Oticon Companion 4+

Connection issues ruin the app

Oticon has had months to work with the iOS 17 beta, to ensure that the Companion app would work perfectly when it was released to the general public. Unfortunately, there are major connection issues here. I'm not sure it's entirely the fault of the app, or whether it's also just the terrible Bluetooth in Oticon hearing aids. However, even when the Hearing Devices section of the phone settings says it's connected to both hearing aids, the Companion app will usually say either just one is connected or both are disconnected. Yes, restarting the hearing aids, the app, and even the phone can eventually connect the devices, but to have to go through this *each time* you want the Companion app to work with the hearing aids is insane.

I *just* got new Oticon Real hearing aids (upgrading from my old Oticons), and I love them, but the app really destroys the experience. At this point, I honestly wish Apple would get into the hearing aids business and wipe out the competition.

Getting better

Has 2 equalizers now. One for streaming and one to use with your programs directly. That is a major improvement. As usual with hearing aids, connectivity is an issue as well as the speed of the connectivity. The slowest connecting app I have ever used is the Phonak and this one is twice as fast as that. When one aid will not connect I simply close the app out completely and restart and it and it has connected with both aids except once. On that occasion I put them in the charger for 10 seconds and they both connected after being taken out. My Audiologist said not to have a bunch of other programs running in the background and they will connect faster and more often. Also, I had to update my firmware to make this latest app version install correctly. Oticon should have put in the app notes that you need the latest firmware for this to work. I’m betting that a lot of people did not benefit from the new version because they didn’t get the benefits of the new app without the firmware. It happened to me and I was not happy for a week until I saw my audiologist who called Oticon and she installed the firmware on my aids. Then we reinstalled the app and it was different then what it was before the firmware and better.

Developer Response ,

Dear Rickus22, thank you for your feedback. We have reported your concerns to the relevant teams. If you need support with the connectivity experience, please reach out to the app support team at appsupport@oticon.com mentioning the review, and they will be glad to help you. Best Regards, Oticon

Terrible

The companion is ok if it works but I have found it doesn’t work much of the time. I have my third set of Omicron aids and have always been satisfied until this new app. It is terrible and has using my aids almost impossible. I have to constantly delete the app and then pair them since one or both of them stop working. I would get them working again and shortly thereafter one would lose the pairing and fail to work. At one time I could not even change the programming. I took them back to the person I purchased them from and she spoke to a Omicron representative and she followed instructions to reprogram them and they worked properly until I left her office. I got so desperate that I took off the molds and placed them on my old aids. I can not recommend Omicron to anyone and before I used to praise the The companion software has bugs in it that it almost makes it impossible to use the app for an entire day. It works sometimes and when you least expect it stops working and you are left in the dark. I have been complaining since it was released but no one has ever called me from the company. They think that we are all computer savvy but fail to take into account that many of us are disabled and can’t always follow their instructions and there are times when we do it still doesn’t help.