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Apple Watch Ultra - which hearing aids work with it?

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I’m getting ready to buy new hearing aids.

I’d like to know which hearing aids have AppleWatch apps and what they do.

For example, I can change programs and adjust volume of my 6 year old Widex Beyond 440’s on my watch.

Working with my watch could be a tie breaker.

Has anyone seen a comprehensive list anywhere?

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To my knowledge only Phonak aids can connect directly to an Apple Watch, other aids would have to have an external device to connect the aids with the watch.

Edited

You might define what you mean entirely by “work with.” Whether you just mean, can you control your ’s via having a version of your HA smartphone app on the watch, too, or whether you also mean, “can I stream from the watch to my HA’s?”

As far as working to control your HA’s, when you look in the iOS App Store, a little bit of script under each app will tell you the devices on which the app can work. So, if the script doesn’t say “Apple Watch,” you won’t be able to add a version of the HA app to your Apple Watch from your iPhone.

As far as streaming goes, AFAIK, Apple Watches don’t do connectivity. They do stream classic and as such you can stream them to devices that connect via classic BT, for example, regular old earbuds or Apple AirPods (no firsthand experience here myself). Or, if you have an intermediate streaming device for your MFi HA’s like a Phone Clip+ for ReSound, you could stream to your HA’s by streaming through the intermediate device with all the latency problems, etc. I should think with the current line of Phonak devices, you could stream directly to your HA’s via classic BT (Marvels, Paradise, Lumity, etc).

IIRC, though, the thing about the Apple Watch 8 (including the Ultra) is that these devices are BT 5.3 capable. So, whenever, if ever, Apple decides to come out with support for BT , one could presumably stream directly to any HA that is BT LE Audio capable. The Apple Watch Series 7 only supports BT 5.0, according to Apple’s specification listing: Apple Watch Series 7 - Technical Specifications2.

I have ReSound Quattros and the ReSound Smart 3D app works great on my Apple Watch Ultra. But one has to have connectivity to one’s iPhone, presumably because it’s the iPhone that’s doing the “talking” to one’s HA’s via its MFi connectivity. Ultra watch control of the HA’s works with either BT or Wi-Fi connectivity to my iPhone, IIRC. Haven’t tried the watch HA app connectivity to my iPhone via cellular yet. According to Apple, the watch intelligently prefers BT to Wi-Fi to cellular because of the increasing battery drain of those types of connectivity. So, that’s awesome, IMHO.

BTW, as far as cellular connectivity goes, anyone who has Spectrum (Charter) Internet cable service should look into switching to Spectrum Mobile just for Apple Watch cellular connectivity. I was an AT&T Prepaid (AutoPay) customer previous to getting my Ultra. I paid ~$44/mo for 6 Gb data c unused 1 mo rollover, unlimited calling & texting. But Verizon & AT&T only support the Apple Watch on postpaid unlimited accounts, prospectively costing me >$90/mo or >$80/mo total, respectively, to include my Ultra on the unlimited cellular plan I would have to carry.

With Spectrum Mobile (if you have Spectrum Internet), I’m on a By the Gb plan @ $14/mo/Gb. I pay $10/mo for the watch, with no added taxes or surcharges for either part of the plan. Since I’m mostly at home, my calling and surfing is almost via our Spectrum Internet cable service (~$80/mo) by Wi-Fi. The Spectrum cellular service is MVNO and provided by Verizon, so it’s quite good and includes 5G connectivity (the Ultra is only 4G LTE-capable, but I use the 5G, where available, with my iPhone). I get international roaming in Canada, I think it was $.01/call, $.02/text, and $.01/Mb data. So, for my low outside-my-home data usage, I’m paying $24/mo (in addition to an $80/mo cable charge that I’d pay anyway) for unlimited calling and texting and Apple Watch Ultra cellular connectivity. Based on my former ~$44/mo AT&T Prepaid payment, I will effectively pay for my Apple Watch Ultra in a little over three and a half years by the savings on switching to Spectrum Mobile.

One final note on Spectrum Mobile. I bought my Ultra as an unlocked device, directly from Apple. It took something like Tech Level 3 Spectrum Mobile Support to get it connected to the Spectrum Mobile network (Verizon) and a week or more of waiting. It seems like an Apple Watch Ultra sold by Spectrum Mobile works great out of the box for cellular connectivity. Since my Ultra was one of the first delivered by Apple, hopefully Spectrum has improved the out-of-the-box cellular connectivity for unlocked Ultras since then.

So, I’m also in the market for new HA’s. A major consideration is how they help me hear speech-in-noise. A modest consideration but important consideration is how they work with my Ultra. If I were picking new HA’s solely on how they worked with my watch, I’d go with ReSound and its fantastic Smart 3D app (and the great HA rechargeable battery life with the option to use disposables if one prefers those). However, in the ReSound Omnia vs. the Phonak Lumity thread on the forum, several experienced ReSound users prefer the Lumity over the Omnia for sound quality and speech-in-noise ability, even though they are only available for now as rechargeables with far inferior battery life compared to ReSound. I don’t believe the My Phonak app runs on an Apple Watch.

So, I will definitely be checking out the Lumity and if I have the same comparative experience that JordanK and Ureout have had vs. the Omnia, foregoing any use of the Ultra to control my HA’s. There are a ton of other great features of the Ultra that, IMHO, make it well worth its expense. Apple can change the battery for $99, too. Don’t know what the risk is with that to its waterproofness, etc. But the ability to get a new battery made it much easier to swallow the price and hopefully Apple will support the watch for many years to come and even more wishful thinking on my part, support BT LE Audio streaming from the Ultra someday to all BT LE Audio-compatible HA’s and other devices.

Edit_Update: I see that I already made a similar post in another thread: Resound Omnia vs Phonak Lumity - #33 by jim_lewis. Sorry about that. Memory is definitely decreasing with age and I should have checked more thoroughly before posting in somewhat similar detail here.

That was the question:

Which hearing aids work with the Apple Watch Ultra? What functions can be performed from the watch? Is there an AppleWatch app for these hearing aids?

I’m more interested in controlling the hearing aids than I am in streaming music or answeringhone calls.

Edited

Well, ReSound used to have a DEMO mode for the Smart 3D app. You didn’t need to have ReSound ’s to try the app features (i.e., you could step through menus, make mock adjustments). But it seems in the latest version of the app, they killed the DEMO mode (it was confusing in that beginners often forgot that they had switched to DEMO mode and wondered why their HA’s stopped responding to Settings changes!). So, now ReSound has a Guiding Tips feature that pops up tutorial tips from time to time on an iPhone, instead, without taking you out of HA control mode.

That’s too bad because if there were still DEMO mode, it would be great if that let you try out Smart 3D app features available on an Apple Watch Series 8. You have a choice in the app on your iPhone as to whether to load a simplified version or an ~almost full version of the Smart 3D app onto your Apple Watch. With the Ultra, I haven’t noticed any performance hit at all with the almost full version of the Smart 3D app on my Ultra - but then my iPhone, which is doing most of the work, is an iPhone 14 Pro Max.

Without spending a bunch of time doing research for you, I’d say that the main thing that’s missing is the graphical interface to the Sound Enhancer. You get + and - buttons to adjust Treble and Bass but no adjustment of Mid-Tones as you do on the iPhone itself in a beautiful graphical interface. You get all of your programs including those that involve accessory devices like the Multi Mic or the TV Streamer 2. You also get access to any GPS-activated Favorite programs that you have created. Depending on the program, you will be able to control the amount of noise filtration, the amount of speech focus, the amount of wind noise reduction, all from your watch.

If you’re a “control freak,” you might want to download all the various HA smartphone apps onto your iPhone and see what they’re like on the iPhone itself. That’s what I did on my Android phone before I got my HA’s, and I loved the Smart 3D app compared to any other smartphone HA app that I tried. But that was four years ago, and a lot has changed since then. Just like you, I love the ease of being able to adjust my HA’s easily as I desire - and I think ReSound provides that. But I do want to check out other brands, particularly Phonak, to see if they’ll help me hear better.

P.S. A regrettable omission on ReSound’s part is that they don’t seem to have any good guide or illustrations as to how the Smart 3D app works on an Apple Watch. Since the app works almost the same way it does on an iPhone itself, albeit through a differently arranged graphical interface, perhaps ReSound didn’t think any watch-specific guide was needed. If you know how to use the Smart 3D app on an iPhone, you’ll intuitively be able to use it on an Apple Watch.

P.P.S. One other thing the Smart 3D app cannot do on an Apple Watch. It doesn’t show how much charge is in your rechargeable HA’s, at least not for the Quattros. However, if you have Hearing Devices inserted as a widget in the Control Center on your iPhone, it also shows up on the Ultra watch when you swipe up on the watch face from the bottom and then you tap on the ear symbol, you’ll be able to see the remaining charge for the HA in each ear, same as on the iPhone.

Edited

I actually have an Apple Watch and the Jabra *s, there is an app that goes on the watch and yes you control the HAs with it. So, Resound HAs for sure work with the watch. I cannot speak of other brands since I don’t own them.

PS. Resound Smart 3d has an Apple Watch app. Perhaps check other brands in the App Store.

Edited

I am strictly in an Apple environment and just got fitted for Oticon More 1minirite R, iOS 16.1.1 and the 1.4.1- no issues with streaming & connectivity but I do not answer call via the HA.

I have 4 settings and all show up on my Apple Watch which I didn’t know about until yesterday when I was scrolling through my watch. It automatically added to my watch when I downloaded the ON app. Love having the battery level on the watch too.
[Here is a screenshot of my watch] I put a shortcut on my watch face. (https://imgur.com/a/QDSuDta62)

Edited

Just want to share my experience with my Lumity L90 (With active vents) music listening from my Apple Watch (latest generation). As type this I am listening to my Tidal favorite tracks bluetooth streaming from the watch wifi connected to Tidal. It amazed me that sound quality was respectable with some music equalization settings in MyPhonak. I can walk around the house enjoying the Master tracks and do a double ear tap when my wife needs my attention (pauses the streaming and active vents open up). I can then tap on the watch to restart the track I was listening to. Volume is easily controlled with the watch side wheel. Side note: I have very high quality headphones and TWE earbuds for best listening quality but this setup is so convenient for listening on the move.

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