AirPod Pro Microphone Call Quality

Thanks all for looking into this. There were several recommendations in this thread that I tried. What seems to have worked for me in the end was to change the Accessibility->Audio/Visual setting, later forgetting the device on the phone and re-pairing using the method of opening the lid and holding pair button. Now finally my calls are clear. I verified all of this by calling my work phone and leaving myself voicemails after each step and after the last one, it finally doesn't sound muffled, even when I call only with one airpod in the ear.

so I was dealing with this exact same problem with me sounding muffled to people on phone calls. I did a proper full reset of my charging case. Have to hold that button longer than you think to get it to fully reset. Then reconnect to Bluetooth. That fixed it. Just forgetting the device and reconnecting to Bluetooth alone isn’t enough. You have to do a factory reset. So first make sure AirPods and case are at least 30% charged. I would fully charge them though. And make sure the AirPods are in the case for this time and case closed. Then forget device on your Bluetooth device. Then with pods and case charged, open the case and hold that button on the charging case for at least 15 seconds it will start flashing white, keep holding it, it will flash amber, then flash white. That’s when you release the button and pods are reset. Bring near phone, Close case, reopen case then phone will detect them and reconnect to Bluetooth.

I’ve managed to solve my own issue by forgetting the AirPods and re-pairing. There is more than one way to pair them and I don’t think the noise cancelling works properly unless they are correctly paired as per the manual. Worth trying. Hope it works for you.

Make sure the iPhone is on the latest software (13.3) and the AirPods Pro are on the latest firmware (2B588). I was having the same call quality issues but after updating the phone they work perfectly. Note that you cannot push the AirPods Pro firmware, they sort of do it on their own. You can see which version you have under settings, general, scroll down to the pods.

I think that i solve this mystery, at least it worked for me. You have to go to settings-> Bluetooth -> tap „i” icon next to you’re AirPods name, then change microphone to just left or right. There is propably something wrong with active one.

Hope it’ll work for someboby too. :)

Switch off Noise Cancelling works as a work around.

To me it looks like the hardware and/or software of the AirPods Pro can't handle the noise cancelling of mics for talking and speakers for listening at the same time.

My friend had the same problems. We tested it on webex and the quality was poor. Dropouts and high pitched squeals.

She re-paired the AirPods as recommended by Apple. While re-pairing, the phone flagged an issue. It said that the tips were too small. She changed to a larger tip. We tested it out on webex and it is much better.

Bottom line: the tip size needed for good mike performance may be larger than the size you feel is comfortable.

I had been using Plantronics Voyger 5200 for last couple of years. Finally I bought AirPod Pro in May. Since then everyone I spoke to complaint about background noise. Spoke to Apple technical support today and they told me that noise cancellation in Apple is only for user to cut back ground noise. There is no noise cancellation for microphone hence listener at other end can hear noise. As my AirPods are less than a month old, I am returning them to Apple and will switch back to Plantronics.

so lesson learnt. Don’t use AirPods for making calls in noisy environment

I've had people report that the mic quality is significantly better when I turn off noise cancelling. (press + hold the stem of the airpod). It's been over a year that this issue has been around, any chance of a fix (I bought these specifically for speaking to people!)?

I have had the same problem, came across this answer. I too had initially paired the AirPods Pro through the Settings > Bluetooth interface, leading to the muffled microphones problem. So I did what was suggested: “Forget This Device” by clicking the i button on the right of the Airpod’s Pro listing in Settings > Bluetooth; then with the AirPods Pro in their case near your device, open the lid and follow the onscreen instructions. The microphone quality is now vastly better!

Ok I think I might have solved the issue for the mic within the iPhone.

1. Go to the Bluetooth settings on your AirPods Pro- turn off “Automatic Ear Detection”.
2. Click on “connect to this iPhone”- switch “automatically” to “when last connected to this iPhone”.
3. I also switched my microphone from “automatically switch AirPods” to whichever worked best (record on voice memos to see which one works best)

For Macs tho it’s the same old trick. Can’t have the background noise blocked but at least it’s better than the muffled mic. Go to bluetooth for the AirPods pro - open sound preferences, input- switch Airpod’s Pro to “Internal Microphone”.

Hope this works for y’all!

I had the same problem with zoom, MS teams and google chat. Experimenting before a zoom call, I noticed that the sound only went bad when I switched the input sound source from 'internal microphone' to airpods. Switching back seemed to solve it. This article suggests that it's a problem with the bluetooth algorithm (makes sense) but very surprised Apple haven't created a fix for this yet!

https://audacious.blog/2017/airpods-macos-call-quality-fix/#:~:text=The%20Fix%3A%20You%20need%20to,quality%20takes%20a%20noticeable%20hit.&text=Call%20participants%20sounded%20hollow%20and,sounded%20the%20same%20to%20them.

In order to finally have some reliable data about this problem, I recorded my voice while walking outside, using both my AirPods Pro and a second phone, and made a video with the detail (4 minutes): https://youtu.be/LSy-mserlGE

It seems clear that the issue is real and is not due to an arcane bug or setting (firmware version, transparency mode, forgetting and re-pairing). Noise cancellation drowns out your voice when it's windy, and there is no way to deactivate it. Using your phone when you are outside is currently the only fix I can see.

Finally I got my Airpods replaced,

the problem was in the microphone (they claimed that everything was fine in the beginning and checked them several times I refused to collect them from the reseller and finally they admitted that the Lt Airpod was faulty) , it has nothing to do with the firmware.

Hi, i read this :

What you’re looking for is another feature added in iOS 15 called Mic Modes. There are three: Standard (how the microphone has worked for years), Voice Isolation (filters out the background noice so the person you’re calling isn’t disturbed by your neighbor moving their lawn; it’s what’s you’re looking for) and Wide Spectrum (let’s put the entire soundscape; useful for things like calling someone from a concert so they can clearly hear the music).

It’s not what comes with this beta firmware. It requires an A12 Bionic processor or newer (iPhone XR/XS or newer).

Anyone mounting iOS 15 beta can do this test please?

Thanks!