Is your loss of hearing causing you to chat less often on the phone? You may feel isolated over time because of your hearing loss. You don’t need to quit using your phone. You can definitely discover ways to remain in touch with your friends and family.
It’s All About Communication
With any relationship, communication is an essential aspect and the same goes for your phone. Can anything be done to improve the situation?
- An ear exam is a good idea. Get a proper diagnosis because not all hearing loss is permanent. It may well be something as straightforward as earwax buildup or an ear infection.
- Do the voices seem too soft? Check the phone to make sure that the volume is turned all the way up.
- Bluetooth or headphones could be options if you’ve already turned the volume up. Maybe that’s all you require to make your phone sound better and it doesn’t cost that much.
You can have a look at more in depth solutions to get you back on the phone once you eliminate the more apparent problems.
You Can Get an App For That
There are actually quite a few potential apps. There are many apps you can download that work to get you, and your phone back on the same page, some of which are pretty cool.
Some apps turn what the other person says to text you can read. These apps are far from perfect, but you should be able to work with them. Brands to look up include:
- Hamilton Mobile Cap Tel
- Live Caption
- Note, Listen for Deaf
Not all voice to text apps are free, but most are affordably priced.
Phones Made For The Hard of Hearing
If you want to find a landline solution, you can find phones for your home that do the same thing as an app. They make it much easier to hear by amplifying the sound on the other end. An equalizer makes the high pitched sounds that usually get lost clearer.
A captioning phone is yet another option. The captioning service involves a unique phone which has an LCD screen. Captioning works with an operator that either repeats the spoken words so speech recognition software can translate them into text or types them directly into the system. From there the words are displayed on the captioning phone’s screen. The majority of captioning devices need internet service, as well.
An old school phone system that is still around which works in a similar way to a captioning service is Text-to-Voice Teletype (TTY). A separate device to display the text is necessary, however.
The Best Alternative Are Hearing Aids
In the past, every time a hearing aid got near a phone, you would get ear piercing feedback, but those days are over. There are hearing aid compatible phones which get rid of background noise and other types of interference to enhance sound quality. Today’s hearing aid technology is compatible with these phones. Even when you are not on the phone these wireless hearing aids still work.
A sophisticated program that allows it to be compatible with both smart-phones and landlines is a stand out feature of modern hearing aids. The technology functions by holding the hearing device up to the phone and streaming the sound from the one to the other.
Most digital hearing aids are also Bluetooth compatible. Pairing your hearing aid up with your smart-phone is exactly the same as pairing your phone with any other Bluetooth device. When the phone rings, the sound goes directly to your hearing aids.
Don’t allow hearing loss to ruin your friendships and other relationships. Make up with your phone whatever it takes so you can start talking again. You can check out the newest hearing aid technology by making an appointment with a hearing care specialist.