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Anyone connecting hearing aids to home server for smart alerts?

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Hi everyone,

I’ve been experimenting with integrating my hearing aids into my smart home setup so I can get alerts for things like the doorbell, smoke detector, or even notifications from my phone without relying on loud sounds or flashing lights.

Right now I’m using a few smart devices that talk to each other through a home server, but I haven’t found a straightforward way to send those alerts directly to my hearing aids. Has anyone here tried something similar?

  • Are there specific apps or middleware that make this easier?
  • Is it better to route notifications through the phone first or go straight to the hearing aids?
  • Any latency or reliability issues I should watch out for?

Would love to hear if anyone has managed to pull this off — or if there’s a better approach I’m overlooking.

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The way I have mine set up is that I have my hearing aids paired to my phone, and I use a Synology NAS that hosts Home Assistant. Then I have the application installed on my phone, so the home assistant server communicates with my phone, and the notifications go to my hearing aids. Then it expands out to Samsung Smartthings and Google Home, etc.

Edited

All my home alarms (smoke alarms on all floors, two flooding alarms in the basement, two heat sensors and a nightly motion alarm) report to my (Tuya) Smart Life app by WiFi. My WiFi basement dehumidifier (Comfee) signals to its NetHome Plus app when its tank is full. Both apps make my Android phone beep directly to my Phonaks, as they connect there all day by Bluetooth.
At night (with off), critical alarms will switch on a light that Google Home can “see”, in turn letting it switch on other (bedroom) lights, and yell out loud warnings, hopefully waking up someone in the household.

I suspect very, very few people in this forum can hear a standard smoke alarm beeping a few rooms away- so you need indeed to use WiFi-connected devices.
Forgot to mention; my door bell is not WiFi-connected. It uses a button that remotely rings bells that are plugged in the mains (pictured is one of these). You can expand this system with multiple bells all over the house (long-range signal). The doorbell uses a CR button battery that lasts for years (similar to automatic car keys).

IMG_5837

The smoke alarm just needs to have either wifi/zigbee connect to home assistant then have the home assistant on your phone and hearing aid pair to the phone and you will get alerts being sent to the hearing aid.

Yes, either the SmartLife or Home Assistant app (these do the same thing, but you cannot use both). Such smoke alarms are not very expensive. You can also set an alarm for when their batteries are low. I noted that the behavior of the test button is not identical to exposing the device to real smoke. Only the latter signals a genuine alarm to your app (tested using our hearth).

The claim that these devices “work with Alexa and Google Home” is exaggerated. Yes, you can do some things with these, but alarms do not get through. The trick is to use an alarm in Tuya (the apps listed above) to switch on a light that Google Home can “see” (detect is on), then triggering more actions (switching on more lights, yelling messages).

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