Assistive Listening Knowledge Base
  • Article (analysis of a hearing aid product database)

Trends in Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids and Hearing Aid Compatibility for Wireless Phones

From https://assistivelisteningknowledgebase.org/evidence/kozma-spytek-2022/ · record checked 9 October 2026

  • Kozma-Spytek L
  • HearingTracker

Independent (analysis prepared to inform the ATIS Hearing Aid Compatibility Task Force by Linda Kozma-Spytek, whose author note describes the author as a technology consultant to HLAA and an investigator at Gallaudet University's DHH Tech RERC; data from HearingTracker's product database, provided by its CEO Abram Bailey; published by HearingTracker, a consumer hearing aid site that carries advertising)

Summary

A ten-year count of how many hearing aid models released from 2012 to 2021 had a telecoil and how many had Bluetooth streaming.

Key findings

  • Covers 806 hearing aid models with release dates from 2012 through 2021 from the main manufacturers' brands in HearingTracker's database, built from makers' specification sheets.
  • Finds that the inclusion of telecoils in hearing aids "has somewhat declined" over the ten years, while Bluetooth Low Energy streaming (Apple's MFi, then Google's ASHA) grew steadily.
  • Models with only a microphone, or a microphone plus telecoil, declined in favour of models with some form of Bluetooth; in 2020 and 2021 most models had Bluetooth and about half of those also had a telecoil.
  • Taking models released from 2017 to 2021 as those on the market in 2021, 54% included a telecoil and 80% were Bluetooth capable; of the Bluetooth models, 61% supported MFi (a third of these also ASHA) and 19% were Bluetooth Classic only.
  • Notes that telecoils work with any telecoil-compatible phone or hearing loop regardless of brand, while MFi works only with iPhones, and expects LE Audio, which also enables Auracast broadcasts, to become the more universal option.

Limits

Counts models, not hearing aids sold or fitted; the author says availability does not translate directly into sales or use. The database is not exhaustive and its inclusion rests on market share and judgement. Covers releases up to 2021, before Auracast hearing aids. The article reports the telecoil trend in a chart and gives yearly percentages only for the 2017-2021 window.

Read the original

www.hearingtracker.com/news/trends-in-audio-streaming-for-hearing-aids

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Cited in

Cite this source

Kozma-Spytek L. Trends in Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids and Hearing Aid Compatibility for Wireless Phones. HearingTracker. 22 July 2022. https://www.hearingtracker.com/news/trends-in-audio-streaming-for-hearing-aids (accessed 9 October 2026).

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