Since some years already standard Android 10 supports the open source ASHA (Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids) protocol. ASHA enables direct streaming of sound to modern, compatible hearing aids. This feature is a real blessing for many hearing device wearers. Unfortunately, /e/OS does not yet provide ASHA support for hearing aids.
Hearing loss is not a trivial problem. The WHO estimates that nearly 20% of the global population live with hearing loss. https://www.who.int/health-topics/hearing-loss#tab=tab_2
On behalf of so many hearing impaired people I would kindly ask the e.foundation to prioritize (if possible) the delivery of ASHA in one of its next /e/OS releases.
Looking at bugtrackers, only some devices include the overlay config to enable ASHA in Android 12 builds - for Android 13 the settings changed. There are also bugreport on hearing aid coupling witht he FP3, but unclear if the named App (myPhonak) uses ASHA for the audio stream or if itās proprietary: https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/backlog/-/issues/7024
Thereās not a lot of feedback in this forum on hearing aids, 1-2 prior questions - Direct audio streaming with hearing aids ā¦ I wonder if it works for most and thus no feedback, or if thereās not enough users
Iām using the Xiaomi 11 Lite 5G NE (lisa), with the Qualcomm SM7325 Snapdragon 778G 5G chipset.
The e/OS version is 1.11 (and hopefully later 1.15).
My Hearing aids are Advance 71R and I use the Hearing Remote app. Itās working fine both audiostreaming and phonecalls.
I think it depends on the chipset wich supports ASHA or not.
This information is not really relevant to the /e/OS but it confirms that streaming to an android device goes via ASHA. āWith Signia Augmented Xperience (AX) devices it is now also possible to stream directly to Android devices via the ASHA (Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids) standard.ā https://www.signia-pro.com/en/business-support/compatibility/
This information is indeed relevant for devices supported by /e/OS, especially the Google Pixel family, which is even scheduled to receive an upgrade to /e/OS āTā in 9/2023.
I also request this. My wife is hard of hearing with profound loss in speech frequencies, so using a phone is incredibly difficult, even with hearing aids.
while the Android version is one requirement for system support, what the manufacturer implemented in its own bluetooth libraries when shipping the last update is the other requirement. Itās not solely up to the system rom (as in /e/). I have this quote from a hearing-aid shop for Samsung devices:
UPDATE 08.10.2021: SAMSUNG support was kind enough to answer our request quickly. According to SAMSUNG, all flagship models (S, Note, Fold and Flip) from the S10 onward support ASHA. The prerequisite is that it is at least equipped with Android 10 and Bluetooth 4.2 with LE.
Iād be happy to look at āadb logcatā output of devices that fail to pair or stream audio to the hearing-aid - but youād need to have confirmation by the manufacturer that ASHA works in the stockrom (the vendor supplied operating system).
Signia Augmented Xperience (AX) ~ ASHA-supported Android devices ā¦