Apple's iOS 16.4 has a cool feature that can make cellular calls better

NelsonG · March 22, 2023

These days, phones come with a zillion features that you may never use, but how about a feature that actually makes cellular calls – a core function of the phone – better?

Apple's new iOS 16.4, currently available in beta, has the potential to do just that with a feature called Voice Isolation. Apple says that Voice Isolation prioritizes your voice during the call, blocking out the ambient noise.

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So far, Voice Isolation has only been available for FaceTime calls and calls made through other apps such as WhatsApp. But now, you can enable it when you're on a regular, cellular call.

Fortunately, the setting is persistent. Credit: Stan Schroeder/Mashable

The process to do so is slightly convoluted. During a call, you'll need to activate Control Center by swiping down from the top right of your screen, tap on Mic Mode, and choose Voice Isolation. Fortunately, it's persistent, so it will stay on the next time you make a call.

The Mic Mode setting also offers a third option called Wide Spectrum, which increases the volume of the sounds around you, but that one's unavailable for cellular calls.

The Voice Isolation and Wide Spectrum options are available for iPhone SE (2nd gen or later), or iPhone XR or later.

The feature is only available to beta testers right now, but iOS 16.4 should become widely available soon. The update also brings support for new, Unicode 15.0 emoji, among other features and bug fixes.

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