Apple’s Hidden iOS Trick to Make Your iPhone Calls Much Clearer

At WWDC 2024, Apple announced it would release iOS 18 to the general public this fall, and the update would bring new features, like customizable home screen and upgrades to Messages, to your iPhone. But the tech giant brought a feature to your iPhone that could make your phone calls sound much better when it released iOS 16.4 more than a year ago.

Apple released that update in March 2023, and it brought Voice Isolation for phone calls on iPhone. Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum added to FaceTime calls were included in the release of iOS 15 in 2021, but only Voice Isolation is available for phone calls now. 

When enabled, Voice Isolation muffles distracting background noises that interrupt your phone call. That way, if you’re on a business call or catching up with friends, you won’t be interrupted by your dog’s barking or construction outside your home. 

To enable Voice Isolation, you have to be on a phone call, and you won’t find the feature in Settings. Once you turn Voice Isolation on, it will stay on for all subsequent phone calls until it’s turned off.

Here’s how to activate and disable Voice Isolation for phone calls.

How to enable Voice Isolation

1. Start or answer a phone call.
2. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to access your Control Center.
3. Tap Mic Mode near the top-right corner of your screen. 
4. Tap Voice Isolation. 

Pro tip: Instead of turning this feature on during a call with someone else, you can call yourself and enable Voice Isolation by following the steps above.

To disable Voice Isolation, follow the same steps above and tap Standard in Mic Mode. This will return your microphone back to its default setting.

What is Wide Spectrum?

Alongside Voice Isolation in Mic Mode is Wide Spectrum. Unlike Voice Isolation — which muffles background sounds — Wide Spectrum amplifies background sounds without affecting your voice.

Wide Spectrum is useful for calls with multiple people on one phone line. That way, everyone can be heard, not just the person holding the phone. 

Currently, Wide Spectrum is only available for FaceTime calls, not phone calls. Since the feature is still present in Mic Mode when accessed during a phone call, this feature might become available for phone calls in the future. 

For more on iOS 17, here’s what to know about iOS 17.6 and our iOS 17 cheat sheet. You can also check out how to download the second iOS 18 developer beta now and why you might not want to install it just yet.

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