Summary
- Android 15 brings major improvements for hearing aid users with new features like Quick Settings and LE Audio support.
- Live Caption and Sound Notifications enhance accessibility, making it easier for users with hearing issues to stay connected.
- The future looks bright for Android’s accessibility features, with more updates and enhancements on the way for a better user experience.
Android has supported hearing aids for most of its existence, but things really started to get going in 2019 when Google launched Live Transcribe, a feature that transcribes audio in real-time, so any user with hearing issues could communicate in a fast and convenient way, simply by reading the text on their device. Efforts to improve accessibility for users with hearing loss also led Google to create its Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) protocol and partner with ReSound to produce the first Made for Android aid, the LiNX Quattro, in the same year.
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However, we’re now in 2024, and Google’s take on Android Accessibility features will get major improvements with the latest version of Android. The company has already showcased and explained how Android 15 will make it easier for people to hear anything and everything they want, as it will support new types of hearing aids. Android 15 will also deliver better, faster, and more efficient hearing aid management features, making them better for anyone who needs them.
What are we getting with Android 15 and hearing aids?
As reported by Mishaal Rahman for Android Authority and published by Google during this year’s I/O, the new features coming to hearing aids on Android 15 will let users pair and control their audio hearing aids with added support for hands-free calling, changing presents, viewing battery levels, and a new Quick Settings tile for connecting and disconnecting devices on the go. Of course, there’s also support for Bluetooth LE Audio, which allows streaming audio over Bluetooth Low Energy products. To make things better, Android 15 also includes features like Auracast, a Bluetooth capability that will deliver excellent audio experiences, letting you share your audio with other users.
In Android 15, we will support hearing aids using both LE Audio (LEA) and Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA). We’re also adding an easy to access Quick Settings Tile for connecting and disconnecting on the go.
Rest assured, the new Quick Settings tile for Hearing Aid is already available and functioning in Android 15 Beta 2, with more exciting features on the horizon. The redesigned Sound Notifications app is set to deliver even better notifications of activities in your home. And let’s not forget the excellent live Caption feature, which automatically captions videos, podcasts, and audio messages, easily accessible from the volume rocker. Stay tuned for more updates!
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