Why feed iPhone mic to hearing aids?

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Level 1

8 points

Why feed iPhone mic to hearing aids?

Has anyone else using hearing aids noticed this?

I use an iPhone 13 Pro Max with iOS 26.6 and Starkey Omega AI 24 hearing aids. For some time I have been hearing what appears to be audio from the iPhone microphone fed into my hearing aids under certain conditions.

After watching it for quite a while, I think I have found a repeatable pattern.

When an app brings up the normal iOS alphanumeric keyboard for text entry, the iPhone microphone appears to come on and I can hear the surrounding ambient sound through my hearing aids.

I can duplicate this in ChatGPT and Messages, and I believe in Mail as well.

There also appears to be a timeout associated with it. If the keyboard is displayed but I stop entering anything and just wait, after a short period the microphone feed shuts off. Start entering text again and the behavior returns.

As a comparison, I use a Sudoku app that has its own number-only input buttons rather than bringing up the normal iOS alphanumeric keyboard. When I use those buttons, I do not get the microphone feed through my hearing aids.

So the repeatable pattern appears to be:

iOS alphanumeric keyboard active → ambient microphone sound heard through hearing aids.

Stop entering text and wait → after a short timeout, microphone sound stops.

Resume text entry → microphone sound returns.

App uses its own input buttons rather than the iOS alphanumeric keyboard → no microphone sound.

This is particularly noticeable in a noisy environment because the surrounding noise is fed into my hearing aids and can actually make it more difficult to hear what I want to hear.

I have already turned Live Listen off, with no observable effect, and have gone through the usual troubleshooting. The behavior persists.

I don’t know what part of iOS is causing it, but at this point I am strongly convinced that something associated with iOS text entry is triggering an audio path to my hearing aids.

I’m curious whether anyone else who uses hearing aids with an iPhone can duplicate this.

Try bringing up Messages or another app that uses the normal iOS keyboard, type for a few seconds, then stop and wait. Do you hear the iPhone’s surrounding ambient sound in your hearing aids while typing, followed by the sound disappearing after a short timeout?

Or am I the only one WATCHING closely enough to notice it?

iPhone 13 Pro Max

Posted on Sep 5, 2026 7:07 AM

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Answer 1

Sep 5, 2026 8:58 AM in response to TommyAW

There have been no other reports of this, so there is no 'canned' solution. But divergent thinkers here can help you consider possible other causes.

Yours appear to be very fine AI assisted MFI hearing aids with the ability to use the Hearing Aid microphone for two-way Bluetooth communication on phone calls, a complicating factor, but not likely to be the culprit.

Look again at Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Devices > Audio Routing ...

On mine I always have it set to

Call audio => Always Hearing Devices and

Media Audio => Always Hearing Devices...

...and I expect you do as well.

back up one screen and check

Control Nearby [iOS] Devices and

Audio Handoff...

mine are both always on, and I have never had your symptoms. But I don't think I use them for anything. Maybe 'Control' allows the Apple Watch to change settings?

also check

Hearing Aid Compatibility, which I think should be ON as well.

Then back up one more screen and look at settings for

Hearing Control Center

mine shows a list of settings included on the Hearing Control center pane, and invites me to remove:

Headphone Accommodations I am pretty certain you want that OFF

Background Sounds**. **OOH, that sounds suspicious, but seems to mean Generated background sounds. the loudest seems to be 'Quiet Night' which includes crickets

Live Listen** OOH, That one sounds suspicious. That is INTENDED to let your iPhone take a transcript, but actually DOES add Ambient iPhone audio into the Audio Stream. And has a Timer associated with it.

Conversation boost** that is in the same neighborhood, but I can't see mine doing anything

--------

Once those are all set as you expect, then on to Hearing Control Center itself.

Invoke Control Center by dragging down from top right corner of the screen, on most iPhones.

then lick the icon with the Ear for Hearing Control Center

Mine has sub-panes for each of

My hearing aids. with seems to provide another portal into Hearing Device settings, like Volume, Bass/Treble, L/R Balance, [Hearing aid] Presets {All-Around, Hear-in-Noise, Outdoor, Music}

Background sounds which provide on/off for iPhone generated background sounds, and microphone is not one of them. Also a portal into extended settings if background sounds are turned ON

Live Listen that is INTENDED to let your iPhone take a transcript, but actually DOES add Ambient iPhone audio into the Audio Stream

I don't see any way to deliberately ADD iPhone audio into the Audio stream

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