iPhone sounds muffled to people I talk to

I've had the same problem. I'm left handed and place the phone on the left side of my face , with my left hand. When I talk on the left side of my face, I received many complaints from the people I'm speaking to that I sound muffled; to the point where they ask me to repeat things over, want me to call them back b/c of the bad connection and complaints about trying to listen very hard to understand what I'm saying. I up graded to an iphone 5S about 2 months ago after using an iphone 4S for 2 years. 4S worked great! No issues of a muffled sound [on either side of face when speaking]. I have gone thru 4 [YES, 4 different 5S iphones!] iphone 5S phones to try and solve this problem; thinking maybe I'm getting some bad 5S phones. But thru this course of trying different 5S phones, I have determined that the issue is when I speak on the left side of my face, it sounds muffled to poeple I talk to . When I switch to the right side of my face, many people I'm talking to have said I sound clear , 100% better. Even in the course of convesation, when I move the 5S phone from the left side of my face to the right side, the people I'm talking to will interrupt me and say " hey you sound much cleare now." This is without me saying anything to them about sounding muffled. I thought the 5S was a great phone, that is why I went thru 4 of them to try and find 1 that worked for me but no dice. One thing I know is that the speaker and microphone placement on the bottom of the 4S compared to the 5S is the exact opposite. I beleive this may be the issue. I'm using a different brand phone now but I'm going to switch back to the 4S. I think it is a better operating system than what I'm using now.

I am having this same issue. I had the iPhone 5s for a while before my friends started complaining that I was sounding muffled though. This is making me think that it may be problem with the new iPhone iOS 7 update. But my family all has new iPhones (5c and 5s), and they do not seem to be having the same issue I am, so I am just confused now. I am going to go to an Apple Store and see what they can do. I am hoping it is just my phone since my family is not having issues with theirs. Also poeple here on the forum are saying that they got replacements, and that still didn't help. So I am dumbfounded as to what it could be that is causing this annoyance. I will report back with any findings.

People said I sounded muffled on my iphone 5 so I did some experimenting of my own.

I use a cheap aftermarket leather case which hinges open sideways. I believe when the case is hinged open to the back it rubs against the rear mic and also my voice is directed up between the case and flipped lid. Both of these issues mess with the rear mic making me sound muffled to other callers.

I removed the phone from the case and covered over the small mic on the back with a small cut up piece of sticky tape. Put it back together and all good.

It solved the problem for me.

Hope that helps.

When I hold my iPhone 5S in my left hand to my left ear the sound is muffled. I remember Steve Jobs saying you're holding it wrong. Although this had nothing to do with the problem we're having now it got me to thinking. I looked at my hand holding the iPhone my thumb was on the left edge with my to two Center fingers on the right edge. My index finger was up close to the noise canceling mic on the back of the phone and my palm was down by the regular mic. I could see as I talked the voice could hit my palm travel up my hand to my index finger which was close to the microphone on the back.

I called my wife on the house phone using my iPhone 5S. She said that my voice was muffled. I took my index finger away from the microphone and moved it next to my two Center fingers on the right side of the phone. This moved my palm away from the microphone at the bottom. I did this while she stayed on the line. She said that now she could hear me clearly. I then moved my index finger to completely cover the back microphone. Once again she said that the sound was still good. I then moved my index finger a small amount away from the microphone and she said that my voice was muffled again.

I believe that the way I was holding my hand acted as a megaphone to the noise canceling microphone in the back. The noise canceling microphone thought my voice was noise and was suppressing it.

I work in a noisy environment, so I like the idea of the noise canceling microphone. Going to the settings and turning off the noise canceling microphone or putting a small piece of tape over the microphone is really not a good option for me.

For now I will use this new way of holding the phone until Apple can fix this issue.

Hi cfpmike,

In this case I believe Steve Jobs would be correct! I commented in this discussion before, and my issue was very similar. And I believe I solved it. It was my leather book style case that I was using with my iPhone 5S. When I folded the case's cover to the back as I talked on the iPhone, it would cover the noise-canceling mic on the back. This caused whoever was on the other line to hear my voice all muffled. Once I kept the back from getting covered up and/or took my phone out of my case, I would sound clear on the other end. It was because of the noise-canceling mic being slightly covered from my case's cover when I folded it back.

This is still annoying for me, as I still hold my phone wrong sometimes by accident and my friends and family yell at me about it. A solution for me would to just buy a different case for the phone, but heck I like the case I got now. It's the people on the other line that don't!

My suggestions to you, would be to purchase a case that doesn't let your hand get in the way of the noise-canceling mic. Maybe something bulky like a Otterbox. Test some cases out at the apple store and see what your like.

Also I never had this issue before with my iPhone 4. Ever. I had a similar book style case that covered the back of my phone and I was pretty much holding my iPhone 5S the same exact way as I did the 4. So I am hoping that Apple does something with the iOS 7 software that will fix this issue for us 5/5S owners in a later update, but it could just as well be a hardware issue which a software update won't be able to fix.

I upgraded last week from a 4s to a 5s. Immediately I had people complain that they could not understand me; that I sounded muffled and or in a barrel. I had NEVER had ANYONE tell me this when I used my 4s.

Yesterday I went to the local Verizon store and they tested one call and verified the issue. They then exchanged a new phone with me. I later made calls to the same people above and they said it still sounded the same.

BUT; this morning I made a call to one of them and it was clear as a bell! I started checking and realized I had my "Silent Mode" switch off. I normally keep it on Silent at work. So I test called with the switch both ways and at least in my case it appears to be related to this Silent Mode on the 5s. (And with some background noise)

Has anyone else noticed this?

I have had this same issue and have finally resolved it. There is a noice cancellation microphone on the back top of the iPhone 5s. If you speak with your mouth even slightly directed toward the phone, the noice cancellation mic will think your voice is just noice and cancel it out. If I hold the phone directly to my ear with my cheek up against the phone and my mouth pointing outward like a normal person then all is good. I just typically like to hold the phone like an inch away from the phone and that is bad. You can hold it anyway you want if you press your finger over the little mic hole on the top back of the phone or if you put it in speaker phone mode then the noice cancellation feature disables. There is a setting to turn noice cancellation off, but it doesn't actually do anything for me. Oh well, gotta hold the phone normal now.

I have observed further and I also think it is related to microphone placement, which forces me to tilt the phone up at an awkward angle to get the mic near my mouth.

It seems that with the iPhone 5s, that because it's longer, we actually have tendency to tilt the phone more. Maybe because it's becasue the iphone 4s was so far from our mouths we didn't even think about trying to make it closer, but now it's so near our mouths that we instinctively try to pull it closer and talk directly in the mic as if it were a normal lan line phone. I donno.

Hello: I am writing to see if you had your problem resolved with your new iPhone 5?

I recently purchased an iPhone 5c and am having a similar issue with people not being able to understand what I am saying. They state that my voice is muffled, garbled and difficult to interpret what I say.

I have tried my phone without the Otter case, with it and in different locations (inside, outside of the house, different rooms etc.). No luck with it. I do get comments if I use it on my right side of my head, it improves the clarity. I now have a new iPhone 5c just like the previous one and already have had one person state it has the same problem. I have brought this problem to Apple's attention and that is how they replaced my phone. I fear that this is not going to help the situation.

I was hoping someone who has dealt with this would have an answer? You were the most recent post on the problem so I thought I would ask you if you found help with the problem?

Thank you for your help.

I think you are dead on, and I call it a defect in the design.

If you google images of it, you see that the main mic for phone use is on the bottom, ONLY on ONE side, making it very unnatural to hold the phone with the left hand and have the mic in front of your mouth. I think there is also more aggressive background noise cancellation on the 5s compares to the 4. I think it is the worst when background noise is significant.

I am having the same issue and for me it is not the noise cancelling mic because if I turn off noise cancellation I have the same issues. My understanding is that if I turn noise cancellation off the back mike is deactivated.

I think from additional experience, the iPhone 5 is terrible as a phone. My iPhone 4 was much better, never a voice quality issue.

Imagine my dissapointment after about 15 years of different mobiles and never a problem with clarity to find that everyone says my voice sounds muffled and distant on my new i5s....and worse, there is apparently no cure!

I wish someone had told me about this before I went the Apple route...

I've been just using my phone in speaker phone mode to get around the issue because I can't seem to retrain my self to hold the phone like I should. I'm also planning on getting a bluetooth ear piece because i'm sure that would resolve the issue also since i'm no longer relying on the phone's mic/speaker.