Considering hearing aids? Know your hearing first.
There's more to hearing than what a standard test measures. A free assessment tool for the moment before you're ready to decide.
If you're considering hearing aids, you've probably had an audiogram. Your audiologist plays tones at different frequencies, you raise your hand when you hear them, and they plot your results on a chart. That chart gets used to program a hearing aid that amplifies the frequencies you're missing.
What most people don't realize is that the audiogram has a specific job: it measures what hearing aids fix.
It's an excellent tool for that. It's not designed to measure other kinds of hearing changes, and it doesn't claim to. But if you've ever heard a friend say “my audiogram is normal, but I still struggle to follow conversation in restaurants,” now you know why. That struggle happens somewhere else in the hearing system, in the connections between your inner ear and your auditory nerve. Researchers call this hidden hearing loss. Standard audiograms can miss it entirely.
When the connections between your inner ear and auditory nerve weaken, your hearing sensitivity drops, even when standard tests look normal.
Hearing aids are the right tool for a lot of people. Adoption has grown steadily for decades, and most owners report their devices genuinely improve daily life. We're not here to argue with that.
But only about 4 in 10 adults with hearing difficulty actually use hearing aids. Cost is the top reason. The second is “I'm not ready yet.” A lot of people are in the middle of a hearing journey long before they're ready to commit to a device, and right now there's almost nothing designed for that moment.
Soundware is designed for that moment.
It's a free assessment tool based on validated clinical frameworks. Four tests, taken in your own home:
01
Speech in noise
Measures the kind of hearing sensitivity audiograms can miss.
02
Tone test
Similar to the one used at an audiologist office.
03
Tinnitus impact survey
If you have ringing in your ears.
04
Sound sensitivity survey
If everyday sounds feel harder to handle.
You establish your baseline. You come back in 12 weeks. You see what's changed.
Soundware is not a substitute for a professional hearing evaluation. It does not diagnose hearing conditions, and it does not replace the care of an audiologist if you need one.
What it is: the first continuous picture of your hearing health, so you can act on it early.
Free account. No purchase required. Your data is yours. Learn more about Soundware.
Why we built it
Soundbites is a Public Benefit Corporation. Our mission is hearing preservation, which is a different category than hearing correction.
If the standard path starts with “here's what you've lost, here's a device that compensates,” we think there should be a path that starts earlier, with “here's how your hearing is right now, and here's how to watch it.” Soundware is that path.
Start Soundware
Free account. No credit card. Your baseline in about 15 minutes.
Start Soundware — Free