Disclosure: When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.
If you’ve ever been on an iPhone call in a noisy room, or tried recording video with wind or crowd noise drowning out your voice, Apple’s Voice Isolation feature can fix that. It uses on-device audio processing to prioritize your voice and suppress the noise around it.
I put together a quick video walkthrough below. Here’s the written, slightly more extensive version, covering the Phone app, the Camera app, and FaceTime.
What Voice Isolation Does
Voice Isolation is a Mic Mode built into iOS. Instead of picking up everything around you, your iPhone prioritizes your voice and suppresses background sounds like wind, traffic, or a crowded room. Once you turn it on for an app, it stays on for that app until you switch it back, you don’t need to re-enable it every time.
How to Turn On Voice Isolation in the Phone App
- Open the Phone app
- Swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Center.
- Tap Phone Controls.
- Under Audio & Video, select Voice Isolation as the Mic Mode.
- This requires iOS 16.4 or later.
How to Turn On Voice Isolation in the Camera App
- Open Camera and switch to Video mode.
- Swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Center.
- Tap Camera Controls.
- Under Audio & Video, select Voice Isolation as the Mic Mode.
This requires iOS 26 or later. If Voice Isolation appears greyed out, check Settings > Camera > Record Sound and make sure Spatial Audio is turned off first, it disables Voice Isolation when active.
How to Turn On Voice Isolation in FaceTime
- Start or join a FaceTime call.
- Swipe down from the top-right corner to open Control Center.
- Tap FaceTime Controls.
- Under Audio & Video, select Voice Isolation as the Mic Mode.
This requires iOS 15 or later.
Device Compatibility
Voice Isolation works on iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and later. Which apps support it depends on your iOS version: FaceTime and third-party VoIP apps need iOS 15+, phone calls need iOS 16.4+, and recording apps like Camera and Voice Memos need iOS 26+.
Why It’s Worth Using
If you’re often on calls or shooting video outdoors, in the office, or anywhere with background noise, Voice Isolation makes a real difference in how clearly your voice comes through. It’s one of those built-in features a lot of people never turn on simply because it’s buried in Control Center instead of Settings.