Ear Spy App - Improving Your Hearing Using Your Handheld Device

The Ear Spy app apparently attempts to improve your hearing by accessing the speakers of your handheld Android device and amplifying surrounding sounds through a headset or earphones. The developers say that this app can turn your phone into a medical device, like a hearing aid, depending on how good your Android device is. The Ear Spy app is available as a free download from Google Play Stores for Android devices. It's very important to take note that a pair of headphones are required when using this app as failing to do so will result in heavy audio feedback which is very irritating to the ears. 

It is claimed that when using certain bluetooth headsets, you can hear dialogue from the next room (this was tested with the Motorola HT820 Headset).

The developers of the app also claim that one can use this application to eavesdrop on important conversation and hear what friends and family members are talking about without noticing that you are listening in. I'm not too sure if this is something that people like to do or what the legal ramifications of performing such an act have, but this review will focus on whether this app has any medical use to it.

Using the app

This app has a very simple interface. It opens up on the interactive screen where the equalizer and volume buttons are and there's a large red button visible in the centre of the screen. On the top right of the screen is a button that when pressed accesses more options to choose from. These include saving and loading equalizer configurations and having the option to pay for services such as removing adds, or being able to view adds in order to unlock paid services.

Other paid services include the following:

• An extended Graphic Equalizer making more than 5 bands available if the device permits it.
• Noise Suppression (NS).
• Echo Cancellation (AEC).
• Automatic Gain Control (AGC).
• Virtualizer, which is available on the Android system 4.1 and above.
• MP3 Recording.
• Bass-Boost.
• Home Screen Widget.

The whole package can be purchased by upgrading to Ear Spy Pro...or you can just sit and watch a few ads on the device which unlocks these options one service at a time.

When you want to use the app, make sure that your headphones are plugged into the device and that the volume is set at a reasonable level. When you are ready, you press on the large red button in the centre of the screen and the speakers of the device are then activated.

When I tried this app out, it didn't seem to improve the sounds around me because a family member would speak to me and I would hear them as I normally do. The reason for this is because my hearing is reasonably normal which means that my ears still conduct noises better than what this app would. I tried to fine-tune the incoming sounds by lowering the bass sounds from traffic noise, and high-pitched sounds from sirens. I also tried to play around with other noise reducing options but, unfortunately, none of these helped much in my case. 

Clinical significance

I also tried to see if I could hear heart and breathing sounds, but all I could hear was my own noises due to having earphones in my ears. It doesn't seem likely then that this app will act as a substitute for a stethoscope anytime soon.

Although the app didn't help me to improve my hearing, I would still think that it could help out people who are hard of hearing. These patients have conductive hearing losses, which occurs when sound waves don't travel well enough through the ear canal to the eardrum and then to the small bones located in the middle ear. This type of hearing loss is usually characterized by a reduced ability to pick up adequate sound levels or to hear faint sounds. Therefore, I think that this app would still be able to help people with a conductive hearing loss by amplifying those hard to hear sounds.

I wouldn't say that the app would be a substitute for hearing aids, but at least it can help temporarily until such devices are made available to the patient.