The new voice isolation feature on AirPods will help your phone calls sound clearer than before because it reduces background noise as you’re talking. This feature works across multiple apps, not just the phone.

So, I’m going to have a FaceTime call here with myself, and what I’m going to do is swipe down to go into Control Center. At the top of Control Center, you can see that FaceTime is currently using the camera and microphone. If I tap onto this, I get some options to customise how both of those devices are being used.

This is where the new voice isolation feature comes in, because you can choose how you want your audio to come through on the phone. Maybe you want it to be Standard, so you have the background noise and your voice coming through with no processing at all. Or perhaps you’d prefer Voice Isolation, where the background noise will be reduced as much as possible. You could even choose to have Wide Spectrum mode enabled, which will let your voice be heard, but will also amplify the noises around you as well. There’s also the Automatic option if you can’t decide.

I’m going to choose Voice Isolation, and the people on my call—in this case, myself—won’t hear the background noise around me. There’s someone cutting the grass outside right now, but you won’t be able to hear it, which is pretty cool.

If you’re curious to find out what else your iPhone is capable of, I highly recommend checking out the book at the link down below. It’s called 100 QuickTips for iOS 18, and I guarantee you’ll learn loads of things you never knew your iPhone could do!