The Best Smartphones for Hearing Loss

iPhone 18 Pro

All recent iPhones are compatible with MFi (Made for iPhone), but the iPhone 18 Pro tops our list because Apple’s flagship has the most comprehensive set of accessibility features. Coincidentally, our recent reader survey showed that two in three HearingTracker readers already use an iPhone. While most features are tied to the operating system (OS) version—currently iOS 27—, which is rolled out to all supported iPhone models, only the current flagship is guaranteed to support the full set of features.

Here’s the complete list of hearing-related accessibility features found in the iPhone 18 Pro:

• Support for hearing devices: The iPhone 18 Pro is compatible with Made for iPhone hearing aids and meets FCC hearing aid compatibility requirements through waiver DA 23-914, which allows the device to maintain compatibility while incorporating newer wireless technologies not yet fully tested under legacy standards.
• Support for MFi hearing aids: Made-for-iPhone (MFi) hearing aids are designed to connect specifically to the iPhone and integrate seamlessly with iOS devices. This allows for direct audio streaming from the iPhone to the hearing aids for music, videos, and notifications, as well as support for hands-free calls, enabling users to make and receive calls without needing to hold their iPhone. Now with improved setup experience and more reliable pairing and hand-off capabilities.
• Live Listen: Stream sound captured by your iPhone’s microphone to your AirPods or hearing aids, helping you hear conversations more clearly in noisy environments.
• Sound and Name Recognition: Program your iPhone to vibrate or visually alert you of specific sounds in your environment, such as the doorbell, a baby crying, or your own name, for better situational awareness. Works across 50+ languages.
• RTT and TTY: Real-Time Text (RTT) and Teletypewriter (TTY) support for text communication during calls, providing an alternative way to communicate if hearing is difficult.
• Audio Balance: Enable mono audio, change the left/right balance, and enable Phone Noise Cancellation to help you hear calls better in noisy environments.
• Blink the iPhone Light for Notifications: Visual notifications for incoming calls and alerts using the iPhone’s LED flash, ensuring you don’t miss important calls or notifications even if you can’t hear them.
• Background Sounds: Mask distracting environmental noise with calming “brown” noise, helping you focus or relax.
• Subtitles and Captions: Display subtitles and captions for media content, making it easier to follow along with videos and movies. Now also works with personal videos to automatically generate subtitles.
• Transcriptions: Transcriptions for Intercom messages from HomePod, providing a written version of spoken messages.
• Live Captions: Real-time captions for spoken content, making conversations and media more accessible.
• Music Haptics: Haptic feedback to enhance the experience of listening to music, providing a tactile element to audio.
• Type to Siri: Siri will read typed requests; there is no need to speak to them. Siri can also announce notifications and calls on your MFi hearing devices.
• FaceTime Sign Language API: Third-party sign language interpretation apps can now integrate with FaceTime, meaning a human sign language interpreter can be added to FaceTime video calls via the third-party app.
• Hearing Devices: Pair Made for iPhone (MFi) hearing aids for sound processor with your iPhone and adjust their settings.
• Hearing Aid Feature: Use the results of Apple’s clinical-grade hearing test (or a third-party audiogram) to program your AirPods Pro 3 (or Pro 2) earbuds and transform them into FDA-approved OTC hearing aids.
• Headphone Accommodations: Customize the sound profile for phone calls or media using manual inputs or an audiogram, making it easier to hear voices and sounds according to your specific hearing needs. Works with AirPods Beats, and certain other headphones, but is overridden by Hearing Assistance (set up via the Hearing Aid feature).

Apart from the latest iPhone, hearing aids that support MFi should work with all iPhone models released since 2014, including the iPhone 6 series. However, Apple recommends that you “confirm support for your model iPhone with your hearing aid manufacturer.”

Google Pixel 11

Google’s flagship phone, Pixel 11, features all the accessibility features supported by Android.

Google Pixel 11 highlights include:

• Hearing Aid Compatibility: Pixel 11 phones are compatible with ASHA (Android Streaming for Hearing Aids) and HAP (Bluetooth SIG profile Hearing Access Profile). They comply with the 2019 ANSI standard.
• Conversational Gain: Up to 16.6 dB with aid or up to 19.3 dB without.
• Live Caption: Works on media and incoming calls, supports several different languages, and can automatically translate media captions.
• Expressive Captions: AI-powered captions help you catch the vibe by captioning the spoken word in combination with the atmosphere.
• Live Transcribe: Supports 120+ languages and is available for offline use after downloading the respective language pack; 15 languages are available for offline use.
• RTT and TTY: Real-Time Text (RTT) and Teletypewriter (TTY) support for text communication during calls.
• Sound Amplifier: Reduces background noise, boosts quiet sounds or specific frequencies, and adjusts ears separately, all while using wired or Bluetooth headphones.
• Sound Notifications: Provides visual or vibration alerts for important sounds in your environment, such as alarms, doorbells, or baby cries.
• Hearing Aid Support: Compatibility with hearing aids, including M3 and T4 ratings for reducing radio frequency interference and enhancing telecoil performance, and ASHA (Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids) for direct audio streaming from Android devices.
• Independent Hearing Controls: Individually adjust each hearing aid’s or cochlear implant’s audio presets and ambient volume.
• Clear Calling: Google’s Clear Calling suppresses background noise to make it easier for you to hear your caller’s voice and for your caller to hear your voice.
• Sign-Language-to-Text (SL2T): Use the Pixel camera to recognize sign language and automatically convert it into text. Supports American Sign Language-to-English for direct signing into Gboard and Live Transcribe instead of typing.
• Auracast: The Pixel 11 supports Bluetooth LE Audio technology. Now you can broadcast audio from your Android phone to compatible audio devices, such as headphones or hearing aids. With the Pixel 11, you will soon be able to access Auracast audio streams by scanning a QR code. Meanwhile, you can connect to streams through your Bluetooth settings.

Not all phones running stock Android come with the features above. For example, Clear Calling is currently exclusive to the Google Pixel 7 and above, including Pixel Fold. Others, like Sound Amplifier, are only available through a separately installed app. Over time, however, Google may roll these features out to stock Android, and hence other phones.

Android on a budget? Check out the Pixel 10a

If you’re looking for a budget version of the Google’s Pixel flagship phone, look no further than the Pixel 10a. Coming in at a $499 starting price (currently on pre-order sale for $284), Pixel 8a supports everything listed above. However, like previous Pixel a-series devices, the Pixel 10a won’t support Auracast.

Samsung Galaxy S26

Samsung phones run on Google’s Android OS, but with the company’s own One UI overlay (currently One UI 8.5). While the interface looks different, the accessibility features on Samsung phones are nearly identical to the Pixel. The Galaxy S26 is Samsung’s current flagship and supports Bluetooth 5.4 with LE Audio and Auracast.

Most audio-centric options are found under Settings > Accessibility > Hearing Enhancements:

• Hearing Aid Compatibility
• Bluetooth Hearing Aids Controls
• Live Transcribe
• Live Caption, now also supports instant text translation for a wider array of audio messages, voicemails, and third-party media apps.
• Sound Notifications (aka Sound Detectors)
• Hearing Aid Support (M3, T3, ASHA)
• Amplify Ambient Sound
• Adapt Sound
• Mono Audio
• Left/Right Sound Balance
• RTT and TTY (under Call Settings)
• Flash Notification (under Advanced Settings)
• Auracast (as of Android 15 and One UI 7), aka Audio Broadcast as of One UI 8.5, now available via Quick Settings, if desired

Alternative Options

You don’t have to buy a flagship phone to access accessibility features. Older Apple, Google, and Samsung phones offer most of the features listed above, as long as you can upgrade them to a recent OS version (e.g., minimum iOS 18+ for the Hearing Aid feature, iOS 16 or 17 to gain access to Live Captions, Android 10+ for ASHA, and Samsung’s One UI 4.1+ to customize the left/right audio balance).

Before you buy an Android phone, however, double-check whether your hearing aids support your preferred model. While iPhones have standardized hardware, Android hardware is more diverse, making it harder for hearing aid manufacturers to offer a seamless experience. Hence, your hearing aids officially might only support a limited number of Android handsets.

With this in mind, here are a couple of other Android phones you should consider if you’re on a tight budget:

OnePlus 12

This flagship phone supports Live Caption, Hearing Aids, Mono Audio, and Channel Volume Balancing. OnePlus recently announced that it would provide “selected phones” with five years of security updates, putting it on par with Samsung.

Samsung Galaxy A Series

Samsung’s A series has slightly weaker hardware than the company’s flagship phones. However, the A35 5G packs a larger battery than the S24. The older A52 still sports an audio jack, which can be a lifesaver when your wireless headphones run out of juice. So check that model if an audio jack is a must.

How can smartphones help with hearing impairment?

Whether or not you use hearing aids, your smartphone can help you hear or communicate better. Some features optimize sound streamed to your audio devices or hearing aids, while others turn speech to text, so it’s easier to follow along.

Here are the most important features you’ll find across different phones:

• Live captions: For video or audio streams that lack captions or subtitles, a smartphone equipped with this feature can create them for you on the fly—perfect for video or phone calls.
• Live transcriptions: Technically similar to captions, since a transcription turns spoken words into text, but different in that it listens to voices in your environment, rather than the audio playing on your phone.
• Generated subtitles: Similar to live captions, but specifically used for spoken audio on personal videos to automatically create transcriptions when no subtitles are available.
• Real-time text (RTT): With RTT, you can text during a phone call, while at the same time submitting audio. The recipient will see your messages in real-time. This is useful when you can’t talk. Alternatively, when you struggle to hear the person on the other end, you can ask them to use RTT on their phone. While both Android and iOS support RTT, not all cell carriers or phone models do; Google FI, for example, doesn’t support RTT.
• Teletypewriter (TTY): A TTY device lets people with speech or hearing impairments handle phone calls by turning voice messages into text and vice versa. If your smartphone supports TTY, you can let it transcribe incoming voice calls into text, while you can respond with your voice. On phones like the iPhone 14, TTY and RTT work in tandem.
• Ambient sound amplification: Phones with this feature use the microphone to amplify ambient sounds, particularly voices. It’s similar to the ambient mode in many active noise-canceling headphones, which lets you have a conversation without taking your headphones off.
• Customized headphone audio: This feature goes by a few different names, but it boils down to adapting streaming audio to your specific hearing impairment, much like hearing aids. Some phones let you use an audiogram, others will perform a basic hearing screening test, or you can manually choose your preferred left/right audio balance. The goal is to boost those pitches (frequencies) that you have trouble hearing.
• Mono audio: In stereo recordings, one channel can play a different sound than the other. For example, in Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, vocals and instruments switch between the left and the right channel in parts of the song. With mono audio enabled, you can combine both channels and hear the same sound from both speakers, which is most useful when listening through headphones.
• Hearing aid compatibility (HAC): The HAC rating is an FCC standard that helps you spot phones compatible with hearing aids.
  • 2011 ANSI standard: This standard uses M/T ratings. The T-rating specifies compatibility with hearing aids that contain a Telecoil, while the M-rating applies to those without an induction pick-up coil. The scale reaches from 1 to 4, with higher values indicating higher compatibility, meaning M4/T4 represents an ideal rating. Phones with lower ratings might cause interference with hearing aids.
  • 2019 ANSI standard: This standard replaces its 2011 predecessor and no longer uses M/T ratings. Devices that meet or exceed an M3/T3 rating pass this standard.
• Digital hearing aid support: There’s more to pairing hearing aids with a smartphone than enabling Bluetooth. If you already own a pair of hearing aids, this might even decide which phone you’ll choose. Likewise, if you’re planning to upgrade your hearing aids, you’ll want to choose a phone that will be compatible with your next hearing aid model. Consequently, you must understand the standard your hearing aid or desired phone uses to stream audio to hearing aids.

How to Choose the Right Cell Phone for Your Hearing Aids (and Vice Versa)

Even if your hearing aids feature Bluetooth, they won’t automatically support hands-free-calling or audio streaming to or from your smartphone. Not only should your phone support hearing aids, but your hearing aids also need to support the streaming standard your cell phone is using. Hence, check which Bluetooth standard your hearing aids support, then find a matching phone or vice versa.

These are the most common standards used for hearing aids:

• MFi: Made for iPhone is an iOS standard that works with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Apple pioneered this extension to BLE in 2013.
• ASHA: Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids (ASHA) is the Android equivalent of MFi. Google released this open standard in 2019.
• BLE: Both MFi and ASHA were developed before Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) supported audio streaming. The new Bluetooth LE Audio standard, announced in 2020, adds the much-needed audio streaming feature and will eventually replace ASHA and MFi. Starting with the Bluetooth 5.2 standard, Auracast broadcast technology is also available. However, not all hearing aids are fully Auracast-enabled; those still advertised as Auracast-ready are pending a firmware update to unlock the feature. Refer to our list of the best Bluetooth hearing aids for models that fully support Auracast.

Get the Right Smartphone for Your Hearing Needs

Whatever your smartphone preferences, if you have hearing aids we suggest consulting with your hearing care professional and/or looking carefully at the manufacturers’ compatibility webpages prior to either purchasing a new phone or hearing aid.