AirPods gen 3 with iOS 16

Hi there ericq8czs,

Thanks for reaching out to the Apple Support Communities. To get started, do you have your AirPods microphone set to left, right, or automatic? If set to automatic, if you change the microphone to Always Left or Always Right, does the same issue persist?

For help with changing the microphone settings on your AirPods, check out this link here: Change the settings of your AirPods and AirPods Pro - Apple Support

1. Open your charging case.

2. With your AirPods in your ears and connected to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > Bluetooth. Alternatively, you can go to Settings > AirPods.

3. Tap the More Info button  next to your AirPods. 

Set Microphone to left, right, or automatic

There's a microphone in each AirPod, so you can make phone calls and use Siri. By default, Microphone is set to Automatic, so that either of your AirPods can act as the microphone. If you're using only one AirPod, that AirPod will be the microphone.

You can also set Microphone to Always Left or Always Right. You can also set Microphone to Always Left or Always Right to always have either the right or the left AirPod use the microphone even if you remove it from your ear or put it in the case.

If the issue persists on all the microphone settings, try resetting your AirPods with these next steps and test the issue again: How to reset your AirPods and AirPods Pro - Apple Support

1. Put your AirPods in their charging case, and close the lid.

2. Wait 30 seconds.

3. Open the lid of your charging case.

4. With your AirPods in your ears and connected to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, go to Settings > Bluetooth, or Settings > [your AirPods], and tap the More Info button  next to your AirPods. If you don't see your AirPods in Settings > Bluetooth or in Settings > [your AirPods], just go to the next step.

5. Tap Forget This Device, and tap again to confirm.

6. With the lid open, press and hold the setup button on the back of the case for about 15 seconds, until the status light on the front of the case flashes amber, then white.*

7. Reconnect your AirPods: With your AirPods in their charging case and the lid open, place your AirPods close to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. Follow the steps on your device's screen.

AirPods can be associated with one Apple ID. If you want to use AirPods (3rd generation) or AirPods Pro (1st or 2nd generation) that someone else has used, they first need to remove the AirPods from their Apple ID.

Resetting the AirPods can often help with resolving some unexpected issues like this.

Keep us updated on the results.

Have a great day!

I have the same issue exact issue. Tried resetting, forgetting device and turning iPhone off and on, did not fix the problem.

Audio with all other apps are normal until someone FaceTimes me and they can’t hear me but I can hear them.

I asked my friend who also has AirPods 3 and iOS to listen to some music first and I called her on FaceTime video to test if she encounters the same issue and she did. She can hear me but I can’t hear her at all.

I believe it is a SW bug. Please fix! Thank you.

The new AirPods firmware fix it for me as well. Let’s hope it stays like that.

Last night I grabbed my wife’s AirPods Gen 3 and paired them with my iPhone 14 Pro Max, and had the same issue. So it’s not the AirPods, it’s clearly a software bug, but who knows if Apple will ever fix it since we’re very much in the minority it seems…

I have this exact same issue. It’s driving me utterly insane when friends call me and can’t hear me with my AirPods Gen 3 in my ears. I take them out and put them back in and all is well.

Did anyone try the iOS 16.1 RC? If this issue still persists there, then we are all out of luck…

New AirPods patch came out. Give it a test, I think it fixed mine. But I've only tested it off of 2 phone calls.

Thanks for getting back to us, ericq8czs. It's appreciated

However, since we don’t know when iOS 16.1 will be available, we recommend contacting Apple Support to look into this issue further with you: Get Support

All the best.

Checking in here, same issue but with all phone calls. Airpods 3, ios 16, and now continues ios 16.1. Even seemed to go away for a little bit right after the .1 update, but its certainly not fixed. Huge pain in the ***. It seems to happen more often when I receive the phone call, but it happens on outgoing ones as well.

I'm curious is it ALL airpods 3 customers - this seems like too huge of an issue for apple to not fix ASAP, so it's either only iPhone 14 pro, or only some airpods? I also just got a brand new set of airpods (replaced for a speaker quality issue) and the issue is identical on the brand new pair. I can't recall if my issue existed on my 13 mini before switching phones. I think it did.