UK private buyers walked out with a rechargeable hearing aid 92.6% of the time in Q2 2026, while only 4.99% of NHS fittings were rechargeable (BIHIMA Q2 2026). In the US, 69% of owners who bought in the past five years now report a rechargeable device, up from 52% in 2022 (HIA MarkeTrak 2025). On the connectivity side, Apple’s Made for iPhone list spans 104 hearing device brands (Apple Support 2026), and all five of the largest hearing aid manufacturers now ship Auracast-capable models (Bluetooth SIG 2026). We aggregated data from the Hearing Industries Association’s MarkeTrak surveys, BIHIMA quarterly market data, the EuroTrak surveys for the UK, France and the Netherlands, the Bluetooth SIG, Apple and Android developer documentation, and peer-reviewed audiology papers. For adoption, prices and market size, see our broader hearing aid statistics roundup; this page stays on batteries, streaming and phone links.
TL;DR
- 69% of US hearing aid owners who bought in the past five years report a rechargeable device, up from 52% in 2022 (HIA MarkeTrak 2025).
- 92.6% of UK private hearing aid sales were rechargeable in Q2 2026, against 4.99% of NHS units (BIHIMA Q2 2026).
- Direct smartphone streaming went from 2% of US owners in 2015 to 44% in 2022 (Picou, MarkeTrak 2022, Seminars in Hearing).
- GN rates the ReSound Vivia microRIE at 30 hours per charge, or 20 hours when streaming 50% of the time (GN product page 2026, vendor claim).
- Only 49% of US owners wear their aids the recommended 8 hours a day (Jilla and Jorgensen, Seminars in Hearing 2025).
- Children’s daily hearing aid use rose from 6.82 to 9.82 hours after a switch to direct Bluetooth devices (Barrera et al., 2023).
- 54% of Dutch hearing aid owners use a hearing aid app, against 31% in the UK (EuroTrak Netherlands 2026; EuroTrak UK 2025).
- Apple’s MFi hearing device list covers 104 brands, and hands-free calls need an iPhone 11 or later (Apple Support 2026).
- The Bluetooth SIG forecasts 3 billion LE Audio-enabled devices shipping each year by 2028 (Bluetooth SIG Market Update 2024, ABI Research data).
1. Rechargeable Hearing Aids: The US Owner Shift
The rechargeable switch in the US happened in one survey cycle, not gradually. Built-in rechargeable hearing aids sat at roughly one in six recent owners in both 2015 and 2019, then jumped to 52% in 2022 and 69% in 2025 (HIA MarkeTrak 2025, Hearing Review). A flat 2015 to 2019 line followed by a step change looks more like a shift in what clinics were fitting than slow consumer persuasion.
MarkeTrak separates two things that are easy to confuse. A “rechargeable hearing aid” has a sealed battery that is never removed; “rechargeable batteries” are removable cells that the user swaps and recharges. The sealed design is the one that took over (Picou, MarkeTrak 2022, Seminars in Hearing). Preference data outside the US points the same way: in a discrete choice experiment with 346 older adults in China, rechargeable batteries carried a significant positive weight, while app connectivity did not.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Owners who bought in the past 5 years with a rechargeable hearing aid, 2025 vs 2022 | 69% vs 52% | HIA MarkeTrak 2025 (Hearing Review) |
| Owners with a rechargeable hearing aid (sealed battery), 2019 vs 2015 | 15% vs 16% | Picou, MarkeTrak 2022 (Seminars in Hearing) |
| Owners with removable rechargeable batteries, 2022 vs 2019 vs 2015 | 35% vs 14% vs 18% | Picou, MarkeTrak 2022 (Seminars in Hearing) |
| Preference weight for rechargeable vs non-rechargeable batteries, 346 older adults in China (mixed logit coefficient) | 0.38 (95% CI 0.17, 0.59), p<0.001 | Liu et al., Patient Preference and Adherence 2026 |
| Willingness to pay for rechargeable vs non-rechargeable batteries in the same study | 1419.41 RMB (95% CI 673.96, 2214.06), about USD 205 | Liu et al., Patient Preference and Adherence 2026 |
| Preference weight for an aid with a dedicated mobile app vs without, same study | 0.10 (95% CI -0.09, 0.29), p=0.316 (not significant) | Liu et al., Patient Preference and Adherence 2026 |
Context: the 2025 wave was fielded in October and November 2024 across 16,148 US households; 2,955 people with self-reported hearing difficulty completed the detailed survey, of whom 1,173 owned hearing aids. The 2022 rechargeable figure (52%) appears in both the 2022 paper and the 2025 summary, which confirms the two waves measure the same thing. The Chinese study is linked here.
2. UK and Ireland Sales: Rechargeable Is the Private Norm, the NHS Exception
The UK shows what happens when one buyer controls most of the market. The NHS supplied 1,886,835 hearing instruments in 2025 against 520,818 in the private sector, so private sales were only 21.6% of the 2,407,653 total (520,818 / 2,407,653) (BIHIMA 2025 market data). Yet the private market is where rechargeable is standard: 92.6% of private units in Q2 2026 versus 4.99% of NHS units (BIHIMA Q2 2026).
The gap looks like a procurement choice rather than a user preference. In Q1 2026 the private market sold 135,847 rechargeable units against 26,287 on the NHS, about 5.2 times as many (135,847 / 26,287), even though the NHS shipped more than three times the total volume (BIHIMA Q1 2026). BIHIMA reported the NHS rechargeable rate rising from a steady 3.6% to 5.8% in Q1, then slipping to 4.99% in Q2, so the public-sector shift is real but slow.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| UK private hearing instrument sales that were rechargeable, Q2 2026 | 92.6% of 121,067 units | BIHIMA Q2 2026 |
| UK private rechargeable units, Q1 2026 | 135,847 of 145,575 units (93%) | BIHIMA Q1 2026 |
| UK NHS fittings that were rechargeable, Q2 2026 | 4.99% of 414,687 units | BIHIMA Q2 2026 |
| UK NHS rechargeable share, Q1 2026 vs the rate of the previous year | 5.8% (26,287 of 457,247 units) vs about 3.6% | BIHIMA Q1 2026 |
| Republic of Ireland sales that were rechargeable, Q2 2026 | 68.7% of 27,884 units | BIHIMA Q2 2026 |
| UK private rechargeable share, full year 2025 | over 91% | BIHIMA 2025 market data |
| UK units supplied in 2025, NHS vs private | 1,886,835 vs 520,818 | BIHIMA 2025 market data |
| Share of UK owners’ hearing instruments supplied free of charge by the NHS | 69% | EuroTrak UK 2025 (BIHIMA) |
Outlier note: the BIHIMA rechargeable shares quoted for Ireland do not line up across releases (see Data watch). The Q2 2026 figure is the most recent and is the one used here. The EuroTrak UK 2025 figure is from BIHIMA’s EuroTrak release.
3. Battery Life: Vendor Claims vs the Hours People Actually Wear
Battery specs are almost entirely vendor claims, and they are rarely published in a form that isolates streaming. The cleanest example is GN: the ReSound Vivia microRIE is rated at 30 hours per charge, or 20 hours when streaming 50% of the time, a drop of 10 hours, about one third of runtime ((30 - 20) / 30) (GN product page, vendor claim). Phonak rates its Audéo Infinio Ultra at up to 31 hours but lists streaming only as one of several factors in a footnote, with no separate number (Phonak product page, vendor claim).
Set against real wear time, even the streaming-heavy figure leaves headroom. Traditional users average 9.4 hours a day (see the table below), and GN’s 20-hour streaming figure is a little over twice that (20 / 9.4 = 2.1). The battery question for most users is not whether the aid lasts the day; it is the fifth of users who wear them 13 hours or more and stream heavily.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| ReSound Vivia microRIE runtime per charge, normal use vs streaming 50% of the time | 30 hours vs 20 hours | GN product page 2026 (vendor claim) |
| Phonak Audéo Infinio Ultra maximum runtime | up to 31 hours | Phonak product page 2026 (vendor claim) |
| Lifespan of standard disposable hearing aid batteries, depending on type, use and streaming | 3 to 22 days | Starkey batteries page 2026 (vendor claim) |
| Average daily wear, traditional vs OTC hearing aid users | 9.4 vs 6.8 hours | HIA MarkeTrak 2025 (Hearing Review) |
| Owners meeting the 8-hours-per-day clinical recommendation | 49% | Jilla and Jorgensen, Seminars in Hearing 2025 |
| Current users wearing their aids 13 or more hours a day | 21% | Jilla and Jorgensen, Seminars in Hearing 2025 |
| Average daily wear among daily users | 10.6 hours | Jilla and Jorgensen, Seminars in Hearing 2025 |
| UK average daily wear time, 2025 vs 2022 | 9 vs 8.1 hours | EuroTrak UK 2025 (BIHIMA) |
Context: the wear-time data come from Jilla and Jorgensen’s MarkeTrak 2025 analysis and the Starkey batteries page. In a 2026 study of adolescents who stream, reduced battery life was one of the technical problems participants reported, alongside connectivity and compatibility issues (Gross, McCreery and Walker, Seminars in Hearing 2026), but the abstract gives no hours.
4. Streaming Adoption and What It Does to Daily Use
Streaming went from niche to mainstream in seven years. Direct smartphone streaming rose from 2% of US owners in 2015 to 44% in 2022, overtaking accessory-based streaming (a separate clip-on or TV box relaying the sound) for the first time (Picou, MarkeTrak 2022). The 2025 wave only publishes a combined wireless figure (see the table below).
The usage evidence is consistent but small. Children wore their aids three hours longer after moving to direct Bluetooth devices, and adolescents who stream wore theirs more than two hours longer than peers who do not (Barrera et al., 2023; Gross et al., 2026). In older adults the picture is flatter: the ACHIEVE trial found that technology level and assistive devices made no difference to daily use (Sanchez et al., 2026). Streaming seems to matter most for groups whose listening day is built around phones and media, a theme that overlaps with our wireless earbuds statistics.
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Owners who stream sound directly from a smartphone, 2022 vs 2019 vs 2015 | 44% vs 13% vs 2% | Picou, MarkeTrak 2022 (Seminars in Hearing) |
| Owners who stream through an additional accessory, 2022 vs 2019 vs 2015 | 38% vs 26% vs 20% | Picou, MarkeTrak 2022 (Seminars in Hearing) |
| Recent buyers with any wireless capability, 2025 vs 2022 | 70% vs 63% | HIA MarkeTrak 2025 (Hearing Review) |
| Daily hearing aid use in 51 school-aged children, before vs after upgrade to direct Bluetooth devices | 6.82 vs 9.82 hours (<0.001) | Barrera et al., International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology 2023 |
| Extra daily wear in adolescents who stream vs those who do not | over two additional hours | Gross et al., Seminars in Hearing 2026 |
| Sentence recognition score (0-10) in 18 adults, wireless streaming off vs on | 6.6 vs 9.3, p=0.001 | Chang et al., Journal of Audiology and Otology 2024 |
| Mean daily use in the ACHIEVE trial (459 adults aged 70 to 84) | 9.3 hours, no difference by technology level or assistive technology | Sanchez et al., American Journal of Audiology 2026 |
Context: in the Barrera study, privately insured children had higher odds of increased use than those on Medicaid (OR = 1.247, p < 0.001, 95% CI 1.093-1.422). Most recent available data for the direct vs accessory streaming split: the 2022 MarkeTrak wave. The Chang result comes from a Korean lab study; a separate test with 20 experienced users found TV streaming improved speech understanding in noise only when the hearing aid microphones were muted (Plyler et al., American Journal of Audiology 2024).
5. Apps and Smartphone Control
The app has become the remote control, but uptake varies widely by country. 54% of hearing aid owners in the Netherlands use a hearing aid app, against 31% in the UK (EuroTrak Netherlands 2026; EuroTrak UK 2025). The US sits at the top end at 54% of recent buyers.
Satisfaction runs high once people try the app, which suggests the gap is about awareness and fitting practice rather than the software itself. In France, 63% of owners said their hearing care professional had told them about apps, and 42% use one (EuroTrak France 2025).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US recent buyers with a downloadable hearing aid app, 2025 | 54% (up 10 points since 2022) | HIA MarkeTrak 2025 (Hearing Review) |
| US app users who use the app at least weekly / who are satisfied with it, 2022 | 59% / 83% | Picou, MarkeTrak 2022 (Seminars in Hearing) |
| UK owners using a hearing aid app, 2025 vs 2022 | 31% vs 22% | EuroTrak UK 2025 (BIHIMA) |
| UK app users satisfied with the app, 2025 vs 2022 | 76% vs 65% | EuroTrak UK 2025 (BIHIMA) |
| French owners using a hearing aid app, 2025 vs 2022 | 42% vs 35% | EuroTrak France 2025 (Anovum, Snitem) |
| French app users satisfied with the app | 80% | EuroTrak France 2025 (Anovum, Snitem) |
| Dutch owners using a hearing aid app / app users satisfied, 2026 | 54% / 69% | EuroTrak Netherlands 2026 (Anovum, EHIMA) |
| US people with hearing difficulty who self-screened with a smartphone or tablet app, 2025 vs 2022 | 9% vs 13% | HIA MarkeTrak 2025 (Hearing Review) |
Context: in France, 20% of owners use an accessory; among those 128 users, 39% use the smartphone app as a sound optimisation tool and 27% a TV connection module (EuroTrak France 2025). Telecoils (a small coil that picks up the magnetic signal of a hearing loop) were reported by 14% of French owners and 17% of Dutch owners, though 45% of French owners did not know whether their aid had one.
6. Phone Compatibility: MFi and ASHA
Two proprietary protocols still define which phone works with which hearing aid. Apple’s Made for iPhone (MFi) program lists 104 hearing device brands (Apple Support, MFi hearing devices), and 9to5Mac counted 623 models after a 43-model update in August 2026 (9to5Mac). The split between one-way streaming and hands-free calls is the hidden compatibility line: hands-free calls, where the hearing aid microphones carry the wearer’s voice, need an iPhone 11 or later.
On Android, ASHA (Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids, Google’s protocol, not the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association) is a deliberately modest spec. Its mandatory codec is G.722 at 16 kHz and 64 kbit/s, and its buffer of up to eight packets at a 20 ms interval adds 160 ms of network delay (Android Open Source Project, ASHA). It is a low-bandwidth, phone-specific design, and manufacturers now position the open LE Audio standard as its successor (see section 7).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Brands on Apple’s Made for iPhone hearing device list, August 2026 | 104 | Apple Support 2026 |
| MFi hearing device models after the August 2026 update; models added | 623; 43 across 22 brands | 9to5Mac, August 2026 |
| Minimum iPhone for MFi hands-free (bidirectional) calls | iPhone 11 or later with iOS 15.2 or later | Apple Support 2026 |
| Minimum iPhone for MFi one-way (unidirectional) streaming | iPhone 4s or later with iOS 15.2 or later | Apple Support 2026 |
| ASHA mandatory codec and bitrate | G.722 at 16 kHz, 64 kbit/s | Android Open Source Project |
| ASHA connection interval and resulting buffer delay | 20 ms; up to 8 packets, 160 ms | Android Open Source Project |
| Minimum Bluetooth controller for an ASHA phone | Bluetooth 4.2 or higher | Android Open Source Project |
| Phonak Audéo Infinio pairing capacity | up to 8 Bluetooth devices, 2 connected at once | Phonak product page 2026 (vendor claim) |
Context: Signia states that across its range some models support ASHA, some MFi, some Bluetooth Classic and a subset LE Audio (Signia FAQ, vendor statement), so compatibility is a per-model question even within one brand.
7. LE Audio and Auracast: The Standards Transition
The standards race has a clear winner on paper. In October 2026 the Bluetooth SIG reported that all of the big five hearing aid manufacturers, approximately 90% of the global market, offer Auracast-capable hearing aids (Bluetooth SIG blog, October 2026). Auracast is the broadcast mode of Bluetooth LE Audio: one transmitter in a venue sends audio to any number of compatible earbuds or hearing aids, the role that induction loops have played for decades (see our hearing loop and assistive listening statistics).
Phones are the bottleneck. Google only announced Auracast support for hearing aids in March 2025, on Samsung Galaxy phones with One UI 7 and Android 15 and on Pixel 9 phones running the Android 16 beta (Google, March 2025), and Android 16 is the first release with operating-system-level support. The research base is thin too: a 2026 scoping review found only 17 studies, most of them technical or opinion pieces (Gonçalves et al., CoDAS 2026).
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Big five manufacturers offering Auracast-capable hearing aids, October 2026 | 5 of 5 (Sonova, Demant, GN, WS Audiology, Starkey), about 90% of the global market | Bluetooth SIG blog, October 2026 |
| LE Audio-enabled devices forecast to ship each year by 2028 | 3 billion | Bluetooth SIG Market Update 2024 (ABI Research data) |
| Public locations expected to deploy Auracast broadcast audio by 2030 | 2.5 million | Bluetooth SIG Market Update 2024 (ABI Research data) |
| Annual shipments of Bluetooth-enabled OTC hearing devices, 2028 vs 2024 | 10x increase | Bluetooth SIG Market Update 2024 (ABI Research data) |
| First Android release with operating-system-level Auracast support | Android 16 | Bluetooth SIG blog, June 2026 |
| Minimum phone Bluetooth version for LE Audio with ReSound Vivia | Bluetooth 5.3 or later | GN product page 2026 (vendor claim) |
| Auracast research: records identified vs studies included (June 2022 to April 2025) | 348 vs 17 | Gonçalves et al., CoDAS 2026 |
| Included Auracast studies by year, 2023 / 2024 / 2025 | 3 / 6 / 8 | Gonçalves et al., CoDAS 2026 |
Context: the forecasts come from the Bluetooth SIG 2024 Market Update, which attributes unsourced figures to ABI Research. The Bluetooth SIG’s June 2026 post on consumer audio and Auracast names Samsung, Google and Xiaomi as scaling Android support. The scoping review notes that the dedicated IEC 60118-17 standard is expected in December 2027. For the wider device picture, see our Bluetooth audio statistics.
Summary: Hearing Aid Streaming and Battery by the Numbers
| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| US recent buyers with a rechargeable hearing aid, 2025 vs 2022 | 69% vs 52% | HIA MarkeTrak 2025 (Hearing Review) |
| UK private sales that were rechargeable, Q2 2026 | 92.6% | BIHIMA Q2 2026 |
| UK NHS fittings that were rechargeable, Q2 2026 | 4.99% | BIHIMA Q2 2026 |
| UK units supplied in 2025, NHS vs private | 1,886,835 vs 520,818 | BIHIMA 2025 market data |
| Preference weight for rechargeable batteries, older adults in China | 0.38 (95% CI 0.17, 0.59), p<0.001 | Liu et al., 2026 |
| ReSound Vivia runtime, normal use vs streaming 50% of the time | 30 vs 20 hours | GN product page 2026 (vendor claim) |
| Lifespan of standard disposable hearing aid batteries | 3 to 22 days | Starkey batteries page 2026 (vendor claim) |
| Owners meeting the 8-hours-per-day recommendation | 49% | Jilla and Jorgensen, 2025 |
| Direct smartphone streaming, 2022 vs 2015 | 44% vs 2% | Picou, MarkeTrak 2022 |
| Children’s daily use, before vs after direct Bluetooth upgrade | 6.82 vs 9.82 hours | Barrera et al., 2023 |
| Dutch vs UK owners using a hearing aid app | 54% vs 31% | EuroTrak Netherlands 2026; EuroTrak UK 2025 |
| Brands on Apple’s MFi hearing device list | 104 | Apple Support 2026 |
| Minimum iPhone for MFi hands-free calls | iPhone 11 | Apple Support 2026 |
| ASHA network buffer delay | 160 ms | Android Open Source Project |
| Big five manufacturers with Auracast-capable aids | 5 of 5, about 90% of the market | Bluetooth SIG blog, October 2026 |
| LE Audio-enabled devices shipping annually by 2028 | 3 billion | Bluetooth SIG Market Update 2024 |
| Public Auracast locations by 2030 | 2.5 million | Bluetooth SIG Market Update 2024 |
Methodology and Sources
- MarkeTrak 2025: Hearing Aids in the Age of OTCs and Wearables, Sobek Dobyan and Powers, Hearing Industries Association, Hearing Review 2025.
- Hearing Aid Benefit and Satisfaction Results from the MarkeTrak 2022 Survey, Picou, Seminars in Hearing 2022.
- Hearing Aid Adoption in the OTC Hearing Aid Era: MarkeTrak 2025, Jilla and Jorgensen, Seminars in Hearing 2025.
- BIHIMA quarterly market data: Q1 2026, Q2 2026 and full year 2025.
- EuroTrak UK 2025, BIHIMA release, July 2025.
- EuroTrak France 2025, Anovum for EHIMA and Snitem (14,939 representative respondents, 705 owners).
- EuroTrak Netherlands 2026, Anovum for EHIMA (14,364 screened, 1,297 with hearing loss).
- Hearing Aids Use Preferences Among Older Adults with Hearing Loss, Liu et al., Patient Preference and Adherence 2026.
- Manufacturer pages, used only as labelled vendor claims: GN ReSound Vivia, Phonak Audéo Infinio, Starkey batteries, Signia FAQ.
- Clinical studies: Barrera et al. 2023, Gross et al. 2026, Chang et al. 2024, Plyler et al. 2024, Sanchez et al. 2026 (ACHIEVE), Gonçalves et al. 2026.
- Platform documentation: Apple, MFi hearing devices and system requirements (published August 26, 2026), 9to5Mac list update, Android ASHA specification, Google Auracast announcement.
- Bluetooth SIG: 2024 Market Update, big five Auracast milestone (October 2026), consumer audio and Auracast (June 2026).
- Data watch: battery runtimes are manufacturer claims measured under each vendor’s own conditions and are not comparable across brands; no independent cross-brand measurement of streaming drain was found. MarkeTrak 2025’s public summary reports only combined wireless capability, so the direct-vs-accessory streaming split is most recent available from MarkeTrak 2022, and Barrera et al. (2023) is the most recent available pediatric before-and-after data. BIHIMA’s Irish rechargeable share is inconsistent across releases: the 2025 release says over 76% of Irish sales, Q1 2026 reports 67% as a ‘slight reduction on previous quarters’, and Q2 2026 reports 68.7%. The 9to5Mac count of 623 MFi models predates Apple’s August 26, 2026 list revision, so the current model count may differ; the 104-brand count is from Apple’s list. The Jilla and Jorgensen paper reports its daily-use base as 2,172 owners, which differs from the 1,173 owners in the Hearing Review summary; the public texts do not reconcile the two bases. The Bluetooth SIG forecasts date from 2024, and the SIG’s 2025 Market Update pages did not include hearing-device forecasts. The streaming-on vs streaming-off speech results (Chang et al.) come from 18 adults in a lab and should not be read as a population effect.
Last updated: October 24, 2026. We update this roundup quarterly, and the next refresh is expected when BIHIMA publishes its Q3 2026 UK and Ireland market data.