SoundSteps vs HearLift

SoundSteps is daily listening practice for adults with cochlear implants and hearing aids. It also suits anyone who finds speech hard to follow when there is noise around, and the family members who help. Many people get a new hearing aid or cochlear implant and hear the same advice: "just listen more." SoundSteps turns that into a few guided minutes a day, one step at a time. START WITH A QUICK LISTENING CHECK A short, friendly check finds the right starting point for you. It takes about two minutes and needs no account. PRACTICE THAT BUILDS, STEP BY STEP Short exercises that get harder as you get better: • Word pairs. Hear the small difference between words like "sip" and "ship". • Sentences and everyday conversations. • Stories you follow word by word, with the text on screen. • Everyday scenes, like ordering coffee or answering the phone. BACKGROUND NOISE, AT YOUR OWN PACE Noisy rooms are the hard part, so noise is never forced on you. When you feel ready, add a little background sound and turn it up slowly. You decide how loud it gets. MANY VOICES, NOT JUST ONE Practice with women's and men's voices in American, British, Australian and Canadian accents. Pick one you like, or switch between them as you go. WORKS WITH WHAT YOU HAVE No clinic code, no hearing care account, nothing to pair. Listen through your iPhone or iPad speaker, with headphones, or stream to your hearing aids or cochlear implant processor. SEE YOUR PROGRESS Your accuracy over time, the sound pairs you find easiest and hardest, your practice streak, and a simple suggestion for what to do next. You can share a progress summary with your audiologist whenever you like. ON IPHONE AND IPAD The same practice and the same progress on both. On iPad, the buttons and text are bigger. MORE THAN ENGLISH Practice in Spanish, German, French, Japanese and more. Each language has its own voices, not English audio with subtitles. Switch any time in Settings. FREE TO START The listening check needs no account. Your first week includes full access, and you don't need a card to start. After that, keep practicing for free, or choose Premium for the whole library: every voice and story, plus conversations, everyday scenes and guided paths. SoundSteps Premium is an auto-renewing subscription (monthly or yearly). Payment is charged to your Apple Account. Your subscription renews unless it is canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel any time in your App Store account settings. Privacy: https://soundsteps.app/privacy Terms: https://soundsteps.app/terms SoundSteps is designed for hearing training and practice. It is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any medical condition. Consult a healthcare professional for medical advice. Questions? support@soundsteps.app

Make room for implant sound—without leaving natural hearing behind. HearLift is listening practice for people with single-sided deafness who have a cochlear implant in their deaf ear and natural hearing in the other. Help your brain practice combining both inputs. Lower-volume natural hearing support offers a middle ground between relying mainly on natural hearing and listening through your implant alone. Keep that support steady or let HearLift vary it automatically. EXPLORE SIMULATED IMPLANT MODE Family, friends, and audiologists with natural hearing in both ears can try Simulated implant mode to evaluate HearLift for someone who may benefit. Hear simulated implant sound alongside natural sound, and explore different ways of combining them. Simulation is an illustrative demo, not an exact recreation of anyone’s implant hearing or a practice mode for implant users. HEAR HOW IT WORKS Start with an included listening sample after setup—no title download or narrator choice needed. Explore the listening patterns before choosing your own content. BECOME WELL-READ, ONE LISTEN AT A TIME Explore classic stories and novels while practicing with your implant and natural hearing. Read along one passage at a time, or simply listen. If something isn’t clear, go back and hear it again. HearLift saves your place, lets you jump to chapters, and supports background listening and lock-screen playback controls for your titles. MAKE THE PRACTICE YOUR OWN • Find a comfortable personal starting point with guided listening setup. • Keep natural hearing support steady, vary it with a regular rhythm or random timing, or let it fade as passages begin. • Try Alternating ears, where one ear’s volume rises as the other’s falls. • Adjust support and reading speed while you listen. CHOOSE WHAT YOU WANT TO HEAR • Download pre-recorded books with selected synthetic narrators and listen offline. • Discover free books through Project Gutenberg and Wikisource. • Bring your own EPUB or text files and hear them read aloud. Choose included HearLift voices on supported devices or available built-in Apple voices. Optional Microsoft Azure voices require separate setup and internet access; service charges may apply. YOUR LISTENING SETUP For implant practice, over-ear headphones deliver the same narration to your natural ear and your implant processor’s microphone. HearLift adjusts each side separately. Another setup must deliver the same audio to both ears with clear left/right separation. No HearLift account is required. Book availability and permissions vary by source and country. HearLift is a listening-practice aid, not a substitute for professional care. Results vary and aren’t guaranteed. Consult your audiologist for guidance on practice with your cochlear implant.