Shop the World's Best Bluetooth Hearing Aids

Air tap control

Available in Phonak and Starkey hearing aids

If you’ve used Apple AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones, you’ve likely used this feature before. Air Tap Control lets you answer phone calls, stop & stream music, and adjust other hearing aid settings, by simply tapping your ear. This is a really niche feature that only exists on a select few models that have a motion sensor built in, so if Air Tap Control is an important feature to you, discuss this very early on with your ZipHearing sales rep or local hearing care provider.

Speech transcription

Available in Phonak and Starkey hearing aids

Ideally, with an advanced set of hearing aids that have been custom programmed for your unique needs, this feature wouldn’t be needed. But unfortunately, no matter how good your hearing aids are, sometimes it’s just impossible to catch every bit of speech in a noisy environment. Luckily, hearing aid apps do this really well. If your app has a Speech Transcription feature, it’ll capture live speech, or speech from phone calls, and convert it to text, allowing you to read along in almost real time, just like you would with a caption phone.

Interactive machine learning

Available in Widex and Starkey hearing aids

Many hearing aids today use machine learning to help you hear your best, but only a few let you be an active participant in that process. Whether it’s through a guided quiz-like experience in the app, or simply the press of a button, interactive machine learning features are an emerging trend that we expect to see more of in the coming years. Don’t worry- taking advantage of these features doesn’t require a degree in computer science. Hearing aid manufacturers have made it easy (and kinda fun) to help teach your hearing aids how you like to hear.

Language translation

Available in Starkey hearing aids

Easily communicate with people who speak other languages. Use your phone to capture the speech of an individual. Your phone will print their speech on your phone, in your preferred language, and shortly thereafter, read that speech into your hearing aids. Note that there’s some pretty complicated logic going on behind the scenes, and as a result, this feature does have a slight delay when you’re using it, but we think it’s a small price to pay to be able to communicate with someone in a different language.

Fitness & activity monitoring

Available in Starkey hearing aids

While the jury is still (somewhat) out on all the negative health consequences of untreated hearing loss, the science is clear on one thing- hearing health is an important part of overall well being. As a result, there’s an emerging trend in the hearing aid industry of making hearing aids be more holistic health devices- sort of like a FitBit® for the ear. Some hearing aids can track your physical activity, like daily steps, detect if you’ve fallen, and even use embedded sensors to measure your heart rate. But physical health is only half the picture. These hearing aids can also track the brain-health benefits of wearing hearing aids by tracking things like social engagement.

Iot "Internet of Things" compatible

Available in Oticon hearing aids

Link your hearing aids to internet-connected devices like baby alarms, smoke detectors, and doorbells. For example, hear an announcement in your hearing aids when your doorbell rings. The applications for this are endless, and we’re excited by the long term potential, but in the interim we’ve heard many reports of this functionality not working how it should. We would caution against choosing a hearing aid primarily for this feature.