Many iPhone apps and functions are tied to voice and sound via your device’s microphone. However, it is not always ideal to have the microphone enabled on your iPhone.
Keep reading to learn more about turning off your iPhone’s microphone!
Go to the iPhone’s Settings App
The settings menu is accessed from the iPhone’s home screen and shows a gear as its icon.
Touching this icon will bring you to a long menu where you can adjust many of the iPhone’s factory settings and permissions to certain apps.
Select Privacy and Security
Midway down the page, you will see an icon of a hand with all five fingers inside a blue square.
The text next to this icon will read “Privacy & Security.”
Tapping this will bring you to a list of options that can be adjusted to meet your privacy preferences, including the phone’s microphone access.
Near the middle of the page, you will see an icon of a microphone on a stand in an orange box, which will aptly be labeled “microphone.”
Tap this option to enter the microphone settings.
Remove Microphone Access from Apps
The next page will display all the apps that have access to your microphone.
You can slide the button from here to deny microphone access to the apps.
To disable the microphone completely, you must slide each button individually.
If you’re using the microphone on another device, like AirPods, ensure they’re working correctly.
Disabling Siri Access
Siri, iPhone’s virtual assistant, comes with the microphone automatically enabled. The service activates when it hears a user say, “Hey Siri.”
There are many instances where Siri may think it hears you waking it up when you’re saying something else. Many find this annoying or the service an unnecessary data hog.
This can be addressed by turning off Siri’s access to the microphone by following these steps:
Go to Siri & Search in the settings menu
Remove Access to “Listen for ‘Hey Siri.’” Do this by toggling the switch on the screen so green does not show, which also disables the “Show when Listening” function.
Disable Siri Button Controls. The microphone on your iPhone is also enabled when the side button for Siri is pressed, which enables active listening.
Turn Siri off when prompted by the pop-up menu. Once you’ve done this, the microphone will be completely disabled.
Because the Siri function requires microphone access, turning it on again will automatically reenable the microphone on your iPhone.
Deleting Siri and Dictation Interaction History
When you use Siri, the data is automatically sent for processing and then stored. If you want to take the next step in
If you want to delete your voice history as captured by the iPhone microphone, do so by tapping Delete Siri & Dictation History within the Siri & Search menu.
This step will ensure that any data captured by your microphone becomes unavailable to you and Apple!
Disabling the Microphone on a Phone Call
During calls or FaceTime, you may want to temporarily mute yourself so the person on the other end can’t hear what you are saying or any background noise.
You must be on an active call to disable the microphone on calls or FaceTime. Follow these steps to mute yourself by turning off your iPhone’s microphone during a phone call:
- Make a phone call or initiate a FaceTime session
- Look at the phone screen
- Select the “Mute” button on the screen, which is a microphone on a stand.
When the microphone has been disabled when a white circle shows around the icon.
When you’re ready to speak on your call, tap the icon to enable the microphone again.
There is no permanent way to disable the iPhone’s phone microphone. You must complete this step each time you want to turn off the microphone on a phone or FaceTime call.
Can I Turn Off my Microphone in One Step?
Because many different apps use the iPhone microphone, it is important that if you want to disable the microphone, you do so in all locations.
You cannot disable the microphone for all apps in one simple action.
However, no matter why you want your microphone disabled, it is easy to locate all the places it is used and disable them one at a time!
If you notice that your iPhone is suddenly not making any sounds, we’ve got some fixes for you.
Why Turn Off Your iPhone Microphone?
Your iPhone’s microphone is enabled as a default factory setting. However, you may not want your iPhone microphone to have access to certain apps or functions on the phone.
A few reasons to turn off your iPhone’s microphone include the following:
- Increased privacy and security
- To preserve the battery life
- Minimize automatic use of apps or iPhone functions
- Control what others hear on a call or when FaceTiming
Even if you turn it off, you can always turn it back on again.
Conclusion
Following these steps will ensure that your microphone is disabled completely and your iPhone can function exactly how you want it to!
