← statichum.studio

A reliable, multi-brand hearing-aid/cochlear-implant audio-streaming and pairing tool for Linux PCs, Steam Decks, and standalone adapters (ASHA) instead of being phone-locked or buying vendor accessories

other real project •• multiple requests

Hearing-aid and cochlear-implant users want to stream audio straight from Linux PCs, Steam Decks, and DIY Bluetooth adapters over the ASHA protocol rather than being tied to a phone or forced to buy the manufacturer's proprietary streaming accessory. Today this works only through fragmented, per-brand, GUI-less developer projects that re-break on every device firmware or OS update, so getting sound requires deep Bluetooth debugging. The opportunity is a reliable, multi-brand, GUI-driven ASHA streaming and pairing layer for an audience whose hearing device is their only audio path and who will pay to never lose it.

builder note

The trap is shipping another single-brand hack that dies on the next firmware or BlueZ update; the defensible product is a maintained multi-brand compatibility layer with a real pairing GUI (ideally paired with a certified hardware adapter), because for this audience audio literally stops working without it.

landscape (4 existing solutions)

Streaming ASHA audio from anything other than a phone is served only by fragmented, single-maintainer, GUI-less projects plus an experimental mono-only native stack, so each hearing-aid brand and each OS update silently re-breaks audio for users who have no alternative audio path.

Native BlueZ + PipeWire ASHA support Verified against the developers' own writeup: experimental, mono-only with stereo still 'pending', no pairing/tuning GUI, tested on a single device, and not yet in stable distributions.
Pico-ASHA (Raspberry Pi Pico W ASHA bridge) DIY firmware bridge maintained essentially by one developer; per-brand breakage (Starkey never establishes L2CAP, Med-El/Rondo regressed between releases) and a pairing UI still being hacked together.
asha_pipewire_sink (Linux PipeWire ASHA sink) Streams to Linux but connections flap and abort on handhelds like the Steam Deck, behavior varies by hearing-aid brand, and there is no GUI for setup.
Manufacturer phone apps + proprietary streaming accessories Lock direct streaming to the vendor's phone app or a paid hardware accessory; there is no supported Linux, desktop, or game-handheld path.

sources (3)

other https://github.com/shermp/Pico-ASHA/issues/56 "Having a better GUI to test and pair with will make testing easier" 2026-05-08
other https://github.com/thewierdnut/asha_pipewire_sink/issues/44 "Does this change anything for ASHA hearing aids in general?" 2026-06-05
other https://github.com/shermp/Pico-ASHA/issues/25 "I'll return the Pico and just have to buy their official accessories" 2025-04-10
accessibilityhearing-aidscochlear-implantlinuxbluetooth