With wireless earbuds, you can put one in its charging case and use the other only when you want to keep only one ear occupied. How can you simulate the same effect with wired headphones? Easy: Use an accessibility feature in iOS and iPadOS. Here’s how to make this work.
- Time to complete: 2 minutes
- Required tools: iOS 16 or iPadOS 16
- Materials needed: Headphones or wired headphones
iOS 16 Settings
Foundry
Go to settings > Accessibility > Audiovisual (in the Audience section).
mono audio
Foundry
audio balance
Foundry
Under Balancedrag the slider to the extreme left (for left only) or to the extreme right (for right only).
There is no way to set this as an audio profile or other method that you can tap in and out. When and if you want to resume balanced stereo sound, drag that slider toward the center (it will read 0.00) and turn Mono Audio off.
This also works with both wired and wireless headphones, if you want to have one “cup” on and one off, and have all the sound in one ear without sound spillage.
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