Is your loss of hearing causing you to talk less frequently on the phone? Hearing loss, as time goes by, can cause you to feel isolated. Don’t just stop using your phone. There are ways to work it out so you can stay in touch with the ones you love.
Communication is The key
With any relationship, communication is an essential aspect and the same goes for your phone. What can be done improve the situation is the real question.
- Have you had a hearing test? Your hearing loss might not be permanent so it’s important to get a correct diagnosis. It may possibly be something as straightforward as earwax buildup or an ear infection.
- Bluetooth or headphones may be options if you’ve already turned the volume up. Maybe that’s all you need to make your phone sound better and it doesn’t cost very much.
- Are the voices too quiet? Check to make sure the volume is all the way up on the phone.
Once you rule out some of the more obvious issues, you can have a look at other possibilities that will get you back on the phone.
There’s an App For That
The truth is, there’s more than one app. 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:
You can’t get all voice to text apps for free but most won’t cost very much.
There is a Phone For That
If you are looking for a landline solution, you can find phones for your home that function the same way as an app. By amplifying the voice an the other end, they make it less difficult to hear. An equalizer makes the high pitched sounds that usually get lost clearer.
You also have the possibility of getting a captioning phone. The captioning service requires a unique phone that has an LCD screen. Captioning works with a third party operator that either repeats the spoken words so speech recognition software can translate them into text or types them right into the system. From there the words are displayed on the screen of the phone. Also, the internet is needed for most captioning devices.
Text-to-Voice Teletype (TTY) is an old-school phone system that is still available and works similarly to the captioning phone. You need to get a TTY device that sits near the phone to display the text, though.
Hearing Aids Are The Best Choice
In the past, whenever a hearing aid was near a phone, you would get ear piercing feedback, but those days are over. You can get hearing aid compatible phones that eliminate background noise and other kinds of interference to improve sound quality. Current hearing aid technology is compatible with these phones. What’s more, they are wireless and work even when you’re not on the phone.
State of the art, high quality hearing aids can also have a more cutting edge program that permits them to be compatible with almost any phone whether it’s a landline or smartphone. The technology works by holding the hearing device up to the phone and streaming the sound from the one to the other.
Many digital hearing aids are also Bluetooth compatible. You pair the phone up with the hearing aids just like you would with wireless headphones or earbuds. When the phone rings, the sound is sent directly to your hearing aids.
Don’t permit hearing loss to wreck your friendships and other relationships. Do what you must to get back on your phone, and start talking again. It’s time to schedule an appointment with a hearing specialist to look at the newest hearing aid technology.