Google develops an open-source protocol; hearing aids are expected to support Android natively
Even though the iPhone is almost an arcade player, it doesn’t mean you have a complete understanding of the iPhone and iOS, because there are always some features you have never opened and used – such as accessibility. The iPhone has many accessibility features for people with impaired vision, hearing, physical and mobility skills, including hearing aids.
The global hearing loss has more than 466 million people. Currently, the iPhone has its own set of hearing aid standards. Hearing aid manufacturers can produce MFI-compliant hearing aids. With the iPhone, more than 30 hearing aid brands have launched nearly 100 hearing aid products for the iPhone.
Compared to the iPhone, Android has no native hearing aid support, but recently Google is working with the Danish company GN Hearing to develop a new protocol that will allow the Android system to work better with hearing aids.
The protocol under development is an open specification that allows hearing-impaired users to connect their accessory devices to their phones for a better user experience. The new protocol is designed to provide low latency performance while minimising power consumption in mobile phones and hearing aids.
Google has released the specification on its source site so that manufacturers can start building hearing aid products that are compatible with Android 9.0. Google said the agreement would evolve.
Via: theverge