Are You Talking Into the Wrong Microphone During FaceTime/Speakerphone Calls?

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Posted March 21, 2012 at 7:17pm by iClarified

It may surprise you to know that the iPhone has two microphones and when on a speakerphone or FaceTime call, you're probably talking into the wrong one.

The iPhone actually has two speakers and two microphones. One set is at the top of the device and one set is at the bottom. The bottom microphone is located to the left of the dock connector. The top microphone is located next to the headphones jack.

When on a typical call the bottom microphone is active and the top microphone is used for noise cancellation.

Often when users are in a speakerphone or FaceTime call, and the person on the other end of call can't hear them, they will move closer to the phone and speak towards the microphone at the bottom of the device. Surprisingly, that's the wrong microphone to be talking to. Rather than using the bottom mic, Apple switches off noise cancellation and uses the top microphone to maintain a maximum distance between the bottom speaker and the voice input at the top of the iPhone.

This was new information to us, hopefully you find it useful when making your next call.

[via TidBITS]

Are You Talking Into the Wrong Microphone During FaceTime/Speakerphone Calls?

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Kevin - March 23, 2012 at 12:22am

I don't know where iClarfied received this article from but it's partially correct. As for the two mics they are correct but two speakers....no way. The iPhone has never had two speakers since the day it was born.

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6italia0 - March 23, 2012 at 6:55am

Um yes it has, The iphone 4 always had the two mics. I think it was even mentioned in the iphone 4 keynote that its for noise cancellation, if you open the iPhone and simply look next to the headphone jack closely its more than obvious its a mic

zaska - March 23, 2012 at 10:21am

One speaker at the bottom and one speaker near the front camera!

Ryan - July 1, 2012 at 10:41pm

Umm one for out loud and one for in a call..... I count 2 there :D

Trent - March 11, 2015 at 3:04am

Hey, guess what? Every iPhone has had 2 speakers since the day it was born. The ear speaker and the loud speaker. ;)

ammadz - March 22, 2012 at 3:52pm

Isn't this a bit of OLD news??

anon - March 22, 2012 at 3:55am

omg, now i know why my microphone doesnt work when on speaker mode. my sticker for the antenna was blocking the hole.

ratGT - March 22, 2012 at 2:37am

Omg! And you're telling this now?!? I was speakiing all this time towards the little whole on the right side of the iPhone thinking THAT specific hole was the mic! (when I just discovered that it was after all the opening hole of the SIM slot...)

6italia0 - March 22, 2012 at 2:31am

LOL this is old news. i'm surprised that iclarified just realized this, but then again I actually work on the hardware of iPhones so this is obvious to me, but eh

Darbot - March 21, 2012 at 10:31pm

Now does that mean noise canceling is inactive during FaceTime and speaker phone mode? Or does the iPhone uses the bottom speaker for noise canceling during such calls?

ifixsmartphone - March 21, 2012 at 9:49pm

I am surprised that iClarified saying this is new to them..... When my customers saying that mic doesn't work on speakerphone, I tell them speak to the top and it works most of the time.

MrEdofCourse - March 21, 2012 at 9:36pm

This is true... but not for all apps. The Skype app for example is using the bottom microphone in both modes.

Breix - March 21, 2012 at 9:23pm

So It was that little tiny hole beside the jack.. Wow thanks for the info.

Johndoe - March 21, 2012 at 8:50pm

Still yet to find apple has two speakers ... I've had every iPhone except the "2g" and they all had just the one speaker....

Frank - March 21, 2012 at 9:18pm

You know the thing you put your ear up against is speaker, right?

Johndoe - March 22, 2012 at 8:45am

Left

Johndoe - March 22, 2012 at 8:46am

Talking stereo ;-)

Yansky - March 21, 2012 at 8:26pm

interesting. I always wondered what that teeny-tiny thing was beside the headphone jack.

Mamu - March 21, 2012 at 8:08pm

Yes very true. I found this out over a year ago with my iPhone 4. I took it to apple for an issue and I was informed of exactly this. Haha I new 1st.