Microphone not working in any games on iPhone 16 — works fine elsewhere

Hello everyone,

I’m experiencing a strange issue with the microphone on my iPhone 16. The microphone works perfectly fine in all native and third-party apps — such as voice messages, phone calls, FaceTime, Voice Memos, WhatsApp, etc. However, it does not work at all in any mobile games, no matter which ones I try.

I’ve tested several games with voice chat features (like PUBG Mobile, Call of Duty Mobile, Roblox, etc.), and in all of them, the in-game microphone doesn’t transmit my voice — unless I’m using wired or Bluetooth headphones. When I plug in headphones, the mic works fine inside the games. But without them, the built-in microphone doesn’t work in games at all.

Here’s what I’ve checked/tried so far:

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• Microphone permissions are ON for all games
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• Reinstalled multiple games
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• Restarted the phone
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• Turned off Bluetooth (when not using headphones)
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• Tested with and without headphones
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• Reset privacy and location settings
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• Disabled Screen Time/restrictions
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• Cleared all background apps
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• Updated to the latest version of iOS 16
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Despite all that, the microphone works everywhere except inside games when using the built-in mic. I suspect this might be a system-level issue in iOS 16 related to how microphone access is handled in games (especially those built on Unity or Unreal Engine).

Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Is there any fix or workaround besides doing a full factory reset?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Device: iPhone 16

iOS version: 18.5