Turn off speakers on bluetooth

[cwallen19803]

I use hearing aids. Its a joy that I don't reccomend so be careful how loud you use those earbuds and how close you stand to the band...

Anyway, the Signia app lets me stream audio from my phone to the hearing aids. The Moto G Power is not officially supported by this app but it works. In addition to audio streaming I can modify some characteristics with my phone, as opposed to reaching all the way up to my ears to press a button.

The problem is that the phone speakers remain on while bluetooth streaming via the Signia app. This does not occur with a standard bluetooth speaker. Also, there is no streaming through the hearing aids unless the Signia app is running, so they are not direct earbud replacements. My audiologist says the speakers are supposed to be off. There isn't a setting in the app for this. My assumption is that the app can't control my phone the way it can the qualified Samsungs.

I'm wondering if there is a system setting that will disable the speakers that I could use to programmatically disable and enable the speakers.

The hearing aids appear in the bluetooth settings page, and I can know their addresses.

Suggestions?

 

[RSF]

What is sounding through the speakers? Is it the same audio that Signia is sending to your hearing aids, or is it phone ringing / notification sounds / some other sounds?

 

[cwallen19803]

What is sounding through the speakers? Is it the same audio that Signia is sending to your hearing aids, or is it phone ringing / notification sounds / some other sounds?

The same audio. Currently I've only tried rocketplayer, and the song plays through the speakers. I can increase the volume in the hearing aids using the Signia app, so I know it does something, but sound comes through the phone speakers. So, media audio.

The ultimate solution would be to turn off the phone speawhikee lea ing the hearing aids on.

 

[RSF]

Is it possible that Signia may use a different stream & volume control than yhe standard phone speakers? ... such that you could use Android's volume controls to turn down (or mute) the media stream, without affecting the Signia volume? You've probably tried that.

 

[cwallen19803]

Yeah, I have tried that. The signia app actually complains if the device volume is too low.

I played with the settings of the media player, rocket player, and the Signia app. I can get the same volume in my ears with a low signia app setting and a high media player setting as I can with a high signia app setting and a low media app setting. The phone, media volume slider makes both louder/softer (pretty sure...) And the signia app control affects the hearing aid volume. Zero media volume, zero phone speaker volume and 100% signia app volume is silent. There has to be some device volume in the mix for the Signia app to forward.

All of that, and the warning from the Signia app, leads me to believe that the signia app is just forwarding volume from the media player.

This may not be something I can fix, but I see people here tweaking all sorts of stuff.

I even plugged the headphone jack. No audio to the hearing aids. I need to be able to disable the speakers without anyone else noticing... Just seems like a software thing.

Thanks for your interest.

 

[RSF]

Stumped. I'd thought of the hack of inserting a dummy plug into the earphone jack, and if that doesn't even work ... not sure what will. I don't see any obvious system settings controllable either in MacroDroid or Tasker (similar-type app).

Maybe Signia has a help desk that could suggest a setting, somewhere, in Android? If so, then MacroDroid could probably automate toggling it in response to a Signia bluetooth connection.

 

[MacroDroidDev]

I'm afraid I don't think there is any way to disable the speakers (other than via the standard volume controls).