Streaming to hearing aids on iOS, but not OSX - why?

[dogbertd]

I have bone-anchored hearings aids, and they work incredibly well with my iPhone and iPad, which are able to stream music and calls direct to my aids. My Macbook Pro, however, cannot do this.

Does anyone know why this should be? Is it a hardware or software issue?

It seems strange to me that if I want to watch a movie on my iPhone or iPad I can get the sound sent straight to my aids, but to do the same with my Macbook, I need to use a third-party dongle (which doesn't actually work as well as the apple system). I find this quite odd.

 

[G5isAlive]

Devil is always in the details, and you don’t give a lot here, which hearing aid, which protocol, which version of Mac OS for example, how many devices your aid can pair too, but making some assumptions it sounds like a Bluetooth pairing issue that potentially be solved by first unpairing from you phone and restarting from scratch. You might find this thread useful...

My Macbook Pro will not pair with my hear… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

hope this helps

 

[dogbertd]

I have the Cochlear BAHA 5 aid, an iPhone X running iOS14, an iPad running iOS14 and a 2020 Intel Macbook Pro (13") running Big Sur. The discussion you link to doesn't really address the issue, since the method suggested didn't work. I've never been able to connect my aid to the Macbook (and not just this one, but a prior macbook Pro and a macbook Air I used to have).

It seems to be intentional, and I'm curious to know what might be at the root of it - hardware, software, licensing or whatever. It just seems odd to me that the phone and pad can both achieve this feat, while OSX cannot. Do the phone and pad use a different bluetooth module to the Macbook?

 

[Clix Pix]

I hear you! . Bilateral Cochlear BAHA 5 sound processors, iPhone 11 Pro running iOS 14, plus iPads running iPadOS 14, with a 2018 Intel MBP and a 2020 13" M1 MBP......and, yep, unable to directly connect either MBP to my BAHAs without needing an intermediary device. My guess is that there is some sort of BT protocol or something else which prevents the kind of direct streaming we'd both like from the MBP or any MacOS machine.....

 

[MevetS]

I hear you! .
... snip ...

I see what you did there ...

 

[dogbertd]

Just to finish this thread off, I got in touch with Cochlear, who indicated that the lack of direct streaming to the BAHA on a Macbook is a software issue, rather than any hardware incompatibility. I did raise this with Apple some time ago, but never get any response. We'll just have to wait until all the bright young things at Apple start to lose their hearing, I guess...