If you find yourself saying "what?" on the phone a lot, you are not alone. Phone calls are one of the hardest everyday listening situations for hearing aid wearers, even for people who follow conversation easily face to face. The reasons are straightforward, and so are the fixes.
In person, the brain gets a lot of help following speech: lip reading, facial expressions, and gestures all fill in words that are missed. On a phone call, those cues are gone. Holding a phone receiver tightly against the ear can add a second problem, since amplified sound can leak back into the hearing aid microphone and cause feedback. And background noise competes directly with the caller's voice, which makes it harder to pick out the words that matter.
There is no single fix that works for every call. The good news is that several small changes can help, and they can be mixed and matched depending on the situation.
Bluetooth streaming is one option worth knowing about. Many modern hearing aids connect directly to a smartphone, sending the caller's voice straight into the aids. This can reduce feedback, because the phone no longer needs to sit against the ear, and it can make calls more private. This applies to Bluetooth-capable models, and it is worth checking whether a particular pair of aids supports it.
Speakerphone is another option. Keeping the phone away from the ear avoids the worst feedback, and although calls may feel less private, many people find them easier to follow overall.
Where the call happens matters too. Hearing aids generally perform better with less competing sound, so taking a call in a quieter room can make a noticeable difference.
Switching to a video call can also help. Video does not make the sound louder, but seeing the speaker's face restores the visual context that helps the brain follow the conversation.
Phone settings can add a further improvement. On iPhone, Voice Isolation can be turned on during a call from Control Center by tapping the mic icon (available on iOS 15 or newer), and it filters surrounding noise so the caller's voice comes through more clearly. On Android, the audio route can be switched during a call from the call screen.
It is also worth being open about the difficulty. Telling the other person that calls are hard is nothing to be embarrassed about, and most people will slow down, repeat themselves, or switch to text or video. For people who still struggle on calls, captioned telephone services and other assistive listening devices exist and can be worth asking about.
Phone calls do not have to be something to avoid. A combination of a quieter spot, the right settings, and the right connection for the moment is often enough to make them noticeably easier.
If phone calls are still difficult with hearing aids, contact Hearing Beyond to book a hearing aid check and review the connectivity options.
*Photo by GN Group on Unsplash.*