iPhone 12 Pro: Facetime / speakerphone microphone audio cuts in and out

You do realise the main microphone is at the bottom of the phone?

By standing it on something in portrait mode it is very likely you are simply blocking the microphone!

Facing the screen, the holes on the bottom of the phone, to the left of the charger socket, are the microphone.

When you are propping up the phone in portrait mode, make sure those holes are not covered. You can buy specialist phone stands that avoid this problem.

This can also be a problem with the way you hold the phone. I have a tendency to block them with my right little finger which I use as a "stand" to stop the phone slipping through my grip.

I took the phone to the apple store. They ran a diagnostic and saw an issue in the bottom mic (surprisingly not the front-top mic). Because I had apple care, they replaced my phone.

https://support.apple.com/iphone-12-and-iphone-12-pro-service-program-for-no-sound-issues

check out the link. Apple is now starting a repair service for this issue. At least they finally admit it.

I have the same issue and have found it's definitely related to my case. If I use a more rugged case with thick protection, my theory is that the speakerphone and mics are deep in holes of the case and it creates some sort of a tunnel or echo effect which causes the mics to cut out when on speakerphone so that the other party hears your voice cutting in and out. When I take my phone out of the case, no issue. I've experimented with different cases and this always seems to be "the case". Thinner cases like a simple silicone shell don't seem to have the issue but a full body rugged protection like an Otterbox always has issues on speakerphone. I've had iPhones for years and never had this issue until now, so I suspect they didn't consider this fully whenever they designed the latest iPhone 12. It's incredibly annoying and I hope that Apple might have some software fix to help improve the speakerphone audio.

Here's a link to the same issue with the iPhone 11 which is very similar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CL5LENZlrvY

My sister had a similar problem with her iPhone 11 whereby she was always muted whenever anyone else was speaking on a group call such as Facetime, Zoom or Whatsapp, or when she was using the speakerphone on a normal voice call. The effect was rather like a "half duplex" system whereby only one person can talk at a time.

The problem did not happen when she was using her airpods or another bluetooth headset, only when she was using the speaker.

It turned out that the problem was her phone case was covering a small microphone (tiny pinhole) on the top of the phone next to the power button. Once she took the case off the phone, the problem was solved. I gather this little microphone is used as part of the "echo suppression" system the iPhone uses.

The person that appears muted when others are speaking is the person with the case covering the microphone, so it may not be you that has the problem. If in doubt, ask all those on the group call to remove their cases!

There's another question posted in this community that sounds like the same issue. I posted the following there and thought it might be useful to post here as well...

"I was having the same problem (when using FaceTime my audio was coming through as choppy for the other end) with my iPhone 12 Pro. In trying to figure this out I had watched a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WuYUBxm3zs) and got some ideas to try. I got online with a friend of mine who has a good knowledge of audio/video operation to try these suggestions. His observation was that it seemed like the mic was not keeping up and could only output part of the audio.

One of the video's suggestions was to turn off the microphone for all the other apps using it and then turn back on. But what I actually did was to turn them off and leave them off. Then my audio was coming through fine! So certainly NOT a long-term solution but more of a clue about what is happening. I'm curious for folks to try it and see what results they get. To turn off the mic for all the apps that are using it go to Settings => Privacy => Microphone and turn all of these off. And then try FaceTime and see if your audio is now coming through fully."

I had the same issue, bought iPhones in December 2020, Tried talking with apple, they walk me through all trouble shoot and I performed all of the, Muting your mic while on facetime on speaker does the trick but its not practically possible all the time, eventually I had to replace both mine and my wife's 12 with apple. They replaced it and its working fine as of now. Its been 2 days and did a lot of facetime all over globe, no issue so far. Fingers crossed.

Last resort is to get replacement, explain them in details about your issue and also show them or paste them the link of online apple discussion. Not a lot chat support person are aware of this issue so. Hope this helps.

I just tested this issue. When the iPhone 12 is in portrait mode sitting on a hard surface the Audio / speakers voice when heard on the other end is choppy, goes in and out. When the iPhone is picked up, or rotated to landscape the Audio / speakers voice when heard on the end is clear and crisp. There is a hardware design issue with the Microphone on the iPhone 12. More than likely this issue will need to be resolved on the next iPhone, this is not a software issue.

4 hours on phone with apple support between different advisors and senior advisors.. shocking fact: they didn’t know about this problem at all, of course blamed wifi and cellular data..

bottom line we agreed that it is a hardware issue, they suggest sending to get it fixed.. but what is the guarantee? Nothing

getting it returned to apple before the 14 days are over

Maybe i should clear the air on my issue as I’ve noticed slight differences in our issues.

My issues was more like the Original Poster’s issue where on regular calls, the other party can barely hear me, it cuts in and out. Other party can only hear me if I use speaker or AirPods. But for me, mine was like this all the time, with or without cases and with noice cancellation turned on or off.

However on calls such as WhatsApp, there were no issues at all.

I probably had this issue since I got the phone and hoped it was to be solved via software updates. Unfortunately it did not and with one month left till my warranty ends, I sent it in to apple.

Here’s where things got fun, the Apple Authorised Service Provider , diagnose a Bottom Mic issues. They sent my phone for repair but however to my surprise during repair, Apple diagnosed no issues. The unit came back to me as is, and the issue still persisted.

I called Apple Support and gave them a hearing on how they wasted 2 weeks of my time without a phone. And they asked me to write down in detail and send it in with my phone once more.

Finally the second time, the AASP changed my logic board and the issue was solved.

i have and assumption that there were some flaws in probably the antenna, of what’s transmitting my voice over the cellular waves via the bottom mic.

Also, one thing to note that when I was at the AASP, I hear two other iPhones during the diagnostic tests ( they play some sounds with different pitches to test your microphone). So I asked them if this is a common issue with the iPhone 12s, and they tried to brush it off by saying they see a lot of problems with iPhone 12s so they can’t possibly say.

Hope that clarifies!

Our family now has the same problem described in this thread. Both my son and daughter had iPhone X devices and my husband and I had iPhone 8s. We wanted to upgrade so we upgraded them to iPhone 12 Pros and we took over their X devices. We FT every day with. them. The audio will cut in and out consistently unless we do the following: my son or my daughter put in an AirPod to use for their microphone speaker OR we have to constantly put our X phone on Mute while they are talking, come off of mute to talk and then go back and forth with our X phone mute button to have an unbroken conversation. So dang annoying. I don’t know what to ask for from Apple to fix the problem but I don’t want to continue paying for this device through Verizon. Any fixes in mind on how to handle????

After hours of research, modifications, trying multiple software fixes, phone logs sent to Apple, variations in conditions, setting changes, placement of phone, etc. etc. etc.....My iPhone 12 Pro Max STILL cuts out if speaking at the same time (half-duplex) regardless of a case or not every time it is used on speakerphone. I was told by Apple to just use my earphones until the engineers can find a solution.....

Verizon sent me two replacements and BOTH did the exact same thing. Apple produced a lemon and is not owning it. We are losing out as consumers.

I saw some where on here that mentioned having the person you're FaceTiming with mute themselves and they'll be able to hear you clearly so I tested it out and it worked.

Ive got issue solved after I sent my device in for repair, they replaced by logic board and the problems went away.

It is not the way you hold it or the mic being covered. The only way I can hear her clearly on facetime is when I either have her turn her phone landscape or if I mute myself. When she had her iphone X, it was no issue at all. Definitely an issue with the 12.