By Stephen Pate – The Apple Watch app controls Music on hearing aids, assuming you have Made for iPhone (MFi) hearing aids.
With the watchOS 4.3 update, the Apple Watch Music app controls playback to MFi (Made for iPhone) hearing aids from your iTunes Library or Apple Music.
Apple watchOS 4.3, released March 29th, 2018, adds AirPlay, with MFi hearing aids as an audio device.
All is not perfect. You cannot play Music saved on the Watch to MFi hearing aids nor receive phone calls on MFi hearing aids using the Watch.
Update May 19, 2018 – Recent rumours say Apple is building the broken link for Apple Watch and hearing loss. Apple Watch and Made For iPhone hearing aid users may be able to stream audio from the Watch. We should know more after the Apple WWDC June 3 – 7, 2019 when Apple usually announces new operating system features. Apple To Build Broken Link For Watch And Hearing Loss
Nonetheless, this is a big step forward for people who use MFi hearing aids and the Apple Watch.
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Controlling Music played to MFi hearing aids from the Apple Watch
The new feature serves Music from your iPhone and uses the Watch as a remote control. The procedure works if your MFi hearing aids are setup already.
Setup for iPhone AirPlay outputs. Stephen is MFi hearing aids (screenshot NJN Network)
1 – Setup your MFi hearing aids under General Accessibility so they show up in the AirPlay Control Center on the phone, as illustrated.
2 – On your Apple Watch, open the Music App. Tap until you are at the main screen with at least 3 choices: On iPhone, Shuffle All, and Library.
3 – Select On iPhone which means selecting the music on the iPhone.
Select “On iPhone” for music source, Apple Watch Music App (screenshot NJN)
4 – On the next screen, there are 5 choices: Now Playing, Playlists, Artists, Albums and Songs. These are the usual choices for Music playback. Chose one.
Select the library class from Apple Watch Music App. (screenshot NJN )
5 – For the example, under Artist, I selected Aimee Mann, then her album Magnolia.
Artist and Album selected in Apple Watch Music App (screenshot NJN)
6 – The song One – Aimee Mann appears on the Now Playing screen.
7 – You can adjust the volume with the Digital Crown or by tapping the speaker icon.
Now Playing, Apple Watch Music App (screenshot NJN)
8 – Note the AirPlay symbol (lower left). Touch it and you can choose where to send the music. In the example Speaker (phone speaker), Hannah’s (AppleTV) and Stephen (my MFi (Made for iPhone) hearing aids). Only AirPlay compatible devices connected on the iPhone setup will work.
AirPlay output screen on Apple Watch Music App (screenshot NJN)
8 – Control the music by tapping the Previous song, Pause/Play and Next song buttons.
When a song is playing, the buttons are slow to respond. It helps to tap play/pause before tapping forward and backward.
If you get an error message, wait a bit and try again.
Error message on Apple Watch Music App (screenshot NJN)
Apple Watch Hearing Aid Control Bugs
I found a bug in iOS 11.3 or watch OS 4.3 Control Center. When the Control Center is used to control Music, the controls don’t work immediately, and some Bluetooth devices are missing from the list. I reported this to Apple. They promised to respond in a week.
If they get the bugs fixed in watchOS AirPlay, it will make the Watch more useful to people with a hearing disability. I’ll report back what they tell me.
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Apple Watch Does Not Control These MFi hearing aid features
Apple Support confirmed in January that the Apple Watch does not support MFi hearing aids. Apple made no promises they will fix this. The issue of connectivity between the Apple Watch and MFi hearing aids is a thread on Apple Communities.
Controlling the Watch Music Library on MFi Hearing Aids
You cannot play songs that have been copied to the Watch Library through MFi (Made for iPhone) hearing aids. if you have copied music the the Apple Watch, pick Library as a source on the Music app first screen if you want to use a Bluetooth speaker.
Here’s something weird – you can play a song from the Watch music library to a Bluetooth speaker and while it’s playing start another song from the iPhone Library on your MFi hearing aids. This is outlier behaviour for Apple. The latest audio is supposed to interrupt the previous source, such as a phone call stops the music.
Making and Receiving Phone calls with MFi Hearing Aids
You cannot receive phone calls on the Watch with MFi hearing aids. Keep the iPhone nearby since the Watch and MFi hearing aids are not connected. Trying to accept the call on your Watch will cause the call to be dropped.
You can make phone calls on the Watch but the audio will not will play on your MFI hearing aids. That means holding the Watch up to your mouth and ear.
Any music that is playing will not pause while the call is made unless you stop it on the iPhone or the Watch if play/pause works.
The Apple Watch is available from the Apple Store and Amazon. Made for iPhone Hearing Aids are available from audiologists.
Futing Zhang
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Stephen Pate
for the record, we don’t publish paid or sponsored content. Thanks.
Trent
Thank you for your help been searching for ages for this info.
Pretty disappointed you can’t use hearing aids to answer call, it would be the biggest selling feature
Pamela Gates
using the apple watch with my MFI hearing aids was the main reason for buying the apple watch cellular . i am really disappointed in this!
Rick
I was unaware of the limitations of the Apple watch when I purchased it (Apple Watch 4). I called Resound and was told that the restriction is the action of Apple and that Resound was ready to implement a solution but Apple was restricting hearing aid makers. I called Apple support and after a couple of days Apple called back and confirmed that it was them and concurred with Resound tech support.
I promptly returned my Apple Watch. I will purchase an Apple Watch as soon as they get their act together and I have posted my action on their website.
Readers should note that Samsung Gear S2 watch (that I own) does allow me to control both music apps such as Sirius XM & Amazon Prime, both that I use regularly.
The Samsung Gear S2 will also answer incoming calls through my iPhone (through my Resound hearing aids, made for MFi).
So I now use my Samsung Gear S2 instead of an Apple Watch for hearing aid playback because it works better with my hearing aids than the Apple Watch 4.
How does Apple allow this to happen as the originator of MFi?
Brian
A great write up, little did I appreciate there may have been restrictions with the Apple Watch and the MFI hearing aids.
Received the Apple Watch as a Christmas present (I know lucky me huh!) and was gutted to learn that the watch doesn’t connect to the hearing aids.
However having the Resound PhoneClip this does allow the user to connect from the Apple Watch and the MFI hearing aids, a third party device is better than none
paulvw
Thanks for sharing your insights! I just got an Apple Watch and I learnt here that Samsung is better equipped for MFI hearing aids… And yet, I love my iPhone… I hope it will be solved soon. If not, my future phone will be a Samsung I’m afraid…
Stephen Pate
Thanks for your comments. Bloomberg has published rumours that Apple is adding Watch to MFI Hearing Aid audio streaming. See Apple To Build Broken Link For Watch And Hearing Loss