How to use headphone accommodations on iPhone

Does this one sound better, or that one?

Introduced with iOS 14, Headphone Accommodations is a new feature that lets you fine tune audio playback on an iPhone, so long as you also use AirPods or Apple’s Beats headphones.

What do Headphone Accommodations do?

Put simply, the feature adjusts the sound you hear on your device. You can set this to adjust vocals to make them brighter and clearer, or improve music, or even to make adjustments to sound output to make audio easier for you to listen to if you have a hearing problem.

How to use headphone accommodations on iPhone

The feature is available in Settings>Accessibility>AirPods>Audio/Visual and find Headphone Accommodations to begin the process. Switch it on.

Apple recommends you do the following before beginning the test:

• Look for a quiet environment before continuing.
• Audio customization will take about five minutes.
• Your headphones will switch to noise cancelling mode when testing begins.

You’ll complete a series of tasks, which begin with audio of someone speaking.

You can choose to tune audio for:

• Balanced tone.
• Vocal range.
• Brightness
• You can choose to apply this to Phone calls or media playback.

You can also choose to set soft sounds which will be boosted slightly, moderately or strongly, but for better results you can go through a series of tests if you select Custom Audio Setup (tap Audiogram). This consists of a series of tests designed to identify your hearing level and adjust the volume to improve the experience.

What Apple says

“Headphone Accommodations… amplifies soft sounds and tunes audio to help music, movies, phone calls, and podcasts sound crisper and clearer,” says Apple.

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