With wireless earbuds, you can put one in its charging case and use the other by itself when you want to have just a single ear occupied. How can you simulate the same effect with wired earbuds? Easy: use an accessibility feature in iOS and iPadOS. Here’s how to make this work.
- Time to complete: 2 minutes
- Tools required: iOS 16 or iPadOS 16
- Materials required: Wired earbuds or headphones
iOS 16 Settings
Foundry
Go to Settings > Accessibility > Audio/Visual (in the Hearing section).
Mono Audio
Foundry
Enable Mono Audio.
Audio Balance
Foundry
Under Balance, drag the slider to the far left (for left only) or far right (for right only).
There’s no way to set this as an audio profile or other method you could tap to move in and out of. When and if you want to resume balanced stereo sound, drag that slider back to the center (it will read 0.00) and disable Mono Audio.
This works with wired and wireless headphones, too, if you want to have one “cup” on and one off, and have both all the sound on one ear and no sound bleed through.
Want to buy some new earphones? We round up the best wired earbuds for iPhone and the best wireless earbuds for iPhone so you can find some that are perfect for you.
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Author: Glenn Fleishman, Senior Contributor
Glenn Fleishman’s most recent books include Take Control of iOS and iPadOS Privacy and Security, Take Control of Calendar and Reminders, and Take Control of Securing Your Mac. In his spare time, he writes about printing and type history. He’s a senior contributor to Macworld, where he writes Mac 911.