Hearing Device Audio Routing Bug

Question

Level 2

205 points

Hearing Device Audio Routing Bug

"Never" is no longer available in Hearing Device Audio Routing. I've always set streaming to my hearing devices as "Always" for calls and "Never" for media. Any other setting for media causes my Cochlear N7 to go into streaming mode—playing a "chirp" and turning the mics. down—every time my iPhone 16 reacts to something, which is really annoying. Recently I changed media streaming to "Always" to watch a video in a public place. When it was finished I went back to Audio routing and "Never" was now greyed out. It was also greyed out for calls. "Never" was working until I changed the routing to "Always". I'm now stuck in the situation I described above.

I spent some time sharing my iPhone's screen with Apple support, pairing and unpairing the hearing devices, disabling Bluetooth etc., and the tech eventually conceded that this looks like a bug. Has anyone else encountered it? I had recently updated to iOS27, but rarely change media streaming to anything other than "Never", so this behaviour could be older.

iPhone 16, iOS 27

Posted on Sep 23, 2026 4:07 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Sep 24, 2026 8:08 AM in response to Erroll

<< the tech eventually conceded that this looks like a bug >>

if this is a minor annoyance, you can get your complaint sent as an informal Bug Report sent to the appropriate Developers by using the product feedback pages:

Product Feedback - Apple

If this is still an ongoing issue for you, contact support AGAIN, or contact accessibility support. Let them know you already did "the obvious stuff" on your previous call, and ask them to have a Specialist contact you to pursue this further.

The outcome you are seeking is a solution -- or a Formal, Tracked Bug Report on File.

Official Apple Support

Accessibility Support - Official Apple Support

Reply

Answer 2

Top-ranking reply

Erroll Author

Level 2

205 points

Sep 25, 2026 3:42 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

Thanks for the reply. I did contact Accessibility Support and we resolved the issue. The agent wasn't sure if the setting appeared in iOS 27 or earlier but, in Audio Routing and Handoff, there's an option to "Handoff to this iPhone". If this is on, then the option to set Calls and/or Media to Never is disabled. I now have Handoff set to Never. I can still Handoff a call answered on my Watch to the iPhone, but I have to do it manually. With Handoff enabled it happens automatically. This suits me fine.

Thanks again,

Steve = : ^ )

Reply