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

Yeah, it's an annoying problem which is hopefully fixable through software/firmware update and it has to do with echo cancellation.

I just tend to ask people if they can please put me off speaker or use earbuds (wired or wireless, doesn't matter). That fixes the problem.

Some newer Samsung phones also have this issue btw, but the problem sounds differently there. Let's hope someone at Apple reads this and can easily reproduce it. And yeah this is very easy to reproduce :-)

I have the same issue and know 3 other people who have it too. Putting on headphones solves the issue, but pretty frustrating. Only on FaceTime at least...

Yes- I FT with my 4 y.o. nephew a few times a week, and when I upgraded to the 12, he started saying he couldn’t hear me and getting very frustrated. I thought he was just being dramatic when people were talking in the background... then... Over the holidays my mother upgraded to the 12, and I finally saw what he was talking about. When he was using her phone to FT me, I would see his mouth moving but it was completely silent. It did it several times and I had to ask him over and over to repeat himself. What’s worse is that, if he was ever out of frame, I had no idea if he was talking or not because I couldn’t see his mouth. This is a new phone and the least it should do is allow you to hear the speaker on the other end. So Yes- a fix is needed, indeed!!

I'm having the same issue as well. Very frustrating as I use speakerphone for most of my calls. Worked fine when i got in beginning of december before the 14.3 and 14.4 upgrade. my assumption is do not upgrade if you value the speakerphone

I'm a new iPhone user after many years of Android phone usage. I purchased a 12 Max Pro so I could use Facetime to communicate with family members. The audio cutting in & out issue is maddening! Nothing seems to remedy the situation. I tried removing the case, holding the phone vertically & horizontally, WIFI or 5G connectivity make no difference, etc. NOTHING helps. When I Facetime with family members, their voice drops almost every first syllable of each word spoken. "Hello" is heard as "...lo". This issue simply does not happen with What's app, Signal, FB Messenger or any other video chat service. Only Facetime. Clearly, this is an Apple issue that seems to be completely ignored and swept under the rug. All these posters cannot be delusional. This is supposed to be the flagship of all phones. C'mon, Apple, get real.

Agree. It is NOT Network specific. I have heard from multiple people with the same issue on multiple networks. I believe it is an issue with the mic's inability to perform as a "full duplex" device. So essentially it is canceling out one of the voices.

Mine does the exact same thing. I have taken it to the Apple store numerous times and they can’t find an issue. They even changed the whole inside of the phone and it still does it. They said they can’t replace the phone if they can’t find a problem with it and told me it was an environmental problem. They said they have not heard of this problem before. It is very annoying that we pay this much for a phone that you can’t even talk on the speaker phone..

I’m sorry to hear this. I don’t understand how millions of people including Apple developers use these phones and all experience this and think that it’s okay? I’ll bet you a million bucks that the next iPhone continues to have this issue because it’s also an issue on the iPhone11 and they did nothing to resolve it when they made the iPhone 12. I would stay away from these phones if I were you. The iPhone SE doesn’t have this issue, it may be worth exchanging before your return window closes.

It's insane. I think that in addition to writing on this thread that Apple won't read, it would be possibly more effective to contact Apple support directly. If we all did that, it would at least reach a person.

Worth contacting Apple directly and also checking out the link posted on this thread that has a “repair program”

which I would be super curious to know if anyone’s device actually gets fixed through it. Apple doesn’t read these forums.

I have the same issue with my iPhone 12 Pro and went to apple store only the lady told me that it’s blocking the speaker. I even told her that I don’t have issues on my iphone XR and why at first they can hear me then all of a sudden they can’t which she can’t answer. It’s frustrating to upgrade thinking this is better than my old one.

Yes this is a issue that everyone I’ve spoken to is experiencing. Apple SERIOUSLY VERY DISSATISFIED!! Plus we are very disappointed at you and you really need to fix this!!!!! Honestly I’ve had nothing but trouble with the new 12 pro, first thing that started to happen is my password played up and it ended up being a software glitch. I had to fully restore phone and install everything manually 1 by 1 not using a backup. At six months old or less it’s now at 82% battery life which is absolutely disgusting, considering I’ve had phones that 3 to 4 years old still at 88%. I have more issues but there’s no point listing them here…

Now, I have tested it myself!! We have iPhone XS Max calling iPhone XS. Never an issue. Bought a 12 pro to replace the iPhone XS then we had The XS max constantly not being able to hear me due to phone muting most of sound. Seems to me like a very poor noise cancellation feature. For the other end on the 12 pro I had no issues with the XS max. Perfect sound. We took the XS max out and replaced it with a 12 mini and now we are experiencing same issues on both devices. We will all need to contact Apple and complain to get them to resolve this problem.

These new phones are actually feeling worse than the XS and XS max series which we thoroughly enjoyed. Even the XS max had a bit better quality of picture resolution.

will be complaining to Apple.

After making my initial post here, I went to the Apple store near by location to talk to the guy there hoping to get a bit more insight to the issue that I am facing with the 13 Pro. The rep put the phone through a few automated test to ensure that the issue isn't with the hardware. Everything came back clean and I proceeded to replicate the issue for him. He witnessed it first hand that the audio was cutting in and out when I put the bottom mic/speaker against a surface. However, I got very dissatisfied when the rep just acknowledged that I have an issue on a brand new device but would not work with me to get to the bottom of it.

With that said, I continued to point him to the fact that on iOS 15, the "Noise Cancellation" option under Accessibility is missing even though you still can search for it and that is not the case for previous iOS. I was speculating that it could be related to this feature as it only happened through calling apps (e.g. FaceTime, Messenger) but not through thing like VoiceMemo where I would block the mic/bottom speaker to record my voice and the playback audio would simply sound muffled (which is expected). I also asked to see if they'd have another "demo" unit where they can try to replicate the FaceTime calling issue with me again to ensure that I don't have a lemon by chance. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get the help I needed and ultimately left the store with the same issue that I walked in.

Needless to say, I think everyone here is at the mercy of Apple until they roll out a software fix or acknowledge some sort of design flaw.

Apple doesn’t read these forums, but I’d encourage you to submit feedback directly to them which is what a handful of us have done. That way you know that at the very least, someone from Apple will read it.