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PHONAK APP's FRUSTRATING FAULTS

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I am a new Phonak user who is SERIOUSLY considering returning the instruments over this extremely frustrating flaw. Wondering how many other find this an annoyance but figure they just have to put up with it. I think it can easily be fixed, with a simple software tweak once Phonak realizes the problem. The problem has two parts and both involve the speaker symbol to the lower left of the main volume slider display.
On the main app screen just left of the “ADJUST PROGRAM” button is a smaller icon shaped like a speaker. Not sure why it is the design of a speaker, when actually it should be mic shaped, or hearing aid shaped, because that is the mute control for the hearing aid microphones - right? But fine we know what it is. That is no big deal. The issue is that WHEN THE MICS are MUTED that symbol shows WITHOUT any slash through it. However, touching that icon speaker icon UN-mutes the hearing aids! So when the symbol is slashed, the sound from the mics is heard, and when they are muted, the slash crossing out the speaker symbol (meaning sound from microphones in aids) disappears. This is totally counterintuitive and honestly, I thought for a while I was losing my mind. With all the talk online about cognitive decline… well I began to seriously worry. Until I realized that it was showing the reverse! WHY???
But so much more frustrating is the actual behavior in real use.
In real use, one will frequently be tweaking the main volume slider - right, like if you are listening to the TV Adapter streamer, and a commercial comes on, or a low talker is speaking… in each case you might be expected to just touch that a bit lower or higher right? Or maybe you are conversing on the phone and a person raises his voice. Perhaps you are streaming from a computer - and again do a quick tweak - that’s to be expected - right? But guess what - each time you do that, IF you had the environmental sound - the sound from the mics in your hearing aids muted - right - GUESS WHAT - those hearing aid microphones GET UNMUTED! And to compound the insult, the misappropriated speaker symbol which was not slashed when it was muted, suddenly displays a slash - one would assume to symbolize that it is muted, but in fact you suddenly hear all the unwanted ambient noise!

Has anyone noticed this?
Am I the only one who thought I was losing my mind over this?

Phonak users please chime in here and let me know if I am the only one who finds the to be a serious flaw that undermines enjoyment of our pricey investment and that should be so simple to fix that this error should be a made an urgent priority.

I can only assume that many less tech savvy and experienced users have been flummoxed by this fault, but probably haven’t thought that it should be a quick fix.

Is anyone here from Phonak who can get this problem to the attention of those who can make a difference?

Is there any upper level contact information available to complain to ?
I am still on a trial of these units and gotta tell you… this is NOT a trivial flaw.

I do have another complaint… the app often will say “connecting, this may take a while” in a blue overlaid box. The aids are working fine. the streaming is fine, but that error message can continue to display FOR HOURS! My main issue with this is that the message is placed right atop that Speaker (mic) and the Adjust Program buttons, making activating them a matter of pressing just at the sliver of buttons that are not totally obscured by the blue message. This problem is far from being a deal breaker, but still, I question why it appears, persists, and has been designed to appear - not over all the blank space but over the most important operation icons on the whole app?
WHY?
Here is a screen shot of the blue banner in position described.

Phonak Frustration1

25 people in this conversation29 min readJump to latest

Well, Phonak engineering has some quirks, to say the least.
Things often work or are designed backwards from what is expected. (mute is just one of them)

I am new here, so not sure if this was the correct category to post this topic, but if their engineering cannot ensure obvious and easily apparent function, how can we feel confident in all the billions of processes that are supposedly occuring each second according to their plans? Can anyone here, reach out to them and see if this can be remedied. It is a needless source of constant stress.

And what is the “Connecting…” supposed to mean. It literally exhibits for hours on end.

I have to admit I’m not a power user of the Phonak App. When I first got my Phonak’s about 2 1/2 years ago I was constantly tweaking things, but now I generally leave it on automatic all the time. Only thing I really do now is turn the volume off when I want a little bit of silence. In that case the speaker icon makes sense to me as it’s turning off the speaker that I hear.

I’m glad that the app still works on a phone that is a hand me down to me, the phone must be 9 years old now but the app works fine on it.

I find if I have problems connecting it’s normally down to me not having restarted my phone in weeks or more.

With all the issues that I have in hearing, the app is the least of my worries.

Now if you say to me that I wont have the choice of a disposable battery option for me next set of hearing aids, that would get me riled up.

You are saying that the speaker icon shows a slash, when the sound is muted or when the sound - the hearing aid mics are on?
Curious why people like the discardable batteries. I been using rechargeables for four years now, and I love them. The tab pulling, the battery packet rotation, not losing one as it rolls behind furniture … the rechargebles are effortless, and I have never had them die in my Oticon units. Give them a try and you won’t miss changing them every few days.

Personally, I rarely even use the Phonak app. I only really use it to test a programme that I’ve added through the fitting software (example Speech in noise). I’ll get myself in the environment, and make (and save) adjustments. I’ll then make permanent adjustments in the fitting software.

I’d rather manually switch programmes with long presses on the than stop a social conversation by saying: “Hang on, I can’t hear you, let me use my phone”.

Agreed @PeterH, I rarely if ever use the Phonak app, the early years of the app put me off indefinitely, it was rank rotten… I may check in the app if my Roger X receivers are registering, if I have swapped aids, I use the rocker switch for the occasional up or down with the volume, as waiting for the app to load, is like watching paint dry :slight_smile: Autosense for everything else, I have really no need for the app, if I am being honest… Phonak, do make exceptionally good hearing aids, but they are piss poor when it comes to their apps…Having said that, most of the other hearing aid manufacturer’s don’t really get much of a good name either, if this forum is anything to go by? Cheers Kev :wink:

Speaker icon definitely shows a slash when sound is on, the opposite of what it should normally indicate. An incomprehensible quirk for sure. The endless ‘connecting, this may take a while’ is far more frustrating! Happens with good wifi reception as well as 5g, and reliable bluetooth connection; no clue why.

I would like to participate as a senior tester of new hearing aid designs

I know this would help prevent the difficulties you experience.

I searched for information on myPhonak. It encouraged audiologists and hearing instrument specialist to connect with my hearing aids to prevent and resolve setup issues. I’ve never had the two experts I’ve seen suggest it.

My dispensing Audi often called Phonak Canada while I sat beside him listening on speaker phone. There never was a suggestion to check in on myPhonak

My thought is that myPhonak should be used more to resolve hearing aid users setup issues in the noisy environments where we can’t hear.

In reply to @tori.naess50

Well glad to read that I am not the only one experiencing these things.
What is MOST disturbing though is how the speaker icon and microphone status gets toggles when a streaming source volume is changed in any way - up or down.
Why would that be programmed to occur?
What could be the rationale for it?
Perhaps someone from Phonak would be able to explain this?
Is there an effective way to contact them to bring situations like this to their attention?

Edited

in the My Phonak app this Symbol
grafik
is showed , when the microphone is in working state. (not muted)

In the MyPhonak App user guide7 , you can find this section (on Page 25):

Software maintenance:
“We are constantly monitoring feedbacks from the market. If you experience any issues with the latest app version, please contact your local manufacturer representative and/or provide feedback in the Appstore or Google Play Store”.

If a lot of users leave a comment about the mute button in the App-Store , then maybe phonak will change the button picture to a microphone symbol and change the behaviour of the toggle status. ( slashed if muted / not slashed if unmuted)

Hi. I may be wrong about this, but I think the button on the app is intended to show the action associated with that button. For example, if you press the button while the speaker is slashed out, then it will mute the microphone. So it’s like the button’s saying “press me if you want to mute.” And vice versa, if you want to unmute. Not sure if this makes sense, but it seems to be the idea. :man_shrugging:

Hello @IGZO I am only occasionally here but saw this post of yours. Feeling bad about it. To be honest, even my father told me what’s wrong with that app… :open_mouth:

Problem is, it’s not a bug, it’s just the way it is designed. Idea obviously was to say “this is what happens next if you press the button”, hence the strike-through works opposite of what you expect.

Hi @Michael_Phonak,

This is a bit off topic, but I have a few (basic) suggestions from a user’s perspective regarding the MyPhonak App which I’m taking the liberty of listing down here. (I had originally suggested these on another thread some time back.). I wonder if you (or someone you know) would be kind enough to direct the attention of the relevant team(s) at Phonak to these.

(1) It would be great if we could turn the ’s on / off using the myPhonak App itself (like in mobile phones), instead of having to use the physical keys on the HA’s. (If turning on is not possible, then atleast an off / shutdown feature would be great - could help reduce wear on the physical keys.)

(2) Similarly, it would be great if we could turn the HA’s bluetooth on / off through the App. This way we wouldn’t have to use the physical keys to turn on flight mode for disabling bluetooth.

(3) I would so very much love to have a feature where we can mute the HA mics while streaming phone calls & use the mic on the phone instead. That way both parties to the call would be able to clearly hear each other, without all the annoying background noise. (This would greatly help in real-life situations where a HA user may not be in a totally calm & silent environment while having to attend phone calls.).

(4) A facility to mute the HA mics while streaming from the same mobile device. This would be a great feature to have while streaming music or podcasts from the phone.

Apologies to the original poster for going off topic. Just thought that since someone from Phonak was here, might as well mention these. Thanks.

In reply to @Michael_Phonak

Hmmm. Well that feature certainly seems counterintuitive - are you actually associated with Phonak, Michael? If that is a feature, then is it also a feature which causes the mic’s to UNMUTE when the streaming volume is increased? Please explain that rationale to me. Regarding the speaker icon - why is it a speaker, and not a mic - I think two mics like ( ) would be much more appropriate.
Every day, as I cross the street, there are lights. Traffic lights.
Are those red and green lights an indication of what will happen NEXT, or indication of current status.
A meaningful implementation for me, would be the icon of two microphones which normally are BOLD when they are active, and not as black, somewhat ghosted when they are muted.
HOWEVER Most importantly is that they remain as set, UNTIL I changed them. Not in response to Streaming setting!!!

In reply to @Heyjoe

Blockquote
IF the aids is off, then how would your phone be able to connect?
Physical keys are vital to ensure that we are not prey to an unseen, unfelt situation.
The phone provides so much finer control than a few buttons behind your back can be expected to provide. It is such a granular and advanced control.
You have a point about the using the phone mic, this is how things used to work, I believe. But I find the hearing aid mics much more convenient, for when I am outdoors, or walking around, even in the office or house. If someone else near me, is speaking they expect I should hear them, so my aids will, and this means I don’t have to worry about where my phone is exactly. I often leave it on the table, as I go to a cabinet or water cooler.
On my iPhone 12Pro, the app does allow variation to some extend between the volume of a YouTube playing and the mic volume of the environment. Experiment with the four volume controls: the level of the Video Playing in YouTube, the Phone Volume, the Stream volume and the Speaker (mic) icon display. Let me know if in tweaking all those you cannot find some desired balance?

In reply to @Teewens

The problem with that, I think is how if someone for example is watching TV, or I walk away from the computer, well, I want to disconnect temporarily from that sound source. But in stay connected mode, it will just reconnect, right?

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