Apple has developed a new Bluetooth technology in order to address the issues of battery drain that hearing aid wearers experience when using their Made for iPhone hearing aids. The solution to the battery drain problem is the new Bluetooth Low Energy Audio (BLEA) protocol, which will be able to stream audio while preserving the battery lives of connected devices. This technology is similar to the one used in other connected devices, such as smart watches and fitness trackers, but rather than transferring data, it transfers high quality audio.
BLEA has been in the works for some time, it has originally appeared in Apple’s patent filing back in 2014, but it has not been used in a consumer product until now. While Apple has partnered with Cochlear to introduce the technology to the market, BLEA will be available to all of the interested manufacturers in future, extending the battery lives of many connected hearing aids.
Apple is not new to supporting hearing aid wearers with technology innovation. Sarah Herrlinger, Apple’s director of global accessibility policy, addressed Apple’s long time work with the hearing aid community with the following comment:
“While our devices have been built to support hearing aids for years, we found that the experience of people trying to make a phone call was not always a good one. So we brought together a lot of people in different areas around the company to start investigating ways to make the process easier.
Our goal was to get rid of all those extra things that need batteries and can get in the way, so when a phone call comes in you just hit the button to answer it and that sound is streaming into your hearing aid.”
If you’d like to purchase Made for iPhone hearing aids, simply give us a call at 866-426-0687.
