If your hearing aids don't have Bluetooth, then you're giving up a ton of great features. Bluetooth has not only opened up the ability to stream audio like music and phone calls directly into both of your hearing aids, but it has also made available a bevy of other features such as remote programming capabilities, app controls, and even TV streaming.

Since direct Bluetooth streaming hearing aids first hit the market back in 2014, this has become arguably one of the most popular features among hearing aid users. Of course, after another year of technological advancement, we have started to see some new Bluetooth features hit the market, not just inside new hearing aids coming out but also inside old hearing aids.

In this article, we're taking a look at all of the best Bluetooth hearing aid brands that are currently available on the market and letting you know which ones we think are the best of the best for 2023 so far.

Despite these advanced features, it's important to remember that the effectiveness of Bluetooth hearing aids largely depends on the quality of the fitting and programming done by your hearing care professional. Therefore, it's crucial to make sure that a professional who is familiar with the features and nuances of all the most recent Bluetooth hearing aids fits and programs your hearing aids.

Oticon's Real, More, Own, Opn, and Xceed power BTE hearing aids are all made for iPhone hearing aids that also have the ASHA Bluetooth protocol. The made-for-iPhone Bluetooth low-energy protocol allows you to stream audio directly from a compatible Apple device into both of your Oticon hearing aids.

For years, if you wanted to stream audio directly from a smart device into both of your hearing aids, you had to have an Apple product. However, a couple of years ago, they did come up with the ASHA Bluetooth protocol, which now allows you to stream audio from an Android device into both of your Oticon hearing aids as well.

However, if you want full functionality from the Bluetooth capabilities of an Oticon hearing aid, you're going to have to use a compatible Apple device. For instance, you cannot use the two-way audio streaming capabilities of an Android device using the ASHA Bluetooth protocol. This is when you can stream audio directly into both of your ears and use the microphones on your hearing aids to take your voice and send it to the person that you're actually talking to on the phone. This means you can be completely hands-free if you are using one of these compatible Apple devices, but you have to still hold your phone to your mouth if you're using an Android device.

The best feature of these made-for-iPhone hearing aids is that you can toggle this particular feature on and off. So, if you want to be hands-free, you can just toggle that feature on. If you do not want to be hands-free and talk into your phone, you can make sure that that feature is turned off. This can come in extremely handy if you are in a noisy environment because if your voice has to travel back to your hearing aid, a lot of the background noise can mix in with your own voice, making it hard for the person that you're talking to on the phone to hear and understand you. But if you can toggle this feature off, still stream the audio into both of your ears, and then actually talk into the microphone of your phone, that is going to be much more effective.

Oticon hearing aids will allow you to stream audio directly from your TV into both of your hearing aids, as long as you have the Oticon TV streamer. You can also use remote microphone capabilities, either with the ConnectClip or the EduMic.

You also get access to the Oticon ON app. This app acts like a remote control for your smartphone or tablet, which lets you do things like change into different programs, increase and decrease volume in each of these programs, adjust a streaming equaliser to improve music sound quality, activate live listen to turn your iPhone into a remote microphone, check your battery status for rechargeable and disposable batteries, locate your hearing aids just in case you lose them, and set up automations using "If This Then That".

Now, Oticon does limit the amount of adjustments that your hearing care professional can make inside of the programming software for a streamed signal, so do not expect your hearing care professional to be able to get everything exactly right here from a sound quality perspective. The silver lining to this is that Oticon actually gives you a three-band equaliser inside of the Oticon ON app that you can use to further customise the streamed audio.

One thing that we really do like about the Oticon hearing aids on your iWatch is that they will give you access to three different screens. This will allow you to change your volume levels by using the crown on the side of the watch. You can change between different programs and activate different accessories using the touch screen, and you can even see the battery life remaining in your hearing aids.

Oticon also has the Remote Care app, which allows you to have a remote programming session with your hearing care professional without having to go into their office. They can tap directly into the programming of your hearing aids, make any adjustments that they want to, save it, and you're good to go. Now, it does not matter which technology level you go with with your Oticon hearing aids. From the top to the bottom of these technology levels, you're going to get this Bluetooth capability. So, you do not have to worry about losing that if you need to drop down to a lower technology level for affordability reasons.

The second hearing aid brand that we would consider to be one of the best Bluetooth hearing aid brands in 2023 is Phonak. Phonak's Audeo, Lumity, Slim Lumity, Virto Paradise, and Naida Paradise hearing aids (Lumity is very similar to Phonak's last generation (Paradise), but adds StereoZoom 2.0 and SpeechSensor, which together deliver clearer speech in background noise, according to Phonak) are all considered made for any phone hearing aids because they use the Bluetooth classic protocol. By using Bluetooth Classic, Phonak made it possible to connect to virtually any Bluetooth device, whether it's an Apple device, an Android device, or anything in between.

The way that they did this is that they were able to designate one hearing aid as the main hearing aid for that Bluetooth classic connection, and then that hearing aid routes it over to its partner device so you get stereo hearing in both of your ears. These Bluetooth devices include smartphones, landline phones, brick phones, laptop computers, desktop computers, tablets, and pretty much anything else.

Now, like we mentioned before, if any of these Bluetooth devices are Apple devices or Android devices, it doesn't matter. You connect with them in a very similar way, and you can pair with up to eight different Bluetooth devices, with two of them being connected at the exact same time. This means that you could be streaming a movie from your tablet and get a phone call on your phone and answer the phone call without having to turn off Bluetooth on the tablet and turn on Bluetooth on your phone in just enough time for you to miss the phone call. It just goes seamlessly back and forth between your two favourite devices.

You also get two-way audio with this Bluetooth classic protocol, so you can be hands-free when you're talking on the phone because the microphones of your hearing aids will pick up your voice and send it to the person on the other end of the line. With the Lumity and Paradise models, you can use the push button to answer the phone call, reject the phone call, or you can use a double-tap feature if you have a rechargeable version of these hearing aids, and you can double-tap your ear to answer the call and double-tap your ear once you're done with the phone call to hang up on the person.

Personally, we prefer the audio quality of Bluetooth streaming using the Bluetooth Classic protocol inside of the Phonak hearing aids compared to any other Bluetooth connection that you can use, including the ASHA protocol and the Made-for-iPhone protocol. Just keep in mind that the quality of the streaming audio has to do with the coupling that you're using on your hearing aids, whether that's a rubber dome or whether that's venting on your ear moulds.

Phonak also lets your hearing care professional customise this audio really well. In fact, they actually separate out music media from speech-related media using their AutoSense operating system. However, keep in mind that if you're streaming a lot of audio, it can drain your battery life faster.

Phonak also has the myPhonak app, which allows you to do a variety of different things, including changing programs, adjusting volume, adjusting the balance of the streamed audio versus the environmental audio, and even adjusting the noise reduction and speech focus of your hearing aids. You can also use the myPhonak app to have a remote programming session with your hearing care professional, which is a great feature if you can't make it into the office for an appointment.

Phonak hearing aids also allow you to stream audio directly from your TV into both of your hearing aids, as long as you have the Phonak TV Connector. This is a great feature if you're someone who likes to watch TV but struggles to hear it clearly.

ReSound's receiver in canal, Omnia hearing aids, their Custom hearing aids, their power Enzo BTE hearing aids, and the economy line of Key hearing aids all use Made-for-iPhone Bluetooth for Apple devices and the ASHA Bluetooth protocol for Android devices.

While the ReSound Bluetooth hearing aids function in a very similar fashion to the other Made-for-iPhone hearing aid technologies, the one thing that sets them apart is that they have one of the best smartphone apps out there. The ReSound Smart 3D app is the highest-rated hearing aid app by a wide margin, and this is probably due to how consistently reliable it is.

This app allows you to change between different programs set up by your hearing care professional and activate or deactivate different remote accessories. You can activate the noise filter or speech clarity quick keys, increase or decrease overall volume of your hearing aids, and depending on which program you're in, you can use the sound enhancer to do things like control the directional microphones of your hearing aids and increase or decrease noise reduction.

They also have a newer feature called "Check My Fit." So, if you're confused about whether or not you have your hearing aids inserted into your ear canals correctly, you can use this particular app feature to make sure that you have the proper insertion depth.

This app also allows you to have a live remote programming session with your hearing care professional, just like all of the other Bluetooth hearing aids that I'm talking about in this list. But they also give you asynchronous programming, which is unique to them at this point in time. This means that you can request changes from your hearing care professional, and then when they have time to get around to those changes, they can send you a program package that you can upload into your own hearing aids. You can either accept it or reject it depending on how things sound. This can be an extremely convenient way to get programming changes with your hearing aids if you have difficulty lining up appointment times with your hearing care professional.

The ReSound Smart 3D app is also compatible with an Apple Watch. If you happen to have ReSound hearing aids like the ReSound One and their Smart 3D app, you can use the crown on your iWatch to make volume adjustments, or you can use the touch screen itself. You can change between different programs and accessories, and the watch even lets you activate your noise filter and speech clarity filter, just like you can inside of the Smart 3D smartphone app.

ReSound also has several great Bluetooth accessories like a TV streamer, the Micro Mic, which is a remote microphone, and the Multi Mic, which is a remote microphone but also has a variety of other different features that it enables, including telecoil connectivity.

Overall, ReSound hearing aids are a terrific Bluetooth hearing aid option, just like the fourth and final brand that made the list this year, which is Starkey.

Starkey's Evolve and soon-to-arrive Genesis AI hearing aids are made for iPhone hearing aids that also have the ASHA Bluetooth protocol. This means that you can stream audio directly from a compatible Apple or Android device into both of your Starkey hearing aids.

Starkey hearing aids also have some unique features that you won't find in any other Bluetooth hearing aids. For instance, they have a fall detection feature that can actually save lives. If the motion sensors inside the Starkey Evolve AI hearing aids detect a fall, they will send a message to individuals that you set up inside the Starkey Thrive app, who can then notify help if necessary.

Starkey also has a wellness tracking feature inside the Thrive app that keeps track of your engagement levels and physical activity levels. The goal here is not only to improve how well you hear but also to improve your overall quality of life. With Thrive Care, this wellness information could be sent to another individual on your contact list so they can monitor how engaged you are and how active you are.

The self-check diagnosis feature is also pretty cool because you can take the hearing aids out of your ears and then go into the app and start a self-check of those devices to see if there's any part of the devices that is malfunctioning. So, you can reach out to your hearing care professional to get your hearing aids fixed.

Something that is really cool and unique about the Starkey hearing aids that you do not get from any of the other Bluetooth hearing aids on the market is that you can directly connect to an Amazon Fire TV Cube. This will allow you to stream audio directly from your TV into both of your hearing aids without having to purchase an additional accessory from Starkey.

Now, we cannot stress enough how awesome it is to stream audio from your TV into both of your ears. If you are not understanding 99 plus percent of the dialogue on TV, if you start doing Bluetooth streaming from your TV into your hearing aids, it is going to clear that up.

Starkey also uses a program called Stream Boost, so your hearing care professional can go in there and customise the audio of your stream signal. Just keep in mind that a lot of the quality of the stream that you get still has a lot to do with the rubber dome that you're using on your hearing aids, the custom ear mould, and the venting.

So, if you're looking for some out-of-the-box Bluetooth connectivity capabilities, then the Starkey hearing aids are definitely going to be a great option for you.

All right, there you go. Those are our top picks for the best Bluetooth hearing aid brands here in 2023. If any one of them piques your interest, make sure that you contact us to get yourself a pair. At the end of the day, anyone who still thinks that Bluetooth connectivity is just a nice thing to have really does not understand how important this particular feature is if you want to maximize your ability to hear. So, if 2023 is the year that you're going to be upgrading your hearing aid technology, then I strongly encourage you to add Bluetooth connectivity to the list of mandatory requirements that you have for your new devices. We promise you won't regret it.

Remember, the effectiveness of any Bluetooth hearing aid largely depends on the quality of the fitting and programming done by your hearing care professional. Therefore, it's crucial to ensure that your hearing aids are fitted and programmed by a team that knows their stuff! That's us!