ReSound Vivia
ReSound Vivia is a premium hearing aid built around an on-board deep neural network (DNN) chip that lifts speech out of noise. Paired with the ReSound Smart 3D app, it is fitted only by a licensed hearing care professional.
What is ReSound Vivia?
ReSound Vivia is hardware, not software: a premium hearing aid from ReSound, the hearing brand of GN Hearing A/S in Ballerup, Denmark, sold with a companion app rather than a subscription. Its artificial intelligence sits on a dedicated deep neural network (DNN) chip inside the device. ReSound describes that network as trained 'with the sounds of real life', across millions of speech-in-noise situations, so that it can separate speech from background sound in real time. The commercial name for the result is Intelligent Focus: voices are pushed forward while thousands of known annoying noises are toned down, from fans and cutlery to traffic, wind and creaking doors. The brand frames this as 'Intelligence Augmented, a human approach to AI', an extension of its Organic Hearing philosophy, and its own guide breaks the technology into three parts: environment classification, four-microphone beamforming, and the on-board DNN chip. On the product page ReSound claims Vivia is the world's best for hearing in noise, the world's smallest AI hearing aid, and the world's first Auracast Assistant for hearing aids. Those are brand claims, presented without a study alongside them. The device comes in near-invisible styles, rechargeable receiver-in-ear models, smaller non-rechargeable ones and discreet behind-the-ear units, with an all-weather nanocoating on every part and ten colours from Sparkling Silver to Navy Blue. Connectivity runs on Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast, with hands-free calls from compatible iPhone, iPad and Android devices and a battery the brand says lasts the day even while streaming. The companion app, ReSound Smart 3D for iOS and Android, handles volume, equalisation, programmes, the strength of the DNN noise reduction, location-based profiles, tinnitus management, remote assistance and a finder for a mislaid device; from version 1.39 its Auracast Assistant scans and joins both unencrypted public broadcasts and encrypted private ones. Notably, the AI can be switched off: the app lets the wearer amplify the DNN effect or disable it entirely. One constraint shapes everything else. Vivia cannot be bought online: fitting and tuning are the work of a licensed hearing care professional.
What it does
- Bring speech forward and tone down thousands of known annoying noises through the on-board DNN chip, marketed as Intelligent Focus
- Adapt to the sound environment automatically, without the wearer switching programmes by hand
- Stream calls, music and TV sound over Bluetooth LE Audio
- Join public and private Auracast broadcasts through the Auracast Assistant in the app
- Let the hearing care professional fine-tune the fitting remotely with ReSound Assist, or over video with Assist Live
- Strengthen or switch off the DNN noise reduction from the app, at the wearer's discretion
- Run tinnitus management, location-based profiles and a finder for a mislaid hearing aid from the app
When to use ReSound Vivia / When not to
A quick filter to help you decide if ReSound Vivia is the right fit.
When to use ReSound Vivia
- People with hearing loss whose hardest moments are noisy ones: restaurants, meetings and family gatherings where speech clarity collapses.
- Wearers worn down by listening effort, who want the hearing aid to read the room and adjust on its own rather than switching programmes by hand.
- Heavy streamers who take hands-free calls and listen to TV or music, and want Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast built into the device itself.
- Anyone who puts discretion first: near-invisible rechargeable receiver-in-ear models, smaller non-rechargeable ones, and ultra-discreet behind-the-ear styles.
- Wearers followed remotely by their clinic, since ReSound Assist and Assist Live let the professional send new settings without another trip to the office.
When not to use ReSound Vivia
- Anyone hoping to buy over the counter or online: ReSound states it will not supply retailers that do not provide face-to-face fitting, counselling and maintenance.
- Shoppers who need a price before committing. No amount is published anywhere on the site, including on the dedicated pricing page.
- People looking for a self-assessment device. The brand's own AI guide is marked as requiring clinical review, and the product replaces neither a hearing test nor a professional fitting.
- Users without a recent smartphone. The hearing aids still work, but the app, streaming and firmware updates do not, and LE Audio and Auracast need Bluetooth 5.3 or newer.
- Wearers set on one particular form factor: the site states that not all hearing aid styles and form factors can support AI technology.
How to use ReSound Vivia
A typical end-to-end flow, from setup to results.
- Check your hearing: take the free online hearing test on the site, or book a consultation with a hearing care professional.
- Find a clinic through the 'Find a hearing care professional' locator on the site.
- Listen to the hearing aids in the office. The FAQ states you can hear how they sound in several situations before you leave.
- Have the professional fit, program and fine-tune the devices for your hearing loss.
- Install ReSound Smart 3D from the App Store or Google Play and pair the hearing aids over Bluetooth.
- Day to day, use the buttons on the devices for volume and programmes, or the app for equalisation, favourites, DNN strength and location-based profiles.
- Ask for remote help through ReSound Assist, or book a video appointment through ReSound Assist Live; the professional sends new settings back for you to install.
- Work through the documents on the Vivia support page: user brochure, connectivity brochure, receiver-in-ear and rechargeable user guides, and the charger overview.
- Follow the how-to playlist on YouTube for handling, charging and everyday operations.
- Note that without a smartphone the hearing aids still work on their buttons, but app control, streaming and firmware updates are lost.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- The AI is genuinely on board: a dedicated DNN chip processes sound inside the device rather than in the cloud.
- Connectivity is ahead of the field, with Bluetooth LE Audio and Auracast, and what the brand presents as the first Auracast Assistant for hearing aids.
- The AI effect stays under the wearer's control: the app can amplify the DNN noise reduction or switch it off completely.
- Remote follow-up is real. ReSound Assist and Assist Live let the professional adjust the fitting without a trip to the clinic.
- Discretion is a design priority: the brand presents the rechargeable receiver-in-ear format as the smallest in the AI segment, alongside ultra-discreet behind-the-ear models.
- Product documentation is public and downloadable: user and connectivity brochures, user guides for both receiver-in-ear versions, and a charger overview.
- The site's AI guide carries a clinical review by the brand's Chief Audiology Officer, and the FAQ announces a warranty of one to four years depending on the model, with returns possible to the centre of purchase.
Cons
- No price is published: the dedicated pricing page explains the variability without giving a single amount, so no comparison is possible before an appointment.
- No online purchase. A licensed hearing care professional is mandatory, which rules out any fully remote journey.
- No email address exists anywhere on the site, for support, legal or privacy matters alike; the Data Protection Officer is reachable only through a form or by telephone.
- No subprocessor list, no data processing agreement and no trust or security page are published, and no data hosting country is stated.
- No documented way to keep customer data out of model training, and the 'world's best', 'world's smallest' and 'world's first' claims come with no study cited on the product page, the connectivity claim pointing only to an unlinked Bluetooth SIG footnote.
- The app and the LE Audio features require a recent smartphone, with Bluetooth 5.3 or newer for LE Audio, and no interface language for the app is listed.
- The site is heavily geo-redirected: catalogue, language, documents and even the sitemap referenced by robots.txt change from one locale to the next.
Pricing & Plans
No price is published. ReSound discloses no amount anywhere on its site, including on its dedicated pricing page, and announces neither a free plan nor a free trial of the device. The stated reason is that the price of hearing aids varies with the style, the high-tech features, service and maintenance, and the buyer's national healthcare system; the site adds that the service around the device, from testing and selection to fitting, adjustments and maintenance, is often included in its price. A figure can therefore only be obtained from a hearing care professional, who may also offer payment facilities or credit, while health insurance may cover part or all of the cost. All ReSound hearing aids may be returned in their original condition, reasonable wear deducted, to the ReSound centre where they were bought, and the FAQ announces a warranty of one to four years depending on the model, against a typical lifespan of five years. The ReSound Smart 3D app can be downloaded even without a ReSound hearing aid, and no price is attached to it on the site.
- Vivia is a medical device sold through a network of hearing care professionals
- not a subscription product.
- Vivia and Nexia are labelled Premium
- ENZO Q Advanced and Key Essential in a locale menu.
- rechargeable receiver-in-ear
- non-rechargeable receiver-in-ear
- and behind-the-ear.
Data, GDPR & hosting
A consolidated view of how ReSound Vivia handles your data.
GDPR overview
GDPR implementation is concrete and explicitly stated. The privacy policy takes its terminology, including controller, processor, processing, personal data, recipient, third party and consent, from EU Regulation 2016/679. A Data Protection Officer is appointed, reachable through two OneTrust forms, the GN Data Privacy Inquiry Site and the GN Data Privacy Request Site, and by telephone on +45 4575 0000; no email address is published. Rights listed are access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, withdrawal of consent and non-discrimination for exercising them, with a stated response time of one month, extendable for complex requests. Complaints may go to the Danish Datatilsynet or another national authority. Transfers outside the EU rely on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses or an equivalent, with additional safeguards where needed. Section 20 addresses California residents. No Article 27 representative is named, which is expected for a controller established in Denmark.
Who owns the data?
The controller is the local GN company that serves you, referred to as 'the Company' and identified through the Office locator on gn.com. GN Store Nord, Lautrupbjerg 7, 2750 Ballerup, Denmark, is named as the central contact point. GN group companies may act as independent controllers, processors or joint controllers, and GN may itself be a processor where a partner or business customer is the controller. Personal data therefore sits with GN, not the wearer. One exception: photos taken in certain apps stay stored locally on the phone, and GN says it neither accesses, uses nor shares them. The policy displays no effective date.
Reuse rights
The policy describes what GN collects, not what a wearer may reuse: nothing on the collected pages grants an end user a right to reuse the data held about them beyond the GDPR access and portability rights it lists. Categories collected include contact details, purchase history, sensitive health data supplied by the user or their hearing care professional, online hearing test results under consent, age, gender, and GPS location if allowed. The apps also return 'Product and Device Information': a unique identifier, model, IP address, Bluetooth MAC address, operating system, device firmware model and version, and feature usage. Stated purposes are delivering products and services, support, product recommendations under consent, personalisation, anonymised statistics, fraud prevention and legal obligations. The legal bases cited are legitimate interest, performance of the contract, legal obligation and consent. Anonymised data, including hearing aid usage logs, fitting information, hearing loss and survey feedback, is used to develop optimised and personalised product and feature profiles, while hearing test results may be passed to a hearing care professional, under consent, so they can call back. The brand's AI guide states that consumer AI hearing aids process sound on the device and do not store full audio recordings. What is never stated is where the speech-in-noise recordings used to train the DNN chip came from, or whether customer data feeds that training.
Data retention & training
Hosting summary
No hosting country or region is named. The privacy policy states only that personal data may be transferred to recipients located outside the user's jurisdiction, and that such transfers are covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses or an equivalent mechanism, with additional safeguards where needed. It adds one conditional commitment: personal data will be stored in the user's jurisdiction if the applicable law requires it. Hosting providers appear only as a category, described as service providers such as hosting, maintenance and technical support, and are never named; no subprocessor list and no trust page exist on the site. Two things are known to stay off any server: the sound processing itself, which the brand says runs on the DNN chip inside the hearing aid rather than in the cloud, and the photos taken in certain GN apps, which the policy says remain stored locally and are neither accessed nor shared. That distinction matters, because on-device processing says nothing about where account, fitting and support data is hosted, and on that point the seller stays silent.
Things to keep in mind
Risks and trade-offs to weigh before adopting ReSound Vivia.
- The 'world's best for hearing in noise', 'world's smallest AI hearing aid' and 'world's first Auracast Assistant' lines are brand claims, not established facts: no study is cited on the page, and the connectivity claim points to a Bluetooth SIG footnote with no link behind it.
- A hearing aid listens continuously by nature. The site says so, but the reassurance that no full audio recording is kept sits in a generic guide about AI hearing aids, not in a product commitment for Vivia.
- The privacy policy is the GN group's, covering ReSound alongside Beltone, Interton, Jabra and SteelSeries, rather than a document written for this product, and it displays no effective date although it announces one.
- With no published price, you walk into the appointment without any way to compare, on a purchase where the seller holds all the figures.
- The site is heavily geo-redirected: catalogue, language, documents and even the sitemap declared in robots.txt change with your IP address, so what you read may not be what is sold where you live.
- The ReSound Smart 3D app stays downloadable without a ReSound hearing aid. Do not read the app's availability as the product being free or inexpensive.
- Data transparency has real gaps: no subprocessor list, no data processing agreement, no stated hosting country, no documented way to keep customer data out of model training, and no email address to reach anyone, the Data Protection Officer included.
Setup & Integrations
Technical difficulty
Setup is not self-service: diagnosis, fitting and programming are the work of a licensed hearing care professional, so the hard part is handled for you. Download ReSound Smart 3D, pair over Bluetooth and follow the supplied guides; the brand describes the app as ultra intuitive and accessible. Without the app, the devices run on their buttons with the professional's settings. The real friction is compatibility: check your phone against the supported list, keep its operating system current, and note that LE Audio needs Bluetooth 5.3 or newer. Later adjustments can be made remotely.
Deployment
Apps stores
Integrations
Behind ReSound Vivia
Social
Resources
All the official URLs gathered for verification and reference.
Frequently asked questions
What makes ReSound Vivia an AI hearing aid?
Is the sound processed on the device or sent to the cloud?
Can the AI be turned off?
Do I need a smartphone?
Which phones and tablets are compatible?
What are Auracast and the Auracast Assistant?
How much does ReSound Vivia cost, and can I buy it online?
Can I try the hearing aids before buying, and can I return them?
Who adjusts the hearing aids after the fitting?
Who is behind ReSound Vivia, and how do I reach the data protection officer?
Should you pick ReSound Vivia?
ReSound Vivia is one of the rare entries in this directory where the AI is not a service you log into but a chip you wear. The deep neural network sits inside the hearing aid, processes sound locally, and, unusually, can be strengthened or switched off by the wearer from the ReSound Smart 3D app. Around it, the connectivity is genuinely forward-looking: Bluetooth LE Audio, Auracast broadcasts, hands-free calls, and remote fine-tuning by the hearing care professional through ReSound Assist and Assist Live. The transparency picture is thinner. No price appears anywhere on the site, not even on the dedicated pricing page. No email address exists, for support, legal or privacy matters alike. No subprocessor list, no data processing agreement and no hosting country are published, and the privacy policy is the GN group's rather than a Vivia-specific document, with no effective date shown. The superiority claims on the product page, world's best for hearing in noise, world's smallest AI hearing aid, world's first Auracast Assistant for hearing aids, are the brand's own and arrive without a study. Finally, the purchase path is fixed: ReSound will not supply retailers that do not provide face-to-face fitting, so there is no fully online journey. That is a constraint for anyone who wants to compare before an appointment, and a safeguard for a device that has to be measured against one person's hearing loss. Judge Vivia on the fitting you are given and on what the professional demonstrates in the office, because the site itself will hand you neither a price nor an independent measurement.
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.
- Opens in a new window.