AirPod Pro Microphone Call Quality

A good way to see how do they suck (and I think it's the latest update, since people weren't complaining before) is to record a voice message and hear yourself back. The voice comes and goes.

I tried in all three modes (Transparency, NC, off) and it's all the same.

Just adding my support to this. Paid decent money for top grade headphones only to find the microphone quality in calls is so poor that I have to turn back to my phone. All background noise is amplified for whoever has called me, traffic, cleaning the dishes, typing on a keyboard. Anything just sounds loud to the caller and my voice gets muffled to the point they can’t hear me, but a car passing by almost blows their ears out it’s that loudly apparently.

seriously unimpressed how apple are just ignoring this!

tried all the given fix but nothing worked. I did play a little bit with the AirPods and on my side it seems to be the quality of the isolation that is not good enough. When doing the isolation test with same tips since my purchase, it always told me to change them but I never had this issue before the new firmware. When listening to music, the isolation is perfect, I don't hear anything.

I was seeing an apple genius for this. he said i should call him and say something. he walked away, came back and said he can hear me fine.

quite an unreliable test, if you ask me.

i have received numerous complaints about the sound quality when i am using the airpods pro. never do, when i use the phone directly or cable connected headphones with mic.

there seems to be an issue with the NEAR OR FAR FIELD. since we cannot change this in settings this needs to be added by apple. the mics pick up too much surrounding noise.

This is one of the reasons I didn't buy AirPods. I have several coworkers and friends who all use AirPods or the new AirPod Pros, and their microphones are picking up so much background noise during conference calls. Whether it's a mouse dragging on a desk, keyboard clicks, and even someone in the next room handling kitchenware or dishes, the AirPods not only pick up these sounds, but seem to amplify them so much it sounds like we're all tumbling inside a dishwasher. I can confirm that this happens on Zoom, Webex, Microsoft Teams, JoinMe. Even when there isn't excessive background noise, their voices sound muffled and bass-heavy. This thread makes it clear that this isn't a rare complaint. They are pairing the AirPods with MacBook Pros for these web conferences, so it's still within the Apple family.

It would be great for Apple to figure this out. I'm asking for a friend. Literally.

Same here. Everything works fine when indoors, but as soon as I go outside and there is any wind or traffic noise, the people I talk with say that it is almost impossible to hear me. They describe it as the sound disappearing, as if they've lowered the volume. Trying to re-pair or setting the microphone to specifically use either left or right device does not help at all.

I'm really disappointed with them, to be honest. For listening only, they are fine, but the horrible microphone quality when outdoors means I now do not trust them at all so in case I need to answer the phone while out, I resort to using the phone without AirPods.

I have the exact same problem. I like the pros for listening, but they are worthless for calls. If I am outside and there is a light wind or a passing car, nobody can hear me. I literally walk with my old wired earphones in case someone calls. I have tried the repairing method and that didn't fix anything. I am amazed to see over 4700 other people had these issues and no real response from Apple. Our stores in Hawaii are only just reopening, so it's hard to get in to see anyone and I certainly don't want them wearing them to test them in the days of COVID. Wish there was a well-known public fix...

A little over year later since this thread was created and we are still experiencing the same problem...

I bought my first pair from Amazon on October, came out faulty. Got replacement. Second pair also faulty this time I just got refund. Third pair was given to me as a gift on my birthday on December and also faulty. I thought there will be a difference between Amazon purchased and Apple store purchased but no. And I tried everything that you can find on the internet from cleaning the AirPods Pro, the case, to disconnecting, to rebooting, e v e r y t h i n g. After days of trying I finally went to the Apple store. They gave me a replacement for both AirPods left n right. I come back home and the mic STILL SOUNDS STATIC N MUFFLED. I did the testing with voice memos but sound so bad I rather just not use them for calls. What’s the point of having expensive pair of AirPods Pro if they are all faulty?

I think it’s time for a new firmware update ASAP if you don’t want to lose any more customers because I’m exhausted of trying and failing all the time...

Hi All,

I noticed on Apple's website that there is a recall on Airpod Pros that are manufactured before October 2020. So I contacted Apple, they took mine in and replaced them. The replacements had glue down the side of one which got inside my case.

And...... the call quality outside is no different. I've unpaired, paired, gone through the sound settings (transparency, off, sound cancelling) turned the right microphone off, left microphone off, set the microphone to automatic.

No difference at all, people can still hear me better on the wired headphones or my first pair of Airpods from 2017.

Anyone in the UK been successful in returning their Airpods to Currys?

Same problem here... Can't use my Airpod Pro for calls or meetings.... Only for music/audio...

When doing some tests with the voice memo app it seems that the position of the AirPod in your ear has a huge impact on the voice quality.

Switching manually the mic from the right to left side did help me in some occasions but no lasting solution here unfortunately.....

Looking forward to hear from Apple Support here....

Indoor is fine. Outdoors (with wind especially), the ****** device would try and cut off ambient noise but is so stupid, it cannot differentiate your own voice to that of the outside noise. So it doesn’t solve crap.

"I have used the AirPods Pro extensively with Teams etc since before the Corona and during, without any issues whatsoever. As soon as I upgraded my Macs to 11.5.2 this issue started popping up with muffled sound coming and going."

Tested the APP on a Sony phone and got the same issue, which should leave the latest Mac OS update off the table and possibly indicate that the firmware in the APP (3E751) might be the culprit..

Unfortunately, my AirPods were upgraded from the 2D27 firmware version (on which telephony worked) to the latest current version 3E751 and there was an immediate issue. It is unbelievable!! So I'll go try and test the beta installation of the firmware and let me know

To add insult to injury, not only is the noise canceling horrible for the mic in 3E751 - I am not noticing the NC doesnt work properly at the headphone either, there are so many sounds that slip through now..

Same problem with Airpods Pro during calls, other side can not undersetand me when I am talking.

I also have a 2nd gen Airpods with a broken mic (only functioning left one) and calls are way better than with the pro version.

I have latest firmware, did every trick trying to solve the problem, but nothing worked for me. Will try to exchange or return