Made for iPhone hearing aids and automatic audio routing in iOS 9

Following up with more information.... still no solutions.

First, in case it matters, I have Starkey Halo hearing aids -- forgot to mention this in the original post.

Second, the call switching thing doesn't seem to be related to the fact that my phone was plugged into the head unit in my car. The other day, I received a call when my phone was not plugged in. The call rang on the head unit and I answered it on the head unit a couple of seconds later, the call switched to my hearing aids. Because the phone was in my pocket, the person I was talking to couldn't hear me. They eventually hung up, but it was pretty awkward for a while as I was driving down the road. This is consistent with ijmck's report and I'll echo the concern that this is dangerous. Wen this happens, it's really hard to ignore the caller and maintain focus on driving.

This pretty much defeats any possibility for "hands free" conversations.

Nope. Nothing. If anything, this problem seems to get worse with every release of iOS. I've taken to switching my hearing aids off when I get in my car. That is, I've declared failure of "made for iPhone" and moved on.

Unfortunately, the problem is not limited to my car where there is a (not so great) workaround. The other day, I added an airplay speaker to my house. If I go to AirPlay and select the house speaker and then start to play music, Airplay seems to decide that I really want to hear the music in my hearing aids, rather the choice that I made -- it takes a couple of seconds and the audio routing seems to switch a couple of time before settling on my hearing aids. So, I have to start playing music and then switch where AirPlay sends the audio. Even in this order, the routing is a bit flaky.

I've reported this to Apple with no response. I can understand that this kind of problem might happen with a new release of an OS, but we're now on version 9.2 and it's only getting worse. Looks like Apple has hit the limit of their ability to keep up with the technology they developed.

Thanks Felipe and jaywbee3.

Felipe,

The problem I'm having is not limited to the Pioneer car system, it happens when I use AirPlay through an Airport Express (i.e., all Apple).

Here's what happens: starting on my phone, I use AirPlay to select the Airport Express; then I start to play music. After a brief pause, my phone decides that I really wanted to hear the music through my hearing aids. Then, I use AirPLay again to switch to the Airport Express (while music is playing), my phone again decides that I must have been mistaken and really wanted to hear the music through my hearing aids. After a few of these battles, I out last my phone and it finally concedes that I might actually want to play music through the Airport Express. This is messed up. It seems pretty clear that Apple really hasn't carefully thought through the issues associated with audio routing. Too bad. This used to be a signature strength of Apple -- minimize complexity by really understanding how their devices will be used.

Jaywbee3,

Disabling the playing of Ringtones in my hearing aids would work, but it means I'd have to remember to re-enable this when I got out of the car. It's easier to remember to turn my hearing aids back on. 🙂