How to use Apple Watch to MFi hearing aids for phone calls... without iPhone present!

Hi Everyone, I am an audiometrist with Specsavers Audiology and I have some answers on these different devices. Any MFi hearing device will not connect to the apple watch directly - this includes brands like Widex, Signia, Rexton, GN resound and others I'm sure. There is one manufacturer that I am sure will work and that is Sonova who own Phonak and Unitron. They still employ classic bluetooth within their products and can be paired via traditional bluetooth pairing. This type of bluetooth does traditionally chew through battery life of hearing aids which is why LE bluetooth (MFi and ASHA supported devices) is now more commonly used by hearing aid manufacturers. We deal with most of the above manufacturers with no preference, there are many variables we use to select a device and should be discussed with the client based their needs. This is definitely worth bringing up with your clinician if its an issue and see what options you might have employing a compatible bluetooth streamer, if you're unable to return/exchange the devices. Good luck everyone

I have Widex Enjoy hearing aids. My experience is the same. Pairing with Apple Watch ver. 9 is not possible !! Alas !! I wish, Apple would EITHER update their Watch software / firmware so it would be able to communicate with my hearing aids

..... OR supply the name of one or more make of hearing aid, that IS able to communicate !!!!!

I am surprised, so few people write about this subject !

I ran into this issue as well and I have a Jabra Enhance Pro 10 (GN Resound). Unable to make/receive phone calls directly from my Apple Watch 4 GPS + LTE and be able to hear the call using my hearing aids without my iPhone being near by. I too want to be able to leave my iPhone at home and be able to take calls from my Apple Watch and be able to hear the caller through my hearing aids. Seems kind of pointless to have to carry my iPhone around just to be able to hear my phone calls from my Apple watch....

So, I called Jabra tech support. They explained to me that hearing aids use MFi which I understand is a "low energy" bluetooth protocol. When you go into the Apple watch configuration, MFI option is missing which means that the Apple Watch cannot directly see the hearing aids but needs the hearing aid app on the iPhone to do the communications between the watch and the hearing aids using normal Bluetooth. ie. Watch <--> iPhone using normal bluetooth. iPhone <--> hearing aids using MFi.

Jabra/Resound support is waiting on Apple to provide MFI protocol on their Apple watch so that those of us who use hearing aids can connect directly to our Apple watches using MFi without the need for the iPhone to be nearby, playing the role of the "middle man/bluetooth translator". At least that is how I understand it after going into the deep grass with Jabra technical support.

Can anyone forecast when/if Apple will put MFI (low energy Bluetooth protocol) into Apple Watch? Does the current Watch hardware chipset even enable use of that frequency/protocol? Years off, if not? As many hearing aids (like our Widex) don’t appear on iPhones as ordinary common Bluetooth devices, these appear under the ‘Accessibility’ area as hearing device connections. btw the Widex ComDex accessory has a mic and bridges the two types of protocols as for a PC or TV, and easier to wear that around the neck than carry the iPhone on a run.

No, no one can forecast this. This is a user to user only forum and none of us work for Apple or have any inside knowledge of anything Apple has planned for the future. Apple doesn't participate here, so no one from Apple will respond either. You can let Apple know this is a feature you'd like to see by providing feedback to them here --> Feedback - Watch - Apple

HoustonDave wrote:

We are protesting here to Apple

As Apple doesn't read here in this user-to-user technical support forum for feedback or suggestions, "protesting" to them here is likely to be ineffective.

You can let them know your thoughts here:

Product Feedback - Apple

I have the same problem, and I think it actually is apple's fault. As far as I know all mfi hearing aids can only connect to the iPhone through the accessibility menu, not the Bluetooth menu. Since the apple watch's accessibility menu lacks hearing aids support it isn't possible to use mfi hearing aids with it, which is a shame.

Unless apple adds this feature to the apple watch as well, your only option is to switch to non mfi hearing aids in the future, like Phonak, which works great with all devices including apple watch.

As near as I can tell, most Bluetooth compatible hearing aids use an advanced version of Bluetooth called LE (low energy) which they utilize for prolonged battery life. Apple Watches at this point only support standard Bluetooth. Standard Bluetooth and le Bluetooth run (parallel) but do not talk to each other (hence the need to have an iPhone translating in between the Watch and your hearing aids. Once Apple Watch starts using BT le, my thinking would be that an iPhone would not be needed in order to hear voice calls directly on your Bluetooth hearing aids. At least that’s my interpretation of the articles I’m finding.

It is a hardware issue with all the Apple watches - they do not support BT LE. There's no particular technical reason why they don't. If a tiny hearing aid can support BT LE then a clunky Apple watch certainly can.

If and when Apple design and build a watch with a chipset that supports BT LE then we will be able to go out with just our watch and still be connected to the world.

Until then, I won't be purchasing one.

Feel free to wait, but the wait may be quite long. You're asking about a specific brand that no one who happens on this thread may own or have ever used. When you're dealing with devices not made by Apple, it's always best to contact the manufacturer of the device.

I'll say this again. Apple didn't make these hearing aids. If the manufacturer doesn't support them being connected to the watch without the iPhone being present, that's on the manufacturer of the hearing aids and isn't something Apple would have any control over.

This was an excellent response and I hope it helps the Original Poster.

Buy an Watch and take your iPhone with you same as you do now. Everyone else does, whatever anyone says.

amspectrum wrote:

I put a SIM into Apple Watch... works fine. But it does not connect to my (Widex) hearing aids, so I can't use it stand-alone away from an iPhone. Audio from the watch is insufficient to use. Without hearing aids, it's useless.

Then you can't do it, if your hearing aid only connects to the phone.

There are hearing aids which will connect to Apple Watch. Perhaps your brand doesn't? But since Apple didn't make your hearing aids, you should contact the manufacturer of them to find out if they will connect to Apple Watch or not and if they will, how to connect them. This isn't an Apple issue at all.