From “Hearing Aids Are Cool” to Hearing Glasses: Maybe It’s Time to Stop Hiding Better Hearing
Opening Overview
For decades, one of the hearing-aid industry’s goals was making hearing aids smaller and less noticeable.
This week’s hearing news raises an interesting question:
What if we’ve been looking at that backward?
Two young Wisconsin sisters proudly wearing their hearing aids just raised more than $11,000 to help other children get hearing technology—while delivering a wonderfully simple message:
“Hearing aids are cool.”
Meanwhile, a startup founded by hearing and wearable-technology veterans has raised $12 million to develop AI-powered hearing-assistance glasses designed to look like something people might actually want to wear.
And another pair of hearing glasses already on the market received a very real-world test in one of hearing aid users’ most challenging environments: a noisy social gathering.
Add major new AI hearing-aid technology from Phonak and an important new study about whether people with hearing loss really benefit from wearing two hearing aids instead of one, and this week’s stories suggest something bigger may be happening.
Better hearing isn’t just becoming more technologically sophisticated.
It may finally be becoming something we don’t need to hide.
❤️ Two Little Girls Prove “Hearing Aids Are Cool”
Lainey Mieden is six.
Her sister Millie is four.
Both have hearing loss and have worn hearing aids since they were babies.
And on Thursday, August 27, the sisters held their fourth annual LemonAID Stand for Hearing Aids outside their family’s home in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin.
Their message couldn’t be much simpler:
Hearing aids are cool.
What started as a small lemonade stand has turned into something remarkable.
The first stand in 2023 raised about $260.
Last year, the girls raised more than $4,400.
This year?
More than $11,000—with donations still coming in.
The money will help children receive hearing technology and care through Children’s Wisconsin and Chasing Greatness.
But there may be something equally valuable about what Lainey and Millie are doing.
They’re normalizing hearing aids.
They aren’t trying to conceal them.
They aren’t apologizing for them.
They’re showing other children—and quite possibly a few adults—that hearing technology can simply be another part of who you are.
That’s a message worth considerably more than the price of a glass of lemonade.
HArC Insight: Adults sometimes spend enormous energy worrying about whether someone will notice their hearing aids. Lainey and Millie offer a wonderfully uncomplicated alternative: wear the technology that helps you hear—and get on with life.
Watch Lainey and Millie's LemonAID story from TMJ4
👓 What If Better Hearing Looked Like a Pair of Glasses?
At almost the same time two little girls were proudly declaring that hearing aids are cool, a Boston startup was making a remarkably similar argument about adults.
Legato emerged from stealth this week with $12 million in funding and plans to introduce Legato Frames, eyeglasses incorporating AI-powered hearing assistance.
The company’s founders have backgrounds at Bose and Apple, including experience developing Bose Frames and hearing technology.
But the most interesting part of the announcement may not be the technology.
It’s the philosophy behind it.
For decades, manufacturers have made hearing aids progressively smaller partly because many consumers don’t want anyone to know they’re wearing them.
Legato is betting on another approach:
Instead of making hearing technology disappear, put it inside something people already wear—and make the product desirable.
The glasses use an open-ear design and AI intended to distinguish voices from background noise and emphasize speech. Legato says its acoustic design directs sound toward the wearer while substantially limiting sound escaping to people nearby.
The company expects Legato Frames to launch later this fall. Until the product is commercially available and independently tested, its performance claims should be treated as manufacturer claims rather than established real-world results.
But Legato isn’t alone.
Nuance Audio Glasses are already available as an FDA-cleared over-the-counter hearing solution for adults with perceived mild-to-moderate hearing loss.
And this week, technology journalist Robyn Foyster described trying them during a 150-person event in a noisy, high-ceilinged space.
After activating the hearing feature, she reported that the person speaking directly to her became considerably easier to understand while surrounding conversation became less intrusive.
That’s one person’s experience—not a clinical trial—but it’s interesting because noisy social environments are precisely where many people first realize their hearing isn’t what it used to be.
HArC Insight: Hearing glasses probably won’t replace conventional hearing aids. But they could provide another entry point for people with mild-to-moderate hearing loss who aren’t ready to wear—or simply don’t want—a traditional hearing aid.
Read more about Legato's hearing-assistance glasses
🤖 Phonak Introduces Its Next Generation of AI Hearing Aids
Hearing glasses weren’t the week’s only significant technology announcement.
On August 24, Phonak introduced EON, its next-generation prescription hearing-aid platform.
EON builds upon the real-time AI speech-processing technology Phonak introduced with its previous Sphere generation.
The new platform uses a processor Phonak calls HYPERSONIC and incorporates two AI systems designed to analyze the listening environment and improve speech understanding, particularly in noise.
The premium Sphere model is also 25% smaller than its predecessor.
Other consumer-friendly improvements include Auracast connectivity, updated wind-noise management and a new Find My Hearing Aids feature in the myPhonak app.
Phonak says EON can substantially improve speech understanding while reducing listening effort, although those performance figures come from the manufacturer and will ultimately need to be evaluated through independent testing and real-world use.
EON became available through U.S. hearing-care professionals on August 24.
There was another major AI announcement this week as well: Signia introduced its MaX platform using four task-specific deep neural networks to analyze speech, noise and the surrounding environment.
Rather than turn this week’s Headlines into an AI specification contest, the larger consumer takeaway may be more useful:
AI is rapidly becoming standard technology in premium prescription hearing aids.
HArC Insight: Don’t buy a hearing aid simply because the box says “AI.” Ask what the technology actually does in the listening situations where you struggle—restaurants, group conversations, outdoors, television or somewhere else.
🔬 One Hearing Aid or Two? A New Study Offers an Answer
Here’s a question that matters to anyone with hearing loss in both ears:
Do you really need two hearing aids?
A randomized clinical trial published August 27 in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery provides some useful evidence.
Researchers studied 275 older adults with mild-to-moderate age-related hearing loss affecting both ears.
Participants using either one or two hearing aids generally reported benefits.
But after three months, those wearing two hearing aids reported greater overall benefit, less remaining hearing difficulty and greater satisfaction than those using just one.
The researchers appropriately caution that the size of the difference and its clinical significance deserve additional consideration.
Still, this wasn’t an observational study simply comparing people who happened to choose one versus two hearing aids.
It was a randomized clinical trial.
That makes the results particularly useful for consumers wondering whether purchasing a second hearing aid provides meaningful additional benefit when hearing loss affects both ears.
HArC Insight: If you have similar hearing loss in both ears, price alone shouldn’t automatically drive a decision to treat only one. Ask your hearing-care professional what you may gain—or give up—by fitting both ears.
🛡️ Consumer Tip: The Most Important Questions May Come Before “Which Hearing Aid?”
With major new products arriving almost weekly, it’s easy to become focused on specifications:
How many AI processors?
How many microphones?
How small is it?
Does it have Auracast?
But before spending hundreds—or thousands—of dollars, some much less exciting questions can matter just as much.
What is the return or trial period?
What does the warranty actually cover?
Who helps me if the hearing aids don’t work well?
Are adjustments included—or will I pay separately?
What happens if the device breaks?
The FDA specifically advises hearing-aid buyers to understand any trial or adjustment period and determine what maintenance and repairs are covered by the warranty.
That’s particularly important as consumers choose among prescription hearing aids, OTC devices, hearing-assistance earbuds and now hearing glasses.
HArC Consumer Tip: Don’t compare hearing devices on purchase price alone. A slightly more expensive product with good support, a useful return period and a strong warranty can ultimately be the less expensive choice.
💙 What This Means for You
There’s an interesting connection between two stories that initially seem completely unrelated.
Six-year-old Lainey and four-year-old Millie proudly tell people:
“Hearing aids are cool.”
Meanwhile, investors just committed $12 million to a company betting that adults might embrace hearing assistance if it looks like stylish eyewear instead of a medical device.
Maybe both are telling us the same thing.
The future of hearing technology may not depend entirely on making devices smaller and more invisible.
It may depend on making better hearing feel normal.
Prescription hearing aids will continue becoming more sophisticated.
OTC devices will continue improving.
Earbuds will increasingly provide hearing assistance.
And hearing glasses could create an entirely new category.
That’s good news.
Because the best hearing technology isn’t necessarily the smallest, newest or most expensive.
It’s the technology someone is comfortable enough to actually wear.
Closing Thought
There is something wonderfully refreshing about two little girls proudly telling the world that their hearing aids are cool.
Adults sometimes make hearing loss much more complicated.
We worry whether someone will notice our hearing aids.
We wait years before doing something about hearing loss.
We sometimes treat hearing technology as evidence of getting older rather than simply another tool that helps us live better.
Perhaps Lainey and Millie have figured out something the hearing industry is only beginning to understand.
Better hearing doesn’t need to be invisible.
It just needs to help us stay connected to the people and experiences that matter.
HArC I Hear™ shares hearing news and consumer information for educational purposes. It is not a substitute for evaluation, diagnosis or advice from a qualified hearing-care or medical professional.