Hello all!
I'm hoping to find a solution.
I’ve been looking everywhere, but ever since the Control Center revamp I haven’t been able to fix this.
Whenever I’m wearing AirPods, apps that play audio use this fake simulated spatialized stereo, which adds a slight reverb and makes everything sound as though it’s being played inside a tiny empty room.
I made sure to turn off spacial audio in settings to start but that had no effect.
Previously, the trick was to open the app playing audio, go into Control Center, press and hold the volume slider, and the Spatialized Stereo option would appear along with the head-tracking toggle.
Does anyone know how to adjust this in iOS 26?
I tried adding the Now Playing tile to my Control Center, but again had no luck.
Comments
Sounds & Haptics?
Hi,
Have you tried going to Settings, Sounds & Haptics, and seeing if you can find the setting in there?
Alternatively, have you tried checking the Bluetooth settings page?
There aren't any settings there.
I wish it were that simple.
Sadly, there aren't any options for it.
This unfortunately seems to be a per app toggle.
iOS 26.1
On the device I am running 26.1 on, when I go to Sounds & Haptics, at the very bottom of that page/screen, is an option for personalized spatial audio. If this does not show for you, then I do not know what to tell you. Alternatively, if it does show up and does not do anything for you, then I have no idea why Apple put it there. 🙁
This is a separate setting.
This setting is separate.
It lets the cameras map your faface and ears for a more personalized spacial audio field.
Possible solution
Hey Quentin,
I did a little research, and found this Apple support article. To summarize, it says to open control center, double tap and hold on volume, that gives you your spacial audio controls. Alternatively, you can go into settings, accessibility, and disable head tracking from there. I, believe, that would also disable spatial audio.
https://support.apple.com/en-az/guide/airpods/dev00eb7e0a3/web
What I did
The volume thing didn't work for me when I got my current phone. The solution I found involved going into accessibility settings, then I think hearing, then digging to find the option for mono audio. When activating that, it warns you that this will turn off spatial sound. Do it. Then set it back to stereo: the spatial audio did not come back. To be safe, I backed out of accessibility settings and then back in before turning off mono. HTH