Smartphones have come a long way since IBM launched Simon in the early ‘90s. Today, consumers use iPhones and Androids for everything from making calls and texting to scrolling social media and marking purchases on the Internet. Thanks to AI and other integrated technologies, smartphones now come with a whole new line of assistive capabilities for those who have trouble hearing. Expanded accessibility features, Bluetooth-enabled devices, and apps make it easier for those across a range of hearing loss to communicate with others.

Leverage your accessibility features

Regardless of the operating system, most smartphones enable users to set visual queues for incoming texts or calls, like a blinking light from the camera flash or screen itself. Additionally, Android and iPhones have Real-time text (RTT) capabilities that allow users to text to communicate on phone calls. Artificial intelligence (AI) has made considerable advancements in the accessibility feature on iPhones and Android.

Android phones offer Google-made accessibility features: 

• Live Caption uses AI to caption speech produced by apps on Android devices automatically

• Live Transcribe captures live sound using the phone’s microphones and leverages AI to display speech and sound as text on an Android device

• Sound Amplifier lets you use your phone as a kind of remote microphone

Apple-specific accessibility features now include: 

• Sound Recognition enables the iPhone to continuously listen for specific sounds specified by the user, like doorbells, a crying baby or sirens, to notify them when such a sound occurs. 

• Live Caption, now in beta for iPhone 11 and later, takes spoken dialogue and displays it as text in real-time in live conversations and any app, like FaceTime or Podcasts. 

• Live Listen uses iPhone microphones to amplify sound and deliver it to AirPods, Beats or hearing aids. While it can be helpful to talk to someone across the room from you in your home, it doesn’t effectively enable users to hear conversations in noisy places.

Sync Bluetooth-enabled hearing devices

Bluetooth-enabled hearing aids, both prescription and over-the-counter (OTC), can connect to iPhone and Android devices so users can further customize their device experiences while improving their hearing ability. Wired has a concise overview of Apple’s iPhone (MFi) hearing aid program and how to set it up. Google’s support page also has a helpful overview of how to set up hearing aids with an Android. 

Use an app to remove background noise from conversation

While the features we’ve covered so far can help those with mild to moderate hearing loss to some extent, they all have one thing in common - they don’t address the challenge of hearing speech in background noise. 

HeardThat, our award-winning app for iPhone and Android, fills this gap for users with hearing aids, other hearing assist devices, or earbuds and headphones. We leverage the processing power of smartphones to run our sophisticated AI algorithms that enable users to completely eliminate background noise or mix in the desired amount of ambient noise. The app even works with some of the captioning and transcribing apps mentioned above.

HeardThat also offers Directional mode for one-on-one conversations and All voices mode for group conversations in noisy places like restaurants. These modes empower users to tailor their communication experience to their social setting. 

HeardThat users report that they can have effortless conversations in crowded restaurants or loud social gatherings. If you’re ready to experience clearer, more effortless conversations, you can try HeardThat for free for one month. Download HeardThat here!