Although monophonic audio sounds inferior than stereophonic audio, there are times when using a single audio channel may be preferable. The ability to convert between mono and stereo output is available on both Android and iOS, although it’s primarily intended as an accessibility tool for those who have hearing loss in one ear. It is useful when you want to share the audio with someone without turning on the speakers, though. It’s also a requirement if you choose to listen to music through only one earbud because stereo playback would cause you to miss a lot of the audio in that scenario. Mono playback enables you to listen to your preferred music or podcast while driving without breaking the law because it is frequently prohibited to drive with both ears covered in many locations. So, in case you’re curious, here’s how to change your iPhone’s audio outputs between stereo and mono:
Note: Everything worked as expected when we tried it on our iPhone X and iPhone 8 Plus (both running iOS 11.1).
Enable Monophonic Sound Output on Your iPhone
- From the Home Screen, select Settings and then choose General .
- Now tap on Accessibility , scroll down a bit, and tap on the Mono Audio toggle under the Hearing sub-section.
That’s all, everyone. Your iPhone’s mono audio is now activated. When you want to return to stereo, simply flip off the setting, and dual-channel playback will resume as usual. The slider directly below can be used to raise the volume in either ear as well.
SEE ALSO: How to Turn Off an iPhone on iOS 11 Without Pressing the Power Button
Tweak Your iPhone Settings to Switch Between Stereo and Mono Audio
Changing settings on iOS is typically a fairly simple process, and this particular instance isn’t much different. So now that you know how to do it, you can change your iPhone’s output from stereo to mono whenever you choose. Try it out and let us know why you made the change.