Asha: Google's answer to streaming directly to hearing aids

Google has joined forces with innovative audio tech firm GN Hearing to launch a brand new service that is designed to make smartphones more accessible to people with hearing loss.

The two companies are working together on Audio Streaming for Hearing Aids technology, which is to be abbreviated to the acronym Asha. The tech is intended to provide a new open specification on future Android devices to support streaming via hearing aids.

As a result, Asha will be able to help deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals access more of the same services from their Android smartphones as their hearing counterparts.

Anders Hedegaard, chief executive officer of GN Hearing, commented: "We are honoured to partner with Google for this important development, which will enable direct streaming for even more hearing aid users through their Android devices."

With statistics from the World Health Organization showing that some 446 million people across the globe suffer from disabling hearing loss, and this figure expected to grow to 900 million by 2050, there is a huge market for this type of technology.