too long - but again that’s only going to be valid for Apple earpieces of designed impedance and sensitivity.
My iPhone 11 does mute the mics by some 90 percent when a phonecall comes in, or when I choose to listen to the news. I’m very surprised to learn from you that the safety alert works for external speakers. Surely they have onboard volume controls which would cut across that?
I’m not sure if my reply is relevant to this thread or not. If not, please forgive me, I’m no longer a spring chicken, so my understanding might not be so strong as my attempts at “good intentions”.
Having said that, I have never had an alert when I’m streaming music from my iPhone through my [Phonak M90 13-T], nor when I’m streaming from the TV via my Roger Select. But then, I tend to keep the volume down when I’m streaming. I’m much more likely to be streaming Chopin Nocturnes than thrash metal, and the former doesn’t really call for turning things up to 11. As for the TV, I like to keep things down a bit so that I can have a chance at understanding my spouse should she offer a comment on what we’re watching.
BUT, I most certainly have received alerts about overly loud sound levels going into my HAs when I’m practicing my flute. It doesn’t happen a lot, but I guess I crank things up occasionally, at which point, I do get a nasty beep in my ears, and chiding messages sent to my iPhone and iWatch. Which is all to say, that if you are listening to Megadeath properly (i.e. turned up to 11) I would imagine that you would get the censorious beeps. Sadly for this forum, I’m not really much likely to do a scientific experiment to test out this last “theory”.
Interesting difference depending upon whether a hearing aid uses classic Bluetooth or mFi. Are Phonak aids paired in iOS as hearing aids or as a Bluetooth headphone?
I no longer have an iPhone as i walked away from alk things ios this time last year. I switched to Samsung Galaxy S23 phone and have been much happier with my connectivity to my Oticon Real1 aids. But I was told a few years ago by my audiologist that my aids were adjusted so that they cannot stream louder sound into my ears than is safe for my hearing. But that some devices like iPhone and even Android phones could give me warning alerts to that effect. Actually whwn i had my iPhone i disabled the alerts, and have also done so on my Samsung phone. I can’t tolerate loud sounds, like truck exhaust, loud live music or even a sudden loud dog barking.
Crediton town, Devon UK
Reading, Massachusetts, USA