front microphone of my iPad appears to be damaged

Hello guys

The top microphone of my iPad Air 2019 seems to be damaged; the sound it picks up is extremely muffled. I’ve already gone through all the recommended steps when a microphone isn’t working to make sure there’s no other cause at play. (software up to date, I restarted it, all permissions for the apps in question are there, etc)

When I record myself talking in the camera app with the front camera and play it back, the sound is extremely muffled at first and then after a few seconds, it gets completely normal all of a sudden. I assume that it automatically switches to the back microphone because it realizes that the top one isn’t working properly. So far, so good.

The problem is, however, that other apps don’t seem to be able to do that. So, when I join a Zoom call and use my front camera, the sound stays muffled the whole time. Is there any way I can disable the top microphone completely so that the back microphone is used the whole time?

Thanks for your answers guys, I couldn’t find anything about this googling it.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]