Apple’s hidden setting instantly makes your video and audio calls sound better

Image: Apple

I like to use video chat services such as FaceTime Audio orWhatsApp instead of making phone calls. The audio quality is better than a good old fashioned phone call, but the people I'm calling see it like a normal phone call.

But! I was not doing my internet calls the right way. There is a new feature buried in the Control Center that instantly improves the quality of your microphone during calls, whether you are audio-only or on video.

It works on most Apple products from the last few years, as long as you are running the latest version of the software. Voice Isolation seems to be supported by anything that supports Spatial Audio. It's hard to find, and you can only access it when you're already in a call. If you're holding up your phone at a concert, Wide Spectrum will let the other people on your call hear more background noise, which is useful if you're not holding up your phone. Voice Isolation? Voice isolation is where magic happens.

i had no clue that a) Voice Isolation was a feature available on the new iPhones / Airpods and b) it worked so well. It's incredible on the other end — you hear nothing but the person you are talking to. Surprised it's not automatically turned on!

— can duruk (@can) May 16, 2022

When you enable Voice Isolation, your device begins to process the audio coming into your mic in order to remove background noise. When I turned on the setting on my phone, my dog was no longer barking 20 feet away and the sounds of traffic were gone. The sounds of my keyboard and laptop fan stopped when I turned it on.

It sounds like you're holding your phone to your face even when you're not, because Apple brings it closer in the process of isolating the voice. The tradeoff is that your voice always sounds better through apps, but it is more processed.

In my testing, there was one moment when two cars revved their engines at the same time only a few feet from where I was standing, and the artificial intelligence just output a half-second of total silence. It's not like you would have been able to hear me over the roar, right? A little more processing for a lot less background noise is an easy trade to make for most calls.

Image: Apple/David Pierce

There are two problems with Voice Isolation. You have to enable it in every app you use for calls because it is not a universal setting. It doesn't work everywhere. Not every app supports Voice Isolation, which is made available through an Apple application programming interface. The track record on mobile devices is pretty good, though TikTok doesn't support it. It's not possible to turn it on for any in-browser apps on the Mac, so it's not possible to use it for a bunch of others.

The most glaring omission? Regular phone calls. Even though you could probably use a little bit of improvement, there are no mic modes for phone calls. The company didn't comment on why this is.

Even in normal modes, Apple is doing noise-cancellation work. If you want to test it, hold up a fan to your phone and listen as the device takes a few seconds to identify and suppress it, but it doesn't go far enough. Voice Isolation means that I have heard what better can sound like. I want it all the time, for my sake and for everyone I talk to.