If you've worn hearing aids for a while, you already know the challenge. A theater announcement gets lost in the room noise. A church sermon sounds thin and distant. You catch half of what's said at the airport gate and hope the other half didn't matter.
Fortunately, Sarasota has been ahead of the curve here with dozens of local buildings already wired for hearing loop technology. Now a newer option is showing up in hearing aids too, and patients keep asking us how it compares. Here's a simple explanation of auracast vs. hearing loops.
The Loop System You Already Know
Hearing loops (also called induction loop systems) have been solving this problem for years. A loop of wire runs around a room and connects to the venue's sound system. That loop creates a magnetic signal that your hearing aid's telecoil picks up directly, no microphone in between, no background chatter competing with the speaker. We covered where to find these systems around town in our earlier post, 30+ Buildings in Sarasota with Hearing Loop Technology. If your hearing aids have a telecoil, you can already use plenty of loops in this area.
Loops work well but they're also limited. Each venue needs its own physical loop installed, and only spaces that made that investment offer the benefit. Auracast takes a similar idea and stretches it much further.
Auracast in Plain Terms
Auracast is a new broadcast audio standard built on Bluetooth LE Audio. Think of it as a wireless audio signal that any nearby device can tune into, kind of like a radio station that only plays in one room.
There are three pieces to understand:
- Transmitter: the source sending out audio. A theater's sound system, an airport's PA, a TV in a waiting room, even a friend's phone.
- Assistant: the piece of software that finds nearby Auracast broadcasts and helps you connect to the right one. This usually lives in an app.
- Receiver: the device that plays the sound for you. In this case, your hearing aids.
So instead of a room needing a physical loop, it just needs an Auracast transmitter. And instead of relying on a telecoil, your hearing aids stream the audio directly over Bluetooth. Public venues, places of worship, airports, and gyms are starting to install these transmitters, and the appeal is obvious. One TV, one broadcast, unlimited nearby devices tuned in at once.
Where the Brands We Fit Stand Today
This is where things get a little uneven, because "Auracast compatible" doesn't mean the same thing for every device on the market right now.
ReSound Vivia and ReSound Savi are fully activated for Auracast today. No firmware update needed, no waiting. GN built these as some of the first hearing aids on the market ready to receive Auracast broadcasts right out of the box.
Oticon Zeal is in the same boat. It gives you access to Auracast right now, with no pending update required to unlock the feature.
Widex Allure is Auracast-ready, but the activation depends on a firmware update Widex hasn't released yet. The hardware supports it. The feature just isn't switched on quite yet.
That distinction matters if you're choosing a device specifically because you want to use Auracast the day you walk out of our office. "Auracast-ready" and "Auracast-active" sound similar but aren't quite the same thing.
The Apps Do More Than You'd Expect
Here's the part that surprises a lot of patients. You don't need the newest phone to use Auracast.
GN built an Auracast Assistant right into the ReSound Smart 3D app, and it's reportedly the first app of its kind for hearing aids. Scan for nearby broadcasts, pick the one you want (public or private), and you're streaming, all with a tap. It doesn't require your phone itself to have Auracast support built in.
Oticon takes a similar approach with the Companion app. It can act as the Auracast Assistant even for older Android phones and iPhones that don't natively handle LE Audio. That's a real convenience. Plenty of patients aren't ready to buy a brand-new phone just to take advantage of a hearing aid feature, and this sidesteps that entirely.
Apple and Windows 11 devices are starting to add native LE Audio support of their own, and some newer Android phones let you adjust hearing aid presets right from the phone's settings. But for now, the manufacturer apps are doing most of the heavy lifting, and doing it well.
Loops and Auracast Aren't Competing, They're Complementary
We'd push back on the idea that Auracast is here to replace hearing loops. Loops are proven, reliable, and already installed across a good number of Sarasota venues. Auracast is newer and expanding fast, but it needs venues to adopt new transmitter hardware, and that rollout takes time.
The realistic picture for the next few years is both systems working side by side. Telecoils aren't going anywhere, and your hearing aids can support both technologies at once depending on the model.
Ask Us About Your Options in Sarasota
If you're due for new hearing aids or just want to know whether your current ones support Auracast, telecoil, or both, that's exactly the kind of question we like getting. Our audiologists at The Hearing Spa can walk you through which devices are fully activated today, which are waiting on a firmware update, and how that fits with the loop systems already installed around Sarasota. Give us a call at (941) 366-4848 and we'll help you figure out what makes sense for how you actually spend your day.
