Can’t hear VoiceOver over hold music on Zoom

By Luke, 24 January, 2024

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

My company has decided to blare music on their annual summit Zoom call in between events, so if you join at these times, the volume of that music is literally like five times louder than VO and system sounds, even with rotor volume at 100%. I’ve experienced similar challenges on normal phone calls too with loud hold music. Any suggestions?

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Comments

By Lee on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 20:29

Have you made sure this is turned on? No idea if that will work but in theory not sure why it wouldn't.

By Brian on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 20:29

Earbuds might make hearing VO a bit less frustrating. The only other thing I can think of is contacting your company's admin for Zoom and ask them to lower the volume of their hold music.

Of course, whether or not they will comply with your request remains to be seen. 🤷🏼‍♂️

By Luke on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 20:29

Audio ducking is a good suggestion. I don’t use it all that often because whenever I try, I find that it’s kind of flaky and doesn’t seem to behave as I would expect, but in this case it would be worth a shot for sure. Thanks

By Luke on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 20:29

I really wish Apple would consider adding a sound mixer app to iOS similar to the one that has been available in windows for years. In windows, I can adjust the volume of every running application individually, whether that’s chrome instances, iTunes, Outlook, NVDA etc. Such a feature would be huge for iOS, and probably not just from an accessibility standpoint but a general user experience standpoint. The fact that there is no apparent way to just go in and reduce the sound level of the zoom app seems kind of ridiculous

By Gar on Monday, January 22, 2024 - 20:29

Hi,
I've had this very same issue in the past when dealing with our internet service provider. Unfortunately, audio ducking doesn't appear to work at all if you're in any kind of call.
That said, if you are able to access the phone's call interface (try a four finger swipe left while in Zoom to access it) and you know how long you'll be waiting for, you can press and hold the 'mute' button for at least five seconds. On a call, that will put the other party on hold. It may serve a similar function in a Zoom meeting. Then you just have to press 'hold' to start listening again. I hope this helps.