You Can Automatically Enable Voice Isolation for Calls on IPhone
For me, as someone who lives in a noisy city, voice isolation is an important feature during phone calls. If I don’t turn this feature on, I won’t be able to call anyone while I’m outside: the background noise is too loud for them to hear me. This is why I always turn on voice isolation for phone calls on my iPhone. This is different from turning on noise cancellation on AirPods , which simply filters out background noise. During phone calls, Voice Isolation will filter out background noise for the person you’re calling, allowing them to hear you clearly. Here’s how to reduce background noise on phone calls using your iPhone, including how to set it to automatically turn on during calls.
Understanding the Different Microphone Modes on Your iPhone
When you make a phone call using iPhone, you have access to the following microphone modes:
-
Automatic : This is the best mode for most people. It will select the best microphone mode for whatever situation you’re in, such as “Voice Isolation” when there’s a lot of background noise, or “Standard” when you’re on speakerphone.
-
Standard : In this mode, you get normal voice processing. Background sounds will be heard, but they will be slightly filtered out.
-
Voice Isolation : This microphone mode eliminates most background sounds and prioritizes your voice.
-
Wide Range : Try sending completely unfiltered audio to the person you’re talking to. Ambient sounds will not be filtered at all.
If you’re using an iPhone XR, XS, or later, most of these microphone modes should be available to you. Automatic mode is one of the new features added in iOS 18 , so to use it, you will first have to update your iPhone .
How to Choose Microphone Mode on Your iPhone
You can easily turn on microphone mode manually during a phone call on your iPhone. To do this, call someone (or receive a call) and swipe down from the top right corner of the screen. This will work on all kinds of calling apps, not just the standard phone app. This will open Control Center . Click the Control button at the top and choose from four microphone modes under Audio & Video . Again, these are Automatic , Standard , Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum . The microphone mode you select will remain for this app until you change it.
Automatically enable voice isolation for phone calls
Most of my phone calls are quite short, so it usually doesn’t occur to me to manually turn on microphone mode when I pick up the phone. I recently discovered a way to automatically enable Voice Isolation for these phone calls, and it’s been quite helpful. Thanks to this, I no longer have to double check whether it is enabled or not. To do this on your iPhone, go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio & Video and turn on Phone Noise Canceling . This automatically reduces ambient noise when you put the handset to your ear, but leaves hands-free calls untouched.