Mic Issue on Nothing Phone 3A – Voice Works, But Laughter Is Muted

Pompa82 · 2025-04-22T18:31:07+00:00

I recently purchased the Nothing Phone 3A, and while everything seems to be working fine, I noticed a weird issue with the microphone during WhatsApp calls. People can hear me clearly when I speak normally. However, whenever I laugh, they can't hear me at all, it's as if my voice is getting completely muted. I've tested this on multiple calls, and every time I laugh, the audio just cuts out for the other person. It only happens on WhatsApp calls, not on regular phone calls or other apps. Troubleshooting steps I've tried: \- Checked mic permissions for WhatsApp \- Restarted the phone \- Updated WhatsApp to the latest version \- Tried switching between WiFi and mobile data \- Tested with different Bluetooth and wired headsets (same issue) Has anyone else experienced this? Could this be some kind of noise suppression issue or a bug with WhatsApp on the Nothing Phone 3A? Would appreciate any insights or potential fixes! Thanks in advance! 😊

Oli

Pompa82 I have still got people complaining that they cannot hear me properly on pretty much every WhatsApp call I have, even though I am on the latest system update on my phone 3a pro

Pompa82

After monitoring this issue for a few weeks I can sadly say that the issue persists.

Oli

Pompa82 is this something which is actively being resolved?

Pompa82

Oli Dunno, it doesn’t look like nothing team are working on it

Oli

Pompa82 That’s a massive shame. The first thing you expect a phone to be good at is calls, especially on one of the largest messaging platforms like WhatsApp. Gotten to the point where I am considered ditching my Nothing phone after just a few weeks. I use WhatsApp call for everything and family and friends not being able to hear me is a massive deal breaker.

AlessandroRossi_Jqmhmuity9

Shame on Nothing. This is a spectacular let down! This issue is existential and should be fixed as a matter of priority.

P1NGuno

I’m experiencing the same issue with my Nothing Phone 3a Pro. Occasionally, when I receive a regular phone call (not through WhatsApp), I answer it, but there’s no audio — I can’t hear the caller, and they can’t hear me, even though the call is active.

Joshua_NlyoYts5O9

Experiences the same issue, please fix, I have work calls to answer.

MadhvenBharadiya

Pompa82

Similar issue. Noise cancellation mutes my voice when outdoors in wind or in bus/vehicle, other times mic works okay.

Updated everything, cleaned mic/secondary mics etc.

Disappointed with this. Considering a dumb phone than this 3a.

Pompa82

Does this issue occur only on nothing phone 3a series or on the 2a plus as well?

UtsavShrestha_G64SMXshTw

Pompa82

Have you tried changing the mic preset?

You can do this by pulling down the control centre and on top right there will be 3 dot menu just beside the mic and camera icon while on video call.

Hope this works for you ☺️

NRRJ

UtsavShrestha_G64SMXshTw Is this on nothing phone 3a or 3a pro? I don’t have that setting on my NP 3a pro

coco_roifort_

@"UtsavShrestha_G6

UtsavShrestha_G64SMXshTw it’s shows up one time for me, then nothing anymore

AshfaqAhsan

This is unacceptable. The microphone in 3a is ass. I first thought it was some connectivity issue with my network but no. I tried Dolby On app, zeroed the noise cancellation. It sounded ass. Imagine sounding bad with Dolby On app. They gotta fix this. I’m sure they either cheaped out the hardware or integrated some “revolutionary” in built noise cancelling whatever. It is not working. I sound like talking underwater. As someone who is into recording, this is unacceptable.

UtsavShrestha_G64SMXshTw

NRRJ I have 3a and it shows during whatsapp.

Sometimes I also noticed that the option doesn’t open but most of the time it does.

blank

coco_roifort_ It shows only when you are on a call with someone on Whatsapp for me at the moment. I’m on the open beta and it only has the “normal” option. Maybe the options will be back after it’s on the stable version.

Metalfoxxx

Nothing Phone 3a. 4.0 Update (It was the same on 3.2) When recording messages in Telegram or Whatsapp the noise canceling feature is on. It’s just annoying because it works incorrectly. There should be a function to turn this thing on and off!

Unusable. Calls work fine, but no audio messages!

PlotTwist_n84k5zBDmD

Months after the issue persists. If I knew I would have never bought this phone. They literally failed at the most simple and basic feature of a mobile phone, having a working microphone. GGs.

Also, the three dots on the right corner that appears when using the mic are useless. The options that should appear are not there.

Remove the noise cancellation software as soon as possible.

shiny_itemaz

Yea. I have the same issue and it isn’t fixed yet. I’m using nothing phone 3a and nothing OS 4.0 rn. The mic is suck here cuase of the forced noise suppression. And for some reason it cannot be disabled in most of the apps.
According to my observations, it can be disabled only in dictaphone (u can choose mode in the bottom of the app) and durning WhatsApp calls (3 green dots in upper right corner). And only durning calls. It doesn’t affect voice messeges for some reason. Thats why sound is so suck.

I also checked some preferenses in adb. I think these prefrences are the culprits of this problem:
[ro.boot.vendor.qspa]: [true]
[ro.boot.vendor.qspa.audio]: [enabled] ← Voice Focus is forced here
[ro.boot.vendor.qspa.speech]: [enabled]
[ro.boot.vendor.qspa.nsp]: [enabled] ← Noise Suppression

U can’t find them in the preferencee, so there is no solution for this problem yet.

SKIERZ

I absolutely don’t know why Nothing team doesn’t see this huge disgusting problem. I’ve installed 4 (!) OS updates with lists of fixes after buying my (3a) but there’s no a word about this annoying mic issue and ofc no any fix. Why don’t they notice all of us with several topics in their own forum and Reddit? This problem persists about a year but Nothing has done nothing (ironic). I’m discouraged. Perfect phone, I like everything in it but the main (!!!) function of the phone is software-corrupted and Nothing absolutely don’t care as I can see. They literally need to edit a couple of lines of code. Unbelievable and disappointing.