AirPods Pro 2 Mic Quality - Very Bad

[appleofmyibook]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has had any mic issues with their AirPods Pro 2? Any time I‘m outside, no one can hear me. The audio is completely muffled and noticeably worse than their predecessors. Could be because I’m on Beta. Not sure if I should return them to Apple or if it’d be fixed in a software update.

 

[shady16]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has had any mic issues with their AirPods Pro 2? Any time I‘m outside, no one can hear me. The audio is completely muffled and noticeably worse than their predecessors. Could be because I’m on Beta. Not sure if I should return them to Apple or if it’d be fixed in a software update.

im on 16.1 B3 on my 14 PM and my mic quality is great, only issue im having is audio crackle in third party apps

 

[sb22]

I used mine yesterday and it was horrendous

 

[Paradoxally]

Carry a spare pair of EarPods, the mic quality on those is insane (because they are wired). Check out the difference.

Having to use a dongle is the most annoying part.

 

[tripleacs]

Ive been on several calls today. Mic quality is very variable. On a couple of calls its been perfect and in others I have had complaints about bad quality, muffled audio and drop outs. Very irritating.

Have done a few tests since then and it appears to be random in nature. Can’t find a sequence (have tried things like unpairing, resetting the APP, restarting phone to no avail).

 

[AppleB]

No complaints from my callers so far. Inside, Outside, or in the car.

 

[IAmScottCarlson]

I have had a terrible experience so far with the microphone quality on the AirPod pros 2. People tell me, on multiple connections, such as phone, WhatsApp, etc. that it sounds like I’m underwater when I talk to them. When I listen to music, it’s amazing so the speakers work great. The microphone is horrible. Hopefully there’s a setting are software update us on this from.

 

[tripleacs]

After a lot of testing and tweaking various settings - I seem to have much better call quality. I found it by testing Microsoft Teams which is what is exclusively used for my work. If you swipe down Control Center DURING a Teams call you'll see a "Mic Mode" on the top right. By default this is set to "Voice Isolation" which works fine for iPhone/Speaker and indeed many other bluetooth headsets (including my Airpods Max and my previous Beats Fit Pro). But it's terrible with the APP2. As soon as I set this to "Standard" the voice quality became "acceptable". No sounding underwater or in high wind (even in a closed room). Just tested this on a 1 hour conference call and none of the other attendees complained this time.

I then made a few calls using Google Meet and Facetime - both showed the Mic Mode when in an active within a call - and it was set to Standard now. As soon as I flipped to "Voice Isolation" my APP2 audio sounded worse.

I dont believe the setting is available in standard phone calls. But Phew. I hope this is a bug that can be easily resolved, but for now the workaround seems to be fine for me.

 

[StoneJack]

After a lot of testing and tweaking various settings - I seem to have much better call quality. I found it by testing Microsoft Teams which is what is exclusively used for my work. If you swipe down Control Center DURING a Teams call you'll see a "Mic Mode" on the top right. By default this is set to "Voice Isolation" which works fine for iPhone/Speaker and indeed many other bluetooth headsets (including my Airpods Max and my previous Beats Fit Pro). But it's terrible with the APP2. As soon as I set this to "Standard" the voice quality became "acceptable". No sounding underwater or in high wind (even in a closed room). Just tested this on a 1 hour conference call and none of the other attendees complained this time.

I then made a few calls using Google Meet and Facetime - both showed the Mic Mode when in an active within a call - and it was set to Standard now. As soon as I flipped to "Voice Isolation" my APP2 audio sounded way better.

I dont believe the setting is available in standard phone calls. But Phew. I hope this is a bug that can be easily resolved, but for now the workaround seems to be fine for me.

it is not clear which setting improves voice quality

 

[IAmScottCarlson]

After a lot of testing and tweaking various settings - I seem to have much better call quality. I found it by testing Microsoft Teams which is what is exclusively used for my work. If you swipe down Control Center DURING a Teams call you'll see a "Mic Mode" on the top right. By default this is set to "Voice Isolation" which works fine for iPhone/Speaker and indeed many other bluetooth headsets (including my Airpods Max and my previous Beats Fit Pro). But it's terrible with the APP2. As soon as I set this to "Standard" the voice quality became "acceptable". No sounding underwater or in high wind (even in a closed room). Just tested this on a 1 hour conference call and none of the other attendees complained this time.

I then made a few calls using Google Meet and Facetime - both showed the Mic Mode when in an active within a call - and it was set to Standard now. As soon as I flipped to "Voice Isolation" my APP2 audio sounded way better.

I dont believe the setting is available in standard phone calls. But Phew. I hope this is a bug that can be easily resolved, but for now the workaround seems to be fine for me.

This is a pretty clear indicator that they are doing everything in the software layer at the driver for the app. I almost never use these apps to call normal people like my family, so until they fix the voice quality in "regular phone" this is going to continue to plague me.

I certainly will adjust on the software based call stacks, but hopefully they will implement in hardware

 

[tripleacs]

it is not clear which setting improves voice quality

This probably explains it better than I can:

Change FaceTime audio settings on iPhone

In FaceTime on iPhone, change the audio settings.

support.apple.com

 

[milhaus]

it is not clear which setting improves voice quality

What I think he's saying is that Teams sucks. 😜

 

[tripleacs]

What I think he's saying is that Teams sucks. 😜

Haha. Teams works brilliantly with my Airpods Max and previous Beats fit pro on my iPhone! But yeah it does suck at times and is horrendous on my MBP

 

[speedy206]

I'm experiencing this issue with many 3rd party apps, but I use Microsoft Teams the most (as do many others here who use their phones for work). Teams is fantastic and there is clearly a bug. Putting my mic in Standard mode doesn't fix it for me and the audio is better but still bad. Moving my AirPods Pro 2 back over to my MacBook and jumping on a Teams call sounds amazing. I haven't tried switching back to any of my old AirPods on my iPhone 14 Pro yet, but I'll try that once I get back from my current work trip.

 

[Paradoxally]

What I think he's saying is that Teams sucks. 😜

Teams is terrible software, but the mic quality depends on your hardware.

I will never use wireless solutions for work, nothing beats a cable. The quality is night and day. Wireless stuff works fine for gaming, where people yell comms down the mic but not for work, where clarity is key amongst the background noise.

 

[speedy206]

Teams is terrible software, but the mic quality depends on your hardware.

I will never use wireless solutions for work, nothing beats a cable. The quality is night and day. Wireless stuff works fine for gaming, where people yell comms down the mic but not for work, where clarity is key amongst the background noise.

Teams isn't the problem here. Teams is incredible and I love using it with any of my other AirPods. This is an iOS or AirPods Pro 2 problem...

 

[BatCat]

AirPods Pro 2 Voice Isolation issues are horrendous. I find the sound quality overall to be superior (occasional ANC oddities aside - like random activation of live listen), however, if Voice Isolation is on every listener says my voice is robotic snd unintelligible. This is both Face Time Audio calls, MS teams, Zoom, everything. When VI is set to off it seems that noise cancellation and audio quality are all “above average“ and “like you are calling in a quiet room”. Hope for some kind of firmware update to solve this issue as I’m sure that is possible avenue for correction, but its a real disappointment that it hasn’t been beta tested better Audio quality for music is a delight. Just really frustrating as this is why I waited for the airpod pro 2’s

all devices fully updated iOS, firmware, etc.

 

[gigaguy]

Testing period is over and the Airpod Pro 2 fails for me on phone calls. Everyone I call complains about drop outs. low volume, poor audio sound. I love the audio playback on them tho and was hoping to sell my Airpod Max set but I now need those for phone calls, as they work fine but get heavy and uncomfortable after a while..

 

[Jutah]

I can confirm that the audio quality is really bad. It’s ok if you are alone, while you’re driving but if you are on train or subway it’s nearly impossible for the receiver to understand.

That’s a very bad thing that was present since the APP1.

I keep the APP2 because they sound great and I love the anc (definitely better than the previous gen), but I can’t count on this device to make call.

Don’t hope that a firmware update will fix the problem guys, they didn’t with the APP1, I see no reason they should work to find a solution after 2+ years.

 

[0924487]

I annoyed a lot of people calling in noisy environments with AirPods Pro 2 using iPhone 14 Pro Max. They asked me to take them off and use the iPhone directly. In my testing, they are worse than speakerphone.

 

[appleofmyibook]

Mine seem to have only marginally improved when I’m outside. They still sound muffled and usually the other person asks me to take them out. Once I do the reaction is always ‘WOW that’s so much better. I couldn’t hear you before’. It’s such a shame because in every other way they’re perfect. I have also worked out if I raise my voice just over what would be ‘normal’ or acceptable without people staring at me then the quality is fine. So it looks like the mic isn’t strong enough to sense my voice properly when it’s loud.

 

[Jutah]

i recently recorder 3 different mic sources, looking for an improvement of my desktop webconf setup.

1) logitech camera
2) jabra BT sheadphone
3) APP2

Guess who performed (way) worse?

 

[Paradoxally]

i recently recorder 3 different mic sources, looking for an improvement of my desktop webconf setup.

1) logitech camera
2) jabra BT sheadphone
3) APP2

Guess who performed (way) worse?

Definitely APP2, but if you get a wired mic you'll see an improvement over all of those. If your setup is fixed, it's a worthwhile investment.

 

[rwintheiser]

So, is there any fix that anyone has had success with? Super frustrating that this is an issue. A reason NOT to upgrade.

 

[whrage]

After a lot of testing and tweaking various settings - I seem to have much better call quality. I found it by testing Microsoft Teams which is what is exclusively used for my work. If you swipe down Control Center DURING a Teams call you'll see a "Mic Mode" on the top right. By default this is set to "Voice Isolation" which works fine for iPhone/Speaker and indeed many other bluetooth headsets (including my Airpods Max and my previous Beats Fit Pro). But it's terrible with the APP2. As soon as I set this to "Standard" the voice quality became "acceptable". No sounding underwater or in high wind (even in a closed room). Just tested this on a 1 hour conference call and none of the other attendees complained this time.

I then made a few calls using Google Meet and Facetime - both showed the Mic Mode when in an active within a call - and it was set to Standard now. As soon as I flipped to "Voice Isolation" my APP2 audio sounded worse.

I dont believe the setting is available in standard phone calls. But Phew. I hope this is a bug that can be easily resolved, but for now the workaround seems to be fine for me.

Got my APP2 yesterday and had the same issue. Your suggestion saved me from contacting Apple support... Thanks.