Customize headphone audio levels on your iPhone or iPad

: June 7, 2024
: Apple

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Customize headphone audio levels on your iPhone or iPad

Customize headphone audio levels on your iPhone or iPad

Amplify soft sounds and adjust certain frequencies for your hearing needs with Headphone Accommodations in iOS and iPadOS 14.

Headphone Accommodations works with these headphones:

AirPods Max
Apple EarPods (with 3.5 mm Headphone Plug or Lightning Connector)
AirPods (2nd generation)
AirPods Pro
Powerbeats
Powerbeats Pro
Beats Solo Pro

When using automatic device switching with your AirPods, your custom audio settings will transfer between your iPhone, your iPad, and your paired Apple Watch (on watchOS 7), but they won’t transfer to your Mac.

Set up Headphone Accommodations

Check that you have the latest version of iOS or iPadOS.
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Accommodations. Turn on Headphone Accommodations.
Choose how you want to apply your custom audio settings:
- Turn on Phone to apply these settings to phone calls, FaceTime calls, and any third-party video call apps.
- Turn on Media to apply these settings to music, movies, podcasts, audiobooks, Siri, voicemail, and Live Listen.
Customize your headphone audio settings:
- Use Custom Audio Setup. You’ll listen to audio samples and choose which ones sound better to you. Then you can apply the custom settings suggested based on your choices.
- Use your audiogram data.
- Manually adjust audio settings.

Use Custom Audio Setup

Reset any current audio configurations to their default settings:
- Go to Settings > Music > EQ, then tap Off to turn off Music EQ.
- Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual, then adjust the Balance slider. Set the audio volume balance to the center.
Connect your headphones. Make sure that you’re in a quiet environment.
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Accommodations. Tap Custom Audio Setup.
Follow the instructions on your screen. When finished, tap Use Custom Settings to apply the custom settings suggested based on your choices. You can switch back to standard settings at any time.

Use your audiogram data from the Health app

Tap Custom Audio Setup, then tap Use Audiogram to use your audiogram data from the Health app to customize audio settings.

If you have a nearly symmetric audiogram, Headphone Accommodations will take the average of the two ears and fit the left and right audio channels with that profile. If you have an asymmetric audiogram, it will fit the left and right audio channels for your better ear.

Manually adjust audio settings

From the Headphone Audio screen, you can also adjust tone and amplification settings manually. Tap Play Sample to hear an audio sample with your current settings. You can change these settings while listening to the sample to compare them.

To adjust the audio volume balance between left and right channels:

Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual.
Adjust the Balance slider.

If you’re using Transparency mode on your AirPods Pro or AirPods Max, learn how to adjust the audio-volume balance between left and right channels.

Customize Transparency mode on your AirPods Pro

Headphone Accommodations supports Transparency mode on AirPods Pro, making quiet voices more audible and tuning the sounds of your environment to your hearing needs. Learn more about Transparency mode and how to turn it on.

When Transparency mode is on, your Headphone Accommodations settings might change how you hear your own voice or increase your environment’s noise level. You might need to adjust these settings to find a setup that’s most comfortable for you. You can start from a milder setting by adjusting the Tone or Amplification slider. Then gradually increase to the setting that’s most helpful for hearing people’s voices or natural sound around you.

To customize Transparency mode settings:

Check that you have the latest version of iOS or iPadOS.
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual > Headphone Accommodations > Transparency Mode.
Tap Custom Transparency Mode and turn it on.

To adjust the audio-volume balance between left and right channels, adjust the Transparency Balance slider. You can also adjust Transparency mode settings by tapping the Hearing icon in the Control Center.