A remote for your hearing aids that works offline.
I Hear You is an independent, interoperable open-source Android remote for GN hearing aids, tested with ReSound Nexia and CROS. It shows battery, program and volume, lets a press on an aid run an action on your phone, and uses the aids' microphones for voice notes.
Not affiliated with GN Hearing. I Hear You is an independent, unofficial open-source project. ReSound, Nexia, Beltone and other names are trademarks of their owners.
Everyday control, offline
It covers everyday control of your aids without an account or a cloud connection, and adds a few things of its own.
See and set each aid
Battery, signal, stream state, program and volume for the left and right aid, with a mute key and a program strip. Every change shows as sent, then as read back from the aid.
Make the aid's button do more
A short, long or double press on each aid can have its own action on the phone.
Talk to the phone through the aids
Voice notes are recorded with the aids' own microphones and transcribed on the phone.
No account, no cloud
The app talks to the aids over Bluetooth LE. It has no account and no analytics. The network is used only by the voice-note destinations you set up.
Which hearing aids it works with
I Hear You talks to GN hearing aids over Bluetooth LE. It has been tested with ReSound Nexia receivers NX560S (Nexia 5) and NX460S and the Nexia CROS transmitter CX160S.
ReSound Nexia with Nexia CROS
NX560S (Nexia 5), NX460S and the CX160S CROS. Everything on this page was checked on these.
Other recent GN aids
It supports several generations of GN hearing aids and recognises aids from the GN brands ReSound, Beltone, Jabra Enhance, Danalogic and Interton. None of these other aids has been tried yet. If you have one, tell us what works and what doesn't.
Other makers, passcode aids
Phonak, Oticon, Signia, Widex, Starkey and other brands outside GN use different protocols. GN aids that ask for a passcode to pair aren't supported either.
If the app meets an aid generation it doesn't know, it only reads from the aid: you see the battery and status, and it changes nothing.
Buttons that do something
A press on the aid can run an action on the phone instead of the aid's own. You set it per aid and per gesture. The change the aid makes to its program or volume is undone right after the press, so it doesn't get in the way of the action you chose.
- Short presspress once
- Long presshold past 0.4 s
- Double presspress twice
Each gesture can run one of these:
- Play / pause
- Next track
- Previous track
- Volume up
- Volume down
- Next program
- Previous program
- Voice note
- Do nothing
- Keep the aid's action
Play, pause and track keys need notification access, which you grant in Setup. The mappings stay on your phone and are never synced.
Voice notes from the button on your aid
Map Voice note to a press on the aid. One press starts a recording, the next one ends it.
Press
The sound comes from the aids' own LE Audio microphones. If they aren't available, the app falls back to another headset and then to the phone's microphone. A woman's voice says "go ahead" once recording starts, in the app's language. Music or anything else playing is paused, and resumes after the note.
Talk
A press on either aid ends the note, whatever that press is mapped to. Which aid and which gesture you press decides where the note goes, and a short spoken message says what was chosen, such as "Saved, transcribing." A length limit of 2 to 60 minutes ends it as well.
Transcribe
The phone transcribes the recording on the device with Offline Speech to Text, even with the screen locked. You choose audio, audio and text, or text only.
Deliver
The audio is always saved first, as an .m4a file in Documents/I Hear You or a folder you pick. Then it goes where you chose.
- Save only. Nothing leaves the phone. The transcript is also copied to the clipboard.
- Share. The Android share sheet, with the audio and the transcript.
- Webhook. A POST with the audio, the transcript and a little metadata, to Home Assistant or your own server.
- White Noise. An encrypted message in a group, sent under the app's own identity.
There is no cancel key. A note you didn't mean to end still gets saved.
Works best with Offline Speech to Text
Offline Speech to Text is a free app that turns speech into text on your phone, with no network. I Hear You uses it to transcribe your voice notes, so the words stay on the device unless you send them somewhere.
Install it, download a speech model in it, and choose audio and text or text only for your voice notes. Transcription needs Android 13 or newer.
- Free
- Runs on the phone
- Works offline
White Noise and AI agents
White Noise is a messenger with encrypted groups. I Hear You can post your voice notes to a White Noise group under an identity of its own, which it creates the first time you use it. Copy its npub into a group, accept the invite in the app and choose the group.
Put an AI agent in that group, for example Hermes, and a press on your aid becomes a way to talk to it.
You speak
Press the aid, say it, press again. The voice note arrives in the group as audio, with the transcript as its caption.
The agent answers
It replies in the group like any other member.
You hear it
The reply plays into your aids. Audio plays as it is, and text is read aloud by the phone's text-to-speech. A short press stops it.
Replies can be off, played for 15 minutes after you send a note (the default), or always. Music pauses while a reply plays. You can read text replies aloud or only play voice replies, and list words that keep a reply from being played, such as the microphone marker that tags the transcript of your own note.
If your agent only accepts invites and messages from known keys, allow the app's npub in its connector. You can back up the identity as an nsec and import it later. That brings back the npub, but the groups have to invite it again.
Private, open and unofficial
No account. The app reaches the aids over Bluetooth LE. The network is used only by the voice-note destinations you set up, a webhook or a White Noise group. With Save only, nothing leaves the phone, and transcription runs on the phone.
The code is under the MIT licence. The Barlow typefaces are under the SIL Open Font License.
GN Hearing and ReSound did not make, endorse or support I Hear You. Its behaviour was verified on ReSound Nexia aids (NX560S, NX460S) and a Nexia CROS. Other GN models are untested.
Get I Hear You
Version 0.2.0 is early software. It needs Android 12 or newer.
Obtainium
Obtainium watches the GitHub releases and updates the app when a new one is out. If Obtainium is installed, this link adds I Hear You to it.
APK from GitHub
Download the APK from the latest release and install it. You'll have to update it by hand.
The APK is signed with a certificate whose SHA-256 fingerprint is 79750fb49349ec3729be5a3e825507a15e47c6d987e854ae91d5d50a20b3a24d. Android installs an update only if it is signed with the same certificate. You can also build the app yourself; the steps are in the repository on GitHub.
Pair your aids
Each aid is paired once. Have both aids and the charger at hand.
Pair in Android
Take the aids out of the charger and pair both in the phone's Bluetooth settings, as you would without this app.
Open the app
Your aids are listed under Setup → Pair an aid. You can also tap Pair on the Now screen.
Tap one aid
When the app asks, put that aid in the charger for about 3 seconds and take it out again. The aid restarts and the app finishes pairing.
Then the other
Do the same with the second aid. Both then show up on the Now screen.
Aids with a battery instead of a charger: open and close the battery door instead.
Third Ear
Third Ear is a general voice recorder with the same Bluetooth and hearing-aid recording, transcription and White Noise features.
Time, talent or treasure
If you like this project, I would appreciate it if you contributed time, talent or treasure.
Test it, fix it
Try the app with your aids and report what works and what doesn't. Fix bugs and send pull requests. Reports from GN aids other than the Nexia help the most.
Send something back
Treasure can be sent through my support page. It has a Bitcoin payment form and addresses for Lightning, Monero and Zcash, which you can also scan here.
Lightning (BOLT-12)Open in wallet
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