Bluetooth SIG: all five big hearing aid makers now sell Auracast aids. Here is the fine print

The Bluetooth SIG said on 22 October that all five of the largest hearing aid manufacturers, Sonova, Demant, GN, WS Audiology and Starkey, now offer hearing aids that support Auracast. Between them they make about 90% of the world's hearing aids.

That is a real milestone; ReSound had the first Auracast hearing aid in 2023 and the others have arrived one by one since. But "offers" is doing different amounts of work for each company, and anyone buying hearing aids on the strength of the headline should know where the line falls.

What the SIG said

The post is short. Alongside the five-maker claim, it repeats the World Health Organization's projection that nearly 2.5 billion people will have some hearing loss by 2050, and names recent installs: Stadium Taranaki, a 21,000-seat ground in New Zealand; the Isaac Theatre Royal in Christchurch; the MOVIX cinema chain in Japan; and two hearing clinics, Resonate Health in New Zealand and SONEO Hörgeräte in Germany. Its central point is interoperability: a hearing aid from one maker hears a venue system from any other, with no borrowed receiver.

The SIG does not name the hearing aid models behind the claim. The breakdown below is ours.

Four that work

GN (ReSound, Beltone, Jabra Enhance) has had Auracast since the ReSound Nexia in 2023 and is the reference point. Demant (Oticon, Philips, Bernafon) joined in October 2025 with the Oticon Zeal and an update for the Intent, and has added models since. Starkey has the Edge AI, Omega AI and, from this month, the Omega AI+. Sonova got there last, with the Phonak Audéo Eon in August, though on an iPhone it joins a broadcast by QR code only, and the 2024 Infinio is still waiting for its promised update.

One that half does

WS Audiology (Signia, Widex, Rexton) is the qualifier. The Widex Allure, out since May, has LE Audio and can join a broadcast, but only through an Android phone's own Auracast settings, as on recent Pixel and Samsung models. The Widex app offers no Auracast assistant, and Widex has not officially released its own Auracast support. With an iPhone, there is no way in.

Signia's first Auracast aid, the Pure Charge&Go MaX, launched in August as "Auracast ready". The hardware is there; the switch-on is a firmware update that WSA has put at the first quarter of 2027, by March at the latest. Signia's IX range cannot join a broadcast at all.

So the SIG's statement is accurate, by a narrow margin. WS Audiology does sell an Auracast-capable hearing aid today. It just is not one most of its customers can use from their own app yet.

Why it matters anyway

For venues, this is the number that counts. A theatre or stadium weighing Auracast against a hearing loop has been asking whose customers it would reach. With all five makers on board, the answer is now: every one of the big five has at least one current hearing aid that can hear the venue, today or on a published timeline. That makes the case for installing much easier.

For people who already wear hearing aids, the advice has not changed. Check your model, not your brand. A Phonak Infinio or a Signia IX is no more Auracast-capable this week than it was last week.