You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Why are there iPhone speaker choices now?

When I am on a call and want to put the call on speaker, instead of going to the speaker, a menu of choices pops up to choose from. It shows "iPhone, Speaker and Living Room". Living Room is the name of my Apple TV, but it is not a speaker choice, so why is it displaying? When I choose to go to speaker, I just want it to do that. Why has this suddenly started happening?

Posted on Oct 24, 2019 4:21 PM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 26, 2019 6:54 PM

I have had this issue as well, I found the only way to get rid of my apple tv as an option, is to go into Settings on the apple tv - Remotes and Devices - Remote App and Devices and you should see your iPhone listed, select it and Unpair Device. This is the only way I've found to get the normal speakerphone option back, you loose the ability to use your iPhone as a remote/type input for the apple tv though.

Similar questions

24 replies
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Oct 26, 2019 6:54 PM in response to Cartoonguy

I have had this issue as well, I found the only way to get rid of my apple tv as an option, is to go into Settings on the apple tv - Remotes and Devices - Remote App and Devices and you should see your iPhone listed, select it and Unpair Device. This is the only way I've found to get the normal speakerphone option back, you loose the ability to use your iPhone as a remote/type input for the apple tv though.

Oct 24, 2019 4:36 PM in response to deggie

This never appeared for me before updating to iOS 13. There is no reason I would want to share my phone call via my Apple TV when I have a speaker on my phone. In any case, it should be a choice. It gives me a choice to play via a bluetooth headphone, but only if they are actively connected. I should be able to stop this annoying option.


I actually called Apple Support and a senior advisor told me that this is not expected behaviour and that it is a known glitch and will be fixed, he hopes, in an update. I kind of found that hard to believe, which is why I posted here. Can you find any documentation which confirms this behaviour as intentional on an iPhone?


Also, I can already airplay my phone to the Apple TV, but again, that's a choice.

Oct 24, 2019 4:43 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

So I'm on a call and I hit the Speaker button, but instead of going to speaker, a choice of three options pops up and I have to choose from those. It's a two step process which is cumbersome and distracting in some situations and it never did this before.


Further, Google searching shows up no info that I can see to confirm this as intended behaviour. Only thing for sending audio to an Apple TV is via Airplay. Are you saying it does it on your phone every time as well? Can you find any information from Apple that explains what is happening?


P.S. Pressing the Living Room button doesn't even send the audio to my Apple TV, so it doesn't even work if I wanted it to.

Oct 24, 2019 4:48 PM in response to Cartoonguy

The button should now be called Audio and yes it takes you to a second page. If it finds absolutely no other Airplay devices then it will go back to being just the Speaker. If you are only seeing the Apple TV as your other option unplug it and see what happens. And yes it is the intended behavior. Download the latest IOS manual to your books app and you can look it up.


You can also go here Feedback - iPhone - Apple and tell Apple you would like an option in Settings.

Oct 24, 2019 5:30 PM in response to deggie

I looked in the manual and there is nothing. Only thing I could find was this: https://support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/iphone/iphb152a5c6/ios but it does not refer to audio choices for phone calls. If you can find it, I would very much appreciate your sharing it here. Not asking you because I can't be bothered because I tried, but can't find anything which confirms this as intended behaviour. I don't mean to be pedantic, but I want to show this to the advisor who swears it is not supposed to be doing that. He even researched it with his senior tech (which doesn't mean they are all wrong, but...)

Oct 24, 2019 4:48 PM in response to Cartoonguy

I don't care what Google search says, it is intended behavior. If there are more than 2 ways to hear phone calls it will list all of them. The iPhone is pretty smart, but it can't read your mind about which 2 methods you would want, so it lists all of them. If you have Bluetooth devices such as a headset or a speaker it will list that also, potentially 4 Items in the list.


One thing you might try is to go to Settings/GeneralAirplay & Handoff and set Automatically AirPlay to TVs to OFF. That won't help if you have a Bluetooth device connected, but it might if you don't.

Oct 24, 2019 4:50 PM in response to deggie

It also sometimes lists iMac as a choice. Again, can you find any evidence online that this is a "feature" in the OS? I would dearly like to throw this at the senior support agent if there is evidence to prove it. He actually suggested wiping my phone and reinstalling!! He said there are reports that the "problem" was solved this way.

Oct 24, 2019 4:57 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

Fine, but you are telling me one thing and a senior Apple agent is telling me otherwise, so I am interested in seeing some evidence that this is expected behaviour when it never ever did it before. And I had 12.4 before I updated to 13 too.


Not asking the iPhone to read my mind, just don't want it to offer me choices I have no desire to use, and, in fact, don't even work!! I am near my iMac and my Apple TV is in the other room and choosing either of those audio options doesn't even play the audio on those devices if I select it, so it's a useless option anyway, even if I did want it, but I don't.


As I say, it would be fabulous if you could point me to any evidence that this is a feature. It must have a name. There must be something about the feature in documentation somewhere.

Oct 24, 2019 5:05 PM in response to Lawrence Finch

"One thing you might try is to go to Settings/GeneralAirplay & Handoff and set Automatically AirPlay to TVs to OFF. That won't help if you have a Bluetooth device connected, but it might if you don't."


I don't have this setting on my iPhone. I have Handoff, but that is just either on or off and it refers to using apps on all devices, not audio.

Oct 27, 2019 1:14 PM in response to madmax88

Oh my gosh! This is actually a real practical answer to the issue. Thank you!! That does seem to have worked for the Apple TV option. Fingers crossed it stays that way. I did have to restart the phone to make it go away as well.


The only thing now is that my iMac sometimes comes up as an option. How do I unpair the phone from another Mac computer in the same way? The only thing I can find is about disabling Handoff, but Handoff is a different thing. It's purpose is to allow you to continue working in an application from one device to another, like finishing an email. I don't want to switch that off, I just want to switch off using a computer for the phone's audio on a call.

Why are there iPhone speaker choices now?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.