iPhone 7 fades in audio messages

Question

Level 1

22 points

iPhone 7 fades in audio messages

Hi guys

My girlfriend got the new iPhone 7 yesterday, she had the iPhone 6 before. She's very happy with it except one little thing that I can't find the cause:

She is using a lot of audio messages in WhatsApp. The problem is, starting with the iPhone 7, when playing an audio message on the speakers, it starts at very low volume and then automatically fades in to full volume within a few seconds. The problem is: She always missing the beginning of the message because the volume is so low. It does that with every audio message in WhatsApp.

The strange thing is: When playing an audio message in iMessage, it starts at full volume, but when hitting the little speaker icon while playing to turn the sound off, then hitting again to go back to the external speakers, then it also does the "fade in" effect.

Can't find the cause for that and it's pretty annoying.

Anyone got an idea what that could be? Or can anyone reproduce the behavior?

By the way: I don't see this behavior on my iPhone 6S (both have iOS 10.0.1). My 6S is perfectly playing the message in full volume from the start on. I checked every little setting in Preferences but couldn't find anything that could cause this "fade in" effect.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks

Chris

iOS 10

Posted on Sep 18, 2016 12:55 PM

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Answer 1

IM4KA7

Level 1

4 points

May 30, 2017 7:46 PM in response to Gry79

I don't use WhatsApp, but I have this problem in Google Maps. The suggestion to go to Settings / Navigation Settings and turning OFF "Play as Bluetooth phone call" solves the problem when I have to use my phone in speaker mode.

FYI Apple and Google, this is very annoying. I have two older cars. One is very old, no Bluetooth, so I need to use the speaker phone when driving it. My other car, a little newer, has Bluetooth, but an older version and it acts horribly if I do NOT check "Play as Bluetooth phone call". So I have to flip that setting on/off depending on what vehicle I'm in. Hopefully I remember before I start driving or I will have issues.

Logically, this option should have NOTHING to do with a fade in / fade out and the developers need to find the connection and fix it.

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Answer 2

digim

Level 1

4 points

Jun 16, 2017 11:08 AM in response to Gry79

this bug (or feature?) still annoys me. it seems that apple provides some api for it and some of the apps have workaround for it at the moment. but it's still not working properly in telegram for example.

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Answer 3

Zymma20

Level 1

11 points

Sep 29, 2016 6:00 PM in response to Gry79

I have the same exact issue. Contacted support and they had me reset all settings. This did nothing except cause me hours of restoring all my settings back to the way I've had them for years.

Any luck finding a solution somewhere?

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Answer 4

Gry79 Author

Level 1

22 points

Oct 2, 2016 6:03 AM in response to Zymma20

Unfortunately not yet. On a German board I found lots of people having the same problem but no solution at the moment. It looks like it is a problem related to WhatsApp. It's definitively always happening on WhatsApp, but as described, sometimes also on iMessage. So I'm not 100% sure it's only a WhatsApp issue. I'll keep you updated here as I know more.

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Answer 5

Zymma20

Level 1

11 points

Oct 2, 2016 7:33 AM in response to Gry79

I spent another hour with Apple Support on this topic yesterday. They had me erase the entire phone and start as a new phone instead of using my backup. This also gave no solution because the issues were still there. They said I would need to do this in order to go to a store and have them problem solve and before they would consider issuing a new phone.

I've also recently run into the home button not working and making me hard reset in order to use anything on the phone. So frustrating with this product.

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Answer 6

Oct 13, 2016 12:23 PM in response to Gry79

same problem : (

No solution? Problems will hardware or software?

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Answer 7

Zymma20

Level 1

11 points

Oct 14, 2016 6:25 AM in response to suzimiske

I Worked with Apple on this. they gave me a new phone and still have the same issue. Must be a WhatsApp issue. I contact them and they don't reply. Horrible customer service.

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Answer 8

Oct 18, 2016 1:14 PM in response to Gry79

I have the same issue.

I can say it's not relates to Whatsapp, because the same things happens with voice messages in Telegram and, even worse, with voice directions in Google Maps (when using in navigation mode).

From what I understoon, it's an issue related specifically with iPhone 7, because of its different audio speaker configuration.

I hope it will be fixed soon.

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Answer 9

M@riano

Level 1

4 points

Oct 19, 2016 1:55 PM in response to Gry79

It's been fixed. The update was released moments ago.

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Answer 10

Ossocao

Level 1

4 points

Oct 19, 2016 7:44 PM in response to Gry79

Still not working here.

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Answer 11

Zymma20

Level 1

11 points

Oct 26, 2016 9:07 AM in response to Ossocao

From WhasApp:

Hi,

Thanks for your message.

Sorry for the delay! We have received many emails recently, and we do our best to answer them all. Thank you for your patience.

Sorry for the inconvenience, but this is an issue caused by the iOS and not WhatsApp itself. Please reboot your phone (turn it off, wait 30 seconds and turn it back on). If issue still persists, unfortunately, there is nothing that we can do from our end to fix an issue with the iOS. Please contact Apple Support for additional assistance.

Best Regards/Salam,
Jenna
WhatsApp Support Team

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Answer 12

spirales

Level 1

14 points

Oct 27, 2016 8:56 AM in response to Gry79

I have the exact same problem (iPhone 7 matte black, iOS 10.1), I'm really disappointed and I would like to know if it's a hardware or software problem. Thanks.

Same problem on every app (Messages included).

Turn it off, wait 30 seconds and turn it back on? It does not help.

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Answer 13

abassfor

Level 1

4 points

Oct 29, 2016 10:10 AM in response to spirales

I had this exact problem on my iphone 7+ with the latest update. Go into Google Maps navigation settings and turn off "Play as Bluetooth phone call". This fixed the fade-in problem for me.

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Answer 14

Ossocao

Level 1

4 points

Oct 29, 2016 1:14 PM in response to Gry79

Does it fix Maps? Because changing that makes nothing to Whats App, still faded audio messages.

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Answer 15

itsTrips

Level 1

8 points

Oct 31, 2016 9:47 AM in response to Gry79

Same problem here with the 7+. It's definitely not related to WhatsApp specifically. I don't even use that app. I discovered this behavior using iMessage. I found a temporary workaround by going to Settings/General/Accessibility and under "Hearing" I turned off "Phone Noise Cancellation".

Doing that appears to have solved the volume fade in issue when playing multiple messages back to back in iMessage (play all), but I still have the same problem when playing audio recordings in the voice memo app where every recording I play fades in.

I wouldn't expect phone noise cancellation to have any effect on the volume fade in problem as I presume that feature is specific to the microphone and background noise, or at least so I thought. I also have a friend with a 6S that says turning that feature on or off has no impact on his ability to play back voice messages in iMessage. But then of course he doesn't suffer from the original audio fade in issue on his 6S with 10.1 anyway.

Hopefully Apple will fix this soon.

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