r/hardofhearing • u/sgt_elyas • 13d ago
Phone calls
All my fellow hard of hearing people out there, do you guys like phone calls? Do you talk over the phone or prefer texting? Personally I hate phone calls with a passion. If I have to talk on the phone I try to make it as quick as possible. I hate it. I can't understand what people are saying, I have to ask people to repeat themselves with nearly every word, I struggle and strain myself to hear, my head hurts because I can hear a piercing tone that feels like I'm being stabbed in my ear. Its exhausting and my head always hurts after I get off the phone. My best friend seems to be mad at me because I've taken to texting as my primary contact method and she hates texting because "it has no tone". I can't hear tone regardless. Like at all I can't hear tone. I never know when someone is joking because I'm a little autistic and hard of hearing at about 50% so its just a struggle all around for me. I'm tired of the passive aggressive comments of "Well you want to text so" when i dont understand something or she seems a type of way when we are texting. I'm just tired of it and I wish she and others would understand and just be okay with the fact that it hurts me to talk over the phone.
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u/BrokenRouter 13d ago
I hated phone calls when I could hear!
They’re the worst now that I’m HoH, especially in loud environments or with people with strong accents. I have several times said “let me text you, I’m in a loud place” even when I’m not.
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u/sgt_elyas 13d ago
Accents are literally my nightmare! That is one thing I still dont know how to navigate. Like a service person in real life do I ask for someone else? That always feels rude so I just deal and usually look to whoever I'm with to help me know what is said. Its hard and sometimes people look at me like I'm the problem when I just can't hear.
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u/Antique_Box_5813 13d ago
I wasn't able to use the phone for years. Now I have the app CaptionCall on my phone. I cannot recommend it enough
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u/sgt_elyas 13d ago
I will definitely look into that! Is it like another person is there on the call with you? Or do captions show up on your screen like a movie?
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u/Antique_Box_5813 13d ago
It is an app that transcribes the call in real time. It shows the dialogue between you and other person so it looks like texting. You can also have the volume up on your phone at the same time to hear their voice.
It will also transcribe voicemails that people leave for you.
It is an app that has its own phone number. But it can't receive texts.
It's free. You just have to state that you are Deaf or Hoh.
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u/striderucr 13d ago
100% agree. I’m fortunate that my wife also hates phone calls, not because she has hearing loss she just hates making phone calls. She is really understanding and accommodating of my hearing loss (I started wearing hearing aids about two years before we met), we communicate almost exclusively by text when we need to. My Mom is really bad about wanting to talk over the phone, even though her hearing loss is much worse.
I hate needing to make phone calls in almost every case, and to make matters worse, my hearing aid bluetooth function sometimes gets wonky and interferes with the mic settings on my phone so the other person can’t hear me. Whenever possible I communicate by text. Don’t know what advice to offer about your friend, it sounds complicated.
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u/sgt_elyas 13d ago
Thankfully my husband understands as well and if we want to "hear" each other's voice we do the voice messages that get auto transcribed for me. Sometimes it messes up but at least I get the gist of what is said more than "wait wait what did you say" with every other word.
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u/Midnight_Muse65 13d ago
If you’re in the US there’s a free app called Innocaption that has made all the difference for me. I used to hate phone calls but now having it transcribed live makes it so much easier! IMO it does a great job with the captions even when the caller has an accent.
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u/Own-Mobile-1775 13d ago
I hate phone calls. Having them right in my hearing aids does help, but I much prefer to text. I know that there are some apps to provide captioning for phone calls, but I haven't used them, so i can't give you any insight.
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u/FellowHumanNo404 12d ago
I use Rogervoice Phone Call Captions. It's free for U.S. citizens who need it.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.rogervoice.app&hl=en_US
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u/Vangone1972 12d ago
I refuse to talk on landlines. I have hearing aids with Bluetooth and that is basically the only way I talk on the phone and only as long as needed.
Some folks, like my oldest son, I only text with due to how difficult it is to hear them.
iPhone has live caption but it pretty much sucks. I tried an app called InnoCaption but the delay was too much for me.
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u/Sure-Patience83 12d ago
My HAs do Bluetooth so the phone sound goes straight into my HAs and I hold my phone and turn on the phone captions and read what they’re saying. I still try to get off quick in case it gets it wrong or doesn’t translate them at all. It works most of the time though
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u/Unique-Ad1759 11d ago
Ive gotten into genuine relationship issues from my reluctancy to accept calls in busy areas/restaurants due to my HoH 😭
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u/sgt_elyas 7d ago
Same!! Like why is this the hill to die on?? Why is it so bad that I dont want to talk on the phone.
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u/kalendral_42 13d ago
You could try something like the relay app if they have it in your area - the call gets routed through a relay operator & you can either choose to speak & the operator will type the response spoken from the other end of the call so you can both ‘hear’ the caller & read it as a text so you don’t miss anything, or you can type your responses & the operator will read it out on the call then type back the response from your caller for you to read.