FP5 Android 14 - loss of streaming to hearing aids

Help Fairphone 5
42

Hi all,

We were able to find and reproduce this issue and provided the necessary information to Qualcomm. We’re now working on a fix with them as a high priority.

Thanks,
Ioiana

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43

Who has experience with Fairphone 5 and OTICON hearing aids? Is it possible to make phone calls via earbuds?

44

What do you mean with earbuds? Your hearing aids or the Fairphone earbuds?

45

I mean my hearing aids

47

Ich hatte schon früher von den Problemen nach dem Update auf Android 14 und meinen Signia Hörgeräten geschrieben. Ich hatte einen freundlichen Kontakt zum Support. Da mir signalisiert wurde, dass kurzfristig noch keine Lösung in Sicht ist, habe ich mich entschlossen auf Android 13 zurück zu gehen. Trotz der Anleitungen konnte ich es nicht selbst vornehmen, aber Fairphone hat dann angeboten, dies in einer Werkstatt machen zu lassen. Mir sind dadurch keine Kosten entstanden, hatte nur ca. 10 Tage mein FP5 nicht und musste alles sichern. Es hat aber funktioniert und nun habe ich wieder Konnektivität. Vielleicht ist es ja für andere auch eine Lösung für den Übergang bis zur Fehlerbehebung, die noch kommen soll. Ein Update mache ich nur noch nach Rücksprache mit dem Support, da bin ich jetzt vorsichtig.
herzlichen Gruß josef

I had previously written about the problems after the update to Android 14 and my Signia hearing aids. I had friendly contact with the support team. As I was signalled that there was no solution in sight in the short term, I decided to go back to Android 13. Despite the instructions, I couldn’t do it myself, but Fairphone then offered to have it done in a workshop. It didn’t costs me anything, I just didn’t have my FP5 for about 10 days and had to back everything up. But it worked and now I have connectivity again. Perhaps this is also a solution for others for the transition until the error is rectified, which is still to come. I will only update after consulting with support, so I’m being careful now.
best regards josef

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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48

Please stay in English in this topic, e.g. deepl can help with translations

49

I’ve just been told that the update to resolve this issue will (maybe) be available “in a few months” ie. 2025. This has been going on since July. I don’t see that as “a high priority”.
Why is it acceptable to treat people with a hearing disability in this way?

50

I can understand your concern and probably it’s not acceptable. But I’m afraid you’d have to ask that question especially to Qualcomm. I assume that FP is business-wise not in a position to push Qualcomm too hard to let them prioritize it much more…

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51

My hearing aids are Starkey not Qualcomm so presumably I’m even further back in the queue.
As I understand it when there is a new android update released it is necessary for Fairphone ( or any other manufacturer ) to carry out testing. The responsibility lies with both companies. It has taken Fairphone five months to reproduce the problem in one brand of hearing aid; where does that leave those of us with other brands…and there are several different ones affected? The common denominators here are Android and Fairphone.
Testing does not make money in the short term, producing and churning out new products does. But in the longer term if testing is not thorough, reputation
will ultimately suffer.The communication about this problem from Fairphone has been very poor: " working on it urgently" " an update in October/ November" " an update in a few months…next year" but never an actual timescale or explanation for the lack of one.
I have had my phone for just on a year. For 5 months of that time the phone has been not fit for purpose. I really wanted to support the apparent ethos of Fairphone but am coming close to returning the phone and asking for a full refund. I currently would not be able to recommend Fairphone as I did to begin with; not because of the actual fault but because of the appalling customer service.

52

Qualcomm ist not a producer of hearing aids but the producer of the FP5 SOC.
So no, the solution in your case is not behind it in a queue but FP needs Qualcomm’s contribution to the solution for this problem.

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53

Ah. Thank you for clarifying that. That is a bit more encouraging. Accurate information is helpful.

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54

FP5.UT2E.B.078.20241105 - and again Fairphone leaves the comunity of people with hearing disabilities out in the rain!

As discussed in FP5 Android 14 - loss of streaming to hearing aids - #51 by Rachel2 Fairphone is not able or willing to provide a patch for the problem they introduced with Android 14 with the ASHA (audio streaming for hearing aids) Protocol.

In Android 13 every thing was working well only after updating to Android 14 ASHA protocol was broken (so it is no hardware problem but software Problen).

Now since July Faiphone says it is working with high priority on it - but obviosly this priority seems not to be to high now it is saied it may take possibly a few more month.

Only to one again make clear whats going on: To have a phone call with the hearing aids I have go to the settings menue in Android, delete - yes delete - the hearing aids from the connected bluetooth devices, go to the Signia app to newly pair the hearing aids with the FP5, And this has to be done for each single phone call !! (For straming music it is not nesseceary - only when FP5 was disconnected of connected to a different bluetooth device like the car, which is bad enough)

This is just like you woud have your Fairphone shop and for each and every sale you want to make you have to shut down you shop and restart it, because otherwise no payment is possible! And no this not exaggerated

This is no Fair treatment of the hearing comunity of people with hearing disabilities.

58

Hi. Just wanted to add my voice to the thread. Got my first hearing aid a few days ago. The woman who fitted it checked it would work with my phone and we tested it and of course it did. But later on I realised any audio from my phone was going nowhere and the hearing aid wouldn’t reconnect.
As others have described, forgetting the device and setting up from scratch works for a short while, but the signia companion app also has to be setup from scratch which is many screens to click through.

I have sent an email to support in the hope that more names means more priority to fix.

Thanks to the others on the thread. It’s been very useful to understand the problem even if we don’t know yet when a solution is arriving.

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