- Hi guys, Cliff Olson, Doctor of Audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions
in Phoenix, Arizona.
And in this video,
I'm doing a review of the completely redesigned MyPhonak app
to show you all the changes
and to see if it really is better than the old app.
Coming up.
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This is not the first time that we have seen changes
to the MyPhonak app.
This app was originally released
with the Marvel line of devices at the end of 2018
and there have been some updates to add new features
and to fix some old bugs.
Now, as you can see, the old version
of the MyPhonak app has been downloaded
by over 1 million hearing aid users at this point,
but only has a 2.8 star rating.
Honestly, none of the major hearing aid manufacturers
have good ratings on their apps.
This is primarily because these hearing aid manufacturers
are focused on improving their hearing aid technology,
and the app controls really come off
as a secondary priority.
To be fair, in my experience,
the vast majority of app-related issues have to do more
with the phone that you're using
rather than the hearing aids that you're using.
Nevertheless, we will see in the next couple of months
whether or not there are enough positive reviews
to increase this 2.8 rating for the MyPhonak app.
The new app did get a complete redesign
which I happen to think is a lot cooler-looking.
However, I do understand that it can be confusing
if you are already used to the old version of this app.
Phonak did add a couple of new features
like the health-data tracking in this new app,
but the rest of the app is largely unchanged
in terms of functionality.
Now, before I actually start showing you the app,
if you could do me a huge favor and click the like button
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Now let's go ahead and take a look at the app.
Right off the bat, you will be required
to either create a new MyPhonak account,
continue without an account,
or log into your existing MyPhonak account.
Now chances are, if you purchased your Phonak hearing aids
from the end of 2021 until now,
you probably do not have a MyPhonak account yet.
Now you do not need to create a MyPhonak account
to use the app or have access to remote care,
but you will need an account
to access the new health data tracking features
and secure your health data.
If you do want to register a new account,
you can register using any email address that you want.
This will not affect your remote care capabilities
even if your hearing care professional has a different email
inside of their programming software for you.
Of course, you will have to acknowledge
that you have read and understood the privacy notice
and the terms and conditions.
And you'll have to choose
if you want to consent to sharing your user statistics
with Phonak so they can use this information
to improve the app in the future.
Once you're past all of these formalities,
you will have the opportunity to pair your hearing aids
to the app.
Just follow the step by step instructions
inside of the app to get both of your hearing aids paired
with the low energy version of Bluetooth.
If you previously had your Phonak hearing aids paired
to the old version of the app,
they should be automatically paired to the new version.
If you run into issues with this,
you may need to start with a clean slate
and we'll need to unpair your hearing aids
in the Bluetooth settings of your phone
and forget your hearing aids in the Devices tab
of the new MyPhonak app.
If you still cannot figure it out,
then contact your hearing care professional
and they can get it set up for you.
On the home screen,
you will see different program options
across the top of the screen
that you can drag from left to right,
as opposed to a dropdown option
on the previous version of the app.
Some of these programs are default programs.
Some are created by your hearing care professional
and some can be ones that you've customized yourself.
If you have rechargeable hearing aids,
you will also be able to see your battery life
at the top left and right of the page,
but you still cannot get a disposable battery reading
on the app.
So if you happen to have disposable battery hearing aids,
you're just gonna have to listen for the low battery tone.
You can also see that the area
for the volume control is much smaller
which I think is a bad decision on Phonak's part
because it will be much harder to use
for individuals with vision and finger dexterity issues.
It is apparent that Phonak did this
to get their health feature on the home screen.
From comments that I've seen online,
many people are pretty upset with this decision
to clutter the main remote control screen of the app.
Before we scroll down any further though,
I do want to point out that you have the ability
to mute your hearing aid microphones,
split the volume control to adjust the volume
of your left and right hearing aids independently,
and an adjust program button.
I do like how they labeled this adjust program button
as opposed to just having a second hamburger menu
in the bottom right-hand corner
of the old version of the app.
Once you click this button
and you enter the customization section of the app,
you can see which base program you'll be adjusting
by looking in the top area right here.
In this case,
we will be adjusting the calm situation program
inside of the auto sense automatic program.
Phonak has elected
to give a few additional quick program presets
for comfort, clarity, speech, and surrounding
that you can test out in different situations.
Phonak has also elected to hide the three-band equalizer
that was front and center in the old app.
I'm not sure if Phonak found
that most people do not use these equalizer bands.
But honestly, I do not like this decision
because it complicates the customization process.
As you scroll further down the customization page,
you can adjust the volume, noise reduction,
speech focus, and dynamic settings
just like in the old app.
Again, I think Phonak made another mistake
in removing the visual representation
of what the noise reduction and speech focus are doing
when you drag the slider from left to right.
However, I do like that Phonak gave an explanation
of what each feature does
but think they should relabel "Low" and "High"
for noise reduction to "Less" and "More"
because some people could interpret low
and high incorrectly.
I also wish that each
of these settings had numbers associated with the adjustment
so they could be easily replicated
in an additional program if necessary.
After you make your own custom adjustments,
you can save them as a custom program
that will appear in the top program bar
across the home screen.
You can create up to 10 different programs
including the default programs
that came in the app originally.
And yes, you can delete the default programs if you prefer.
If you want to modify an existing custom program,
you can make changes and click "Update"
instead of "Save as new".
If you are streaming audio from your smart device
or TV connector into your hearing aids,
you will see the adjust program button change
to an ambient balance button
where you can offset the amount of ambient sound picked up
by your hearing aid microphones
and the amount of sound that you are streaming
into your hearing aids.
Now there are definitely still connectivity issues
with this version of the app.
Periodically, I see one of the hearing aids struggling
to maintain its connection.
And if this occurs, usually the easiest way to fix it is
to just close out of the app completely
and get right back into it.
Nine out of 10 times, this will solve the issue.
If it doesn't solve the issue,
you can actually reboot your hearing aids
and then try to reconnect them with the app.
If that doesn't work,
you're probably gonna have to reboot your phone altogether.
All right, back to the rest of the home screen.
As you scroll further down,
if you have not set up the health feature
by creating or signing into your MyPhonak account,
the option to do so will be available.
If you have already, you'll instead have the ability
to set up goals for wear time and steps.
Below the Health section,
you have the tips and FAQ section.
I would personally like to see these FAQs and tips
in the Support tab only
so it doesn't clutter the home screen as well.
And I don't know why they have,
"Help with setting up Remote Support"
in bold black lettering in this section
because there are clearly more tips and FAQs
than just about remote support.
The thing that I really like about the new app is the menu
along the bottom of the home screen,
instead of having these hidden in a hamburger menu
like it was in the old app.
Let's continue to work our way from left to right,
starting with the Health tab.
This new health feature will allow you
to do three different things:
track your usage time
to ensure you're meeting your hourly wear goals
and see which sound environments you have been in
while wearing your devices,
it will track your steps
if you have a rechargeable Phonak hearing aid
that has a motion sensor,
and it will track your heart rate data
if you happen to use the Phonak Audeo Fit hearing aids
that have a heart rate sensor embedded in the receivers.
Of course, make sure that you check out my detailed review
of the Phonak Audeo Fit hearing aids
that I will have linked in the description.
Like I mentioned before,
the health app will let you set your goals
for how much wear time you want to have per day
and how many steps you want to take per day.
Just remember, you must sign up for the MyPhonak account
to use this feature.
Next along the bottom menu, you have the Devices tab.
If you haven't yet paired your hearing aids,
you can do it from this section as well.
Here, you can see all of your programs made
by your hearing care professional
or your personalized programs that you have created.
You can also rename your programs,
see what base program was used to create a custom program,
or delete a program altogether.
You can also adjust some of your hearing aid settings
to include the Bluetooth phone call connection,
set up of your Bluetooth streaming settings
and tap control settings,
change your auto turn on settings
when removing your hearing aids from the charger,
and activate hearing aid cleaning reminder notifications.
The next section along the menu is the Support tab.
This is where you can access live remote care
for virtual visits with your hearing care professional.
This section also gives you access
to the same FAQs that could be found on your homepage,
a library of video tutorials
for a variety of Phonak app features,
access to your user guide,
another app tour,
and all of the legal documentation.
And last but not least,
you can access your MyPhonak app profile
where you can update your personal details
and MyPhonak account password.
If you do not want your health data to be tracked,
you can easily disable health data tracking
and control whether or not you want Phonak
to have access to your health data.
All right, there you go.
Those are pretty much all of the things
that you can do inside of the new MyPhonak app.
Of course, there are some things that I don't really like
about the new version of the app,
but hopefully Phonak makes some changes
on some future updates to fix these issues
that I just talked about.
Personally, I am a fan of change
but I do understand that change for most people can be hard.
So even if you do not like the version of the app
the way that it is right now,
just give yourself some time
and chances are it will grow on you.
Now I wanna know what you think
about this new version of the app.
So if you have things that you like
or do not like about the app,
make sure that you leave them in the comment section below.
Just remember, Phonak does happen
to read through a lot of these comments.
So if there's things that you like and do not like,
that can sometimes affect the direction
that they take this app in the future.
That's it for this video.
If you have any questions,
leave them in the comment section below.
If you like the video, please share it.
If you wanna see other videos just like this one,
go ahead and hit that subscribe button.
Also, feel free to check up my new website, HearingUp.com.
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