Remote meetings on FaceTime are a lot calmer in iOS and iPadOS 15, thanks to a feature called voice isolation that blocks out background noise. Even better, the feature works in other video-calling applications, including Zoom and Google Duo.
Here’s how you can enable it on iPhone and iPad.
If you’ve had to work from home at all during the pandemic and you have small children, you’ll know it’s near impossible to partake in a FaceTime meeting without also contributing background noise of some kind.
But with iOS and iPadOS 15, you can give friends and colleagues some welcome peace by enabling voice isolation. It blocks out those ambient sounds so that other calls hear you — and only you — even better.
Enable voice isolation for FaceTime
Your sound settings for FaceTime calls are available inside Control Center, so they’re always easily accessible. To access them, first open the FaceTime app or initiate a FaceTime call, then follow these steps:
- Swipe down from the top-right corner of the screen (or up from the bottom if you have an iPhone with a Home button) to open Control Center.
- Tap the Mic Mode button.
- Select Voice Isolation.
Image: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Apple’s FaceTime application is used as an example, but voice isolation is also available in rival video-calling apps. Go through these same steps in Zoom or Google Duo to enable it.
Note that you need an iPhone or iPad powered by the A12 Bionic chip or better to access voice isolation and other microphone modes. And iOS 15/iPadOS 15 or newer. The feature is also available 2018 or later Mac models.
To disable voice isolation, simply repeat the same process, but at step three, choose Standard or Wide Spectrum instead.
FaceTime’s new audio modes
Standard mode is self-explanatory, and it’s what you’re already used to on FaceTime calls. Wide spectrum does the opposite of voice isolation — it intentionally picks up not only you, but the sounds around you.
Voice isolation is useful for conference calls when multiple people are using one iPhone, iPad or Mac to participate in a meeting.
