ReSound Vivia: The smallest AI hearing aid in the world

Luca Fontana

7.9.2025

Translation: machine translated

Pictures: Stefanie Lechthaler

Small, smart, almost invisible: ReSound is showcasing the world's smallest AI hearing aid at IFA. I tried it out - and was surprised at how clearly voices suddenly emerge from the noise.

I still remember that night in Lloret de Mar very well. I was 18 years old, in the disco far too long and it was far too loud. The morning after, I not only had a headache, but also a constant whistling in my ears. The tinnitus was there. And it stayed.

With it came the hyperacusis. It sounds like I suddenly developed super hearing. But the opposite is the case: noises, especially loud ones, are not clearer to me, but more painful. Restaurant conversations, action thrills in the cinema, construction site noise - even the roar of cars on a wet road overwhelms me on bad days.

Since then, specially customised earplugs have been part of my basic equipment. I don't leave the house without them. But even with them, I often sit in a restaurant and struggle: the voices of my neighbours are drowned out by the diffuse background noise, the tinnitus pushes itself to the fore. Hearing aids? I've never had anything to do with them before. I don't hear too little - I hear too much.

ReSound Vivia: AI in the ear

At the IFA in Berlin, I stumbled across ReSound GN. The Danes claim to have developed the world's smallest AI hearing aid: the Vivia. Sounds like marketing bingo. But I was curious.

The explanation: an additional chip in the hearing aid is designed to distinguish voices from background noise. In principle, like noise cancelling in headphones, only finer. Instead of everything being evenly suppressed, the voice in the conversation should remain clear while background noise is filtered out.

This is exactly what I was allowed to try out. Not on my own ears, but via a demo setup: A mannequin wore the tiny, barely visible hearing aids, I put on headphones and heard exactly what the mannequin «heard».

The woman at the booth spoke to me. Without AI, I could hear her okay-well, but also the background noise. Then she activated the noise filter function in the app. And suddenly: silence. No more diffuse clattering, no more background noise. Just her voice, clear, direct and almost intimate. Fantastic. Exactly what I miss in restaurants, for example, when I often feel cut off from the world as if I were wearing my own hearing protection.

More than just Marketing?

Of course, trade fair demos are always best-case scenarios. But the technical approach is exciting. ReSound claims to have trained its chips with millions of speech sentences, and the result didn't feel like a buzzword to me, but like real help.

ReSound also shows that hearing aids are no longer clunky medical devices, but high-tech in miniature format: Bluetooth LE Audio, Auracast (for example, to stream music directly to the hearing aid instead of having to wear headphones over the hearing aid) and all-day battery life. ReSound speaks of 28 hours of use. 20 if you stream half the time. Plus a quick-charging function. All in a housing that disappears almost invisibly into the ear.

Where can you get one of these?

Unfortunately, you can't just buy them from an online shop like ours. Hearing aids are only available from hearing care professionals, who customise them to your hearing.

In other words, if you're curious, it's best to first take the online hearing test on the Swiss ReSound website and then make an appointment with a local audiologist who works with ReSound. The devices can be tested there and a quote can be obtained.

ReSound does not give a fixed price. Premium hearing aids generally cost several thousand francs per ear - depending on the features, health insurance coverage and service package. If you wish, you can also have the devices customised, for example with a custom-made earpiece for greater comfort. This pushes the price up significantly compared to standard attachments.

Despite this. Maybe I will actually get one of these hearing aids at some point. Not because I hear too little - but because I hear too much. And when technology finally gives me peace in the noise, that would probably be the best sound of all.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

---

Background information

Interesting facts about products, behind-the-scenes looks at manufacturers and deep-dives on interesting people.

Show all

These articles might also interest you