Apple AirPods - Not hearing my own voice on calls/Teams etc.

[anonymous-user]

Hi all,

Not sure if I'm just missing an obvious option here, but when I use earphones, including AirPods Pro, I cannot hear my own voice when I talk and I find this very distracting. This is for both ordinary phone calls and Teams/Zoom calls etc.

I appreciate there is 'Transparency mode' which allows you to hear ambient noise, but this just amplifies everything around you including all the racket of the office/train or whatever.

There doesn't seem to be a way to allow just my voice back into the earphones. As a consequence I always end up having to take one AirPod out of one ear just so I can hear my own voice during calls, which means I then have to listen to the racket of the outside world, which is annoying.

Please tell me I'm just being daft and there is feature I can turn on that acts as a 'microphone monitor speaker' in earphones/AirPods.

Even old landline phones from decades ago allowed some deliberate feedback of your voice to the earpiece to avoid the disorientation of not hearing yourself in one ear...

[sjg]

Yeah, they don’t do it and nor do many other earbud types. It’s called “sidetone” in the headset world, feeding some of the mic input back into your ear for feedback.

I love mine for listening, they’re ok for calls with just one ear in but for longer calls in noisy places I use my plantronics headset instead.

[anonymous-user]

sjg said:

Yeah, they don’t do it and nor do many other earbud types. It’s called “sidetone” in the headset world, feeding some of the mic input back into your ear for feedback.

I love mine for listening, they’re ok for calls with just one ear in but for longer calls in noisy places I use my plantronics headset instead.

Thanks for filling me in regarding the 'sidetone' thing, it makes it easier to google what I'm asking for now!

Shame that this hasn't been addressed because google suggests that many people are irritated by this when making calls over earphones/headphones.

With the technology of AirPods Pro, you would have thought Apple would have introduced a 'sidetone' function where you could hear your own voice but not the clatter of everything around you.

[633Squadron]

I find it the same with any headset that covers both ears.


Just use one AirPod etc.


There is a reason a lot of professional business headsets have one earpiece and one mic.

[geeks]

633Squadron said:

There is a reason a lot of professional business headsets have one earpiece and one mic.

Yes and it's nothing to do with sidetone and everything to do with cost!

[TimmyMallett]

You do eventually get used to it. I jave some Jabra 75s that work supplied which are excellent and just work with Windows (using a BT dongle).

I tried 'headphones' like the standard airpods (which you might get on with better as they don't have the sealing rubber) but eventually you do get used to not hearing your own voice but at the start I hated it and the microphones are not as good as headsets designed for PC and VOIP

[Takemeaway]

Lord Marylebone said:

Hi all,

Not sure if I'm just missing an obvious option here, but when I use earphones, including AirPods Pro, I cannot hear my own voice when I talk and I find this very distracting. This is for both ordinary phone calls and Teams/Zoom calls etc.

I appreciate there is 'Transparency mode' which allows you to hear ambient noise, but this just amplifies everything around you including all the racket of the office/train or whatever.

There doesn't seem to be a way to allow just my voice back into the earphones. As a consequence I always end up having to take one AirPod out of one ear just so I can hear my own voice during calls, which means I then have to listen to the racket of the outside world, which is annoying.

Please tell me I'm just being daft and there is feature I can turn on that acts as a 'microphone monitor speaker' in earphones/AirPods.

Even old landline phones from decades ago allowed some deliberate feedback of your voice to the earpiece to avoid the disorientation of not hearing yourself in one ear...

I find that the basic airpods are fine for hearing your own voice when talking on a call as they are not plumbed into your earlobe!!