Skip to Content

iOS 14: How to Enhance Speech, Movies, and Music When Listening on AirPods, AirPods Max, and Beats

by

In iOS 14, Apple continues to build out its extensive accessibility features, and here we're going to show you how you can use the new Headphone Accommodations to amplify certain sounds if you're having difficulty hearing them.

AirPods Pro lifestyle apple
Headphones Accommodations works with Apple and Beats headphones, and is designed especially for those who are hard of hearing: It's able to amplify soft sounds and adjust frequencies to make music, movies, calls, and more sound crisper and clearer.

Follow the steps below to activate the Headphones Accommodations feature in iOS 14 and later.

  1. Launch the Settings app on your iPhone or iPad.
  2. Tap Accessibility.
  3. Scroll down to the Physical and Motor menu and select AirPods.
    settings

  4. Tap the Audio Accessibility Settings option in blue text.
  5. Tap Headphone Accommodations.
  6. Toggle the switch next to Headphone Accommodations to activate it and extend the menu of options.
    how to use headphone accommodations c

From here, you can access a range of options such as tuning audio for Balanced Tone, Vocal Range, or Brightness, and adjusting the volume of soft sounds to be louder.

accessibility
There's also a Custom Audio Setup that walks through a test with soft speaking and different music to determine whether you have specific audio preferences that should be compensated for with the Headphone Accommodations feature.

accessibility
Headphone Accommodations works with the Transparency mode on ‌AirPods Pro and AirPods Max‌ too, making quiet voices louder and tuning the sounds of the environment around you to meet your audio needs.

Top Rated Comments

73 months ago
As a person with moderate high frequency hearing loss, this is EXACTLY what I have been hoping Apple would do. Bravo!
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
73 months ago

I hate the word "enhance" when it comes to these audio processing features, a great way to instantly destroy all the hard work done by the artists to master these tracks. Listen to the music how it was intended to be
Agreed on original artist intent however this set of features is originally intended for people with hearing deficiencies. Which I think is great.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
73 months ago
Good step in the right direction. For those with tinnitus, where high frequencies can agitate the condition, there needs to be something a little more manual, like an equalizer or an option to decrease higher frequencies.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DoctorTech Avatar
73 months ago

I hate the word "enhance" when it comes to these audio processing features, a great way to instantly destroy all the hard work done by the artists to master these tracks. Listen to the music how it was intended to be
We don't all hear the same. I have some hearing loss from over exposure to loud noise over the past 30 years. My hearing is fine at lower frequencies but not so much at higher frequencies. This "enhancement" will allow me to hear the music as the artist intended by boosting volume of frequencies that I don't hear as well. I am REALLY looking forward to this feature!

I am hoping Apple will also make this feature available in MacOS and TVOS. I often watch YouTube and/or Apple TV on my laptop and/or television via my Apple TV box. The majority of the time, I am the only one in the room so it would be nice to put on by PowerBeats Pros and listen to enhanced audio of TV, movies and videos.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Grohowiak Avatar
73 months ago
Sounds like a good old equalizer with auto settings.
Funny that till this day we have to use third party apps on iOS and Mac if we want to do this ourselves.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DeepIn2U Avatar
73 months ago
Unfortunately this currently implantation doe NOT use all the various microphones on the iPhone. If you have AirPods Pro you’re better off using ambient sound directly via the headphones.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Popular Stories

MacBook Neo Feature Pastel 1

First MacBook Neo Benchmarks Are In: Here's How It Compares to the M1 MacBook Air

Thursday March 5, 2026 4:07 pm PST by
Benchmarks for the new MacBook Neo surfaced today, and unsurprisingly, CPU performance is almost identical to the iPhone 16 Pro. The MacBook Neo uses the same 6-core A18 Pro chip that was first introduced in the iPhone 16 Pro, but it has one fewer GPU core. The MacBook Neo earned a single-core score of 3461 and a multi-core score of 8668, along with a Metal score of 31286. Here's how the...
imac video apple feature

Apple Unveils Seven New Products

Friday March 6, 2026 11:48 am PST by
Apple this week unveiled seven products, including an iPhone 17e, an iPad Air with the M4 chip, updated MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, a new Studio Display, a higher-end Studio Display XDR, and an all-new MacBook Neo that starts at just $599. iPhone 17e features the same overall design as the iPhone 16e, but it gains Apple's A19 chip, MagSafe for magnetic wireless charging and magnetic...
Apple MacBook Pro M4 hero

Apple Planning 'MacBook Ultra' With Touchscreen and Higher Price

Sunday March 8, 2026 8:05 am PDT by
Apple is planning to launch an all-new "MacBook Ultra" model this year, featuring an OLED display, touchscreen, and a higher price point, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports. Gurman revealed the information in his latest "Power On" newsletter. While Apple has been widely expected to launch new M6-series MacBook Pro models with OLED displays, touchscreen functionality, and a new, thinner design...