What is Personalized Spatial Audio on Apple Devices?
The default Spatial Audio technology uses the sensors on your AirPods to track your head, providing a mesmerizing audio experience. Personalized Spatial Audio takes this experience further by scanning your ears and their distance from your face to give you a customized Spatial Audio experience. It uses the TrueDepth camera on your iPhone to create this profile.
Things You’ll Need to Enable Spatial Audio
To enable Personalized Spatial Audio, here are the things you’ll need.
iPhone with FaceID running iOS 16 and above.AirPods Pro 1st Gen, AirPods Pro 2nd Gen, AirPods Max, AirPods 3rd Gen, or Beats Fit Pro.Spatial Audio-supported app.
Once enabled, you can use Personalized Spatial Audio on other Apple ID-linked devices: iPhone running iOS 16 and above, iPad running iPadOS 16.1 and newer, Mac running macOS Ventura and later, Apple Watch running watchOS 9 and above, and Apple TV running tvOS 16 and later.
Enable Personalized Spatial Audio on iPhones running iOS 16
Once you’ve all the requirements for Personalized Spatial Audio, here’s how to enable it on your iPhone.
- Connect the supported headset to your iPhone.
- Open Settings on your iPhone.
- Select the headset on which you want to enable it.
- Scroll down and select Personalized Spatial Audio → Personalized Spatial Audio.
- Follow the on-screen instructions to finish the setup, where it’ll ask you to scan your right and left ears. Once the setup is complete, you’ll be able to use Personalized Spatial Audio on your iPhone and other Apple devices linked to your Apple ID.
How to Disable Personalized Spatial Audio
You can disable Personalized Spatial Audio from any Apple ID-linked device. Here’s how you can do it.
On iPhone/iPad
- Connect your headset to your iPhone or iPad with Personalized Spatial Audio enabled.
- Open Settings on your iPhone/iPad.
- Select the connected headset on which you want to disable it.
- Scroll down and select the Personalized Spatial Audio option.
- Tap on the Stop Using Personalized Spatial Audio option.
On Mac
- Connect your Personalized Spatial Audio-enabled headset to your Mac.
- Click on the Apple logo on the top left of the menu bar.
- Select System Settings from the menu.
- Scroll down and select your connected headset from the left sidebar.
- Click the Stop Using Personalized Spatial Audio option under the Spatial Audio section. Furthermore, you can’t disable it on any other Apple device except these three. Hence, you’ll need an iPhone, iPad, or Mac to disable Personalized Spatial Audio.
Final Words
Spatial Audio is a great way to experience Dolby Atmos content on your AirPods, and with Personalized Spatial Audio, you get a curated profile. Also, we see more content in Spatial Audio these days, and most platforms will support this feature sooner or later.
