As an AirPods user, I was initially frustrated when I couldn’t figure out how to make a phone call with them. After doing some research and testing, I’m excited to share with you how to make a phone call with your AirPods and some other solutions I discovered along the way. In this blog post, I’ll be walking you through the steps of talking on the phone with your AirPods and exploring the different ways you can use them.
You can talk on the phone with AirPods or AirPods Pro. The mic can be sensitive and pick up a lot of background noise, but for most people, the mic is perfectly fine when talking on the phone.
| Tips |
|---|
| AirPods and AirPods Pro are good for phone calls for most people |
| Mic may pick up background noise and audio quality may not be good enough for professional use cases |
| Accept calls on AirPods by double-tapping on AirPods 1 or 2, squeezing once on stem for AirPods 3 or AirPods Pro |
| End calls by doing the same thing |
| Poor sound quality when talking on the phone can be caused by bad connection, need to reset AirPods, dirty AirPods, or broken mic |
| Mic on AirPods is generally good enough for general use cases, but can be too sensitive and pick up background noise |
Table of Contents
Can you talk on the phone with AirPods?
You can talk on the phone using AirPods or AirPods Pro. AirPods come with a built-in mic that can be used for phone calls.
When talking on AirPods only one of the mics are used and you can switch which mic gets used in the iPhone settings. The mic on AirPods is very sensitive and can pick up a lot of background noise.
Read more: Can you turn off the low battery sound on AirPods?
Are AirPods good for phone calls?
AirPods are generally very good for phone calls. You can use AirPods to accept calls just double-tapping on the AirPods 1 or 2 or squeezing once on the stem to accept calls for AirPods 3 or AirPods Pro and you can end calls by doing the same thing.
For most people, the AirPods mic is good enough for phone calls.
However, if you are going to be taking a lot of business calls and you need the audio to be perfect, you may find that they let you down sometimes such as by picking up some background noise or not being quite clear enough.
This is because the mic on the AirPods is very sensitive and is prone to pick up background noise so does not always work well in noisy environments.
Are AirPods pro good for phone calls?
AirPods Pro are also good for phone calls for most people both in terms of sound quality and mic quality. You can accept calls on AirPods Pro by squeezing the stem and you can end calls by squeezing the stem again.
The mic quality is good enough for most people when talking on the phone.
Again, if you are going to be using them for professional use cases, you might find that the quality is sometimes not good enough such as by picking up background noise or not being clear enough.
The mic on the AirPods Pro is also very sensitive and can also pick up a lot of background noise.
When it comes to hearing the other person, the AirPods are good enough and the sound quality is generally good on the AirPods Pro as well as the regular AirPods.
Are AirPods pro better for phone calls?
The mic on the AirPods pro is generally very similar to the mic on regular AirPods.
When it comes to talking on the phone, there is not much difference between AirPods and AirPods Pro. However, the AirPods Pro does have noise-canceling which is useful in some situations.
Yet, you can actually talk for up to 30 minutes longer on the AirPods 3rd generation than you can on the AirPods Pro. If you are going to be talking in the phone for a long time, that may be a deciding factor.
Why do my AirPods sound bad on phone calls?
Read more: Why do my AirPods only last 30 minutes?
If your AirPods or AirPod Pros sound bad on phone calls, it is likely to be due to one of the following reasons:
A bad connection
The reason could be due to bad wifi or cellular coverage. This would be more likely if the quality is not bad when you have a good connection and if the quality is also bad when you are using other earphones.
You need to reset the AirPods
It could also be the case that you need to reset and re-pair your AirPods with your device.
To do this, do the following:
- Forget the AirPods on the device you are using
- Put your AirPods in the case
- Press the button on the case for 15 seconds until the light flashes orange then white
- Wait 30 seconds
- Open the lid and hold the button on the case
- Reconnect your AirPods to your device
Dirty AirPods
It could also be the case that your AirPods speaker grill is dirty and it would help to try cleaning your AirPods. It would be more likely that they are dirty if it is not only FaceTime where there is an issue.
Broken mic (switch to the other one)
When you use AirPods, it is actually the case that only one of their mics are being used when you are talking.
It might also be the case that the mic that is being used is faulty. If you are using iPhone or iPad, you can switch the mic that is being used in the Bluetooth settings by clicking the “i” next to your AirPods.
- Go to settings
- Go to Bluetooth
- Click the “i” next to your AirPods
- Click “Microphone”
- Change it from “Always left” or “Always right”
Another option is to simply only use one AirPod when you are talking on the phone. You can do this by simply putting the other AirPod in the case.
How good is the AirPods mic?
The mic, on the AirPods, is generally very good. If you intend to get AirPods for general use cases such as talking on the phone, talking on FaceTime, Zoom, Skype or similar things, you will likely find that your AirPods work perfectly well.
However, if you are intending to use your AirPods for professional use cases such as music production, it will not be good enough. This is because the mic can be very sensitive and can be prone to pick up background noise.
With that being said, it is not uncommon to see people on Youtube, using their AirPods as a mic, but they’re not typically large Youtubers.
Pros of using AirPods for phone calls
- Easy to use: simply double-tap or squeeze the stem to accept/end calls
- Good enough mic for most general use cases
- Can be used with both AirPods and AirPods Pro
- Long battery life
Cons of using AirPods for phone calls
- Prone to picking up background noise
- May not be good enough for professional use cases
- Sound quality may be poor with bad connection
- Mic may need resetting or cleaning
