Intermittent problem with people hearing me.

[osbourne one-nil]

(Please note I've posted this exact question on the Sony Support website, but suspect they'll thank me for my question and suggest I call my local support centre)

Since getting my XZ on Wednesday, I've had several people comment that I appear to sound very distant (or become silent) intermittently during calls; they can still hear background noise apparently, but it sounds like I've either moved a very long way from the mouthpiece or I've covered it with my hand (neither is actually happening).

Having had a quick Google, it seems this is a relatively frequent problem with Sony handsets. Perhaps it's true of other Android handsets too, but it was certainly never an issue with my previous Blackberry Priv.

The Google search suggested that turning off noise supression was a possible solution, but there's no option to do that as far as I can see.

As I say, this has happened on several occasions, whether I've had full 4G signal, or been connected via my femtocell (with a super-fast fibre connection).

I know the ability to make calls seems to be quite low down the list nowadays, but it's quite important to me. Any ideas?! Other than this, it's a lovely handset!

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Is the phone in a case? If so, make sure it isn't blocking the secondary/noise-cancelling mic, which should be located somewhere at or near the top of the phone.

 

[osbourne one-nil]

Thanks for the reply. The phone is as naked as the day it was born...due partly to Sony not releasing cases at the same time as the phone! But it can't be that.

I played around last night leaving myself voicemail messages (I don't have friends) and could hear the problem in a few messages...but not all. I then started to cover and uncover the secondary mic, but it seemed to make no difference....the sound would still drop out but not with any correlation to whether the secondary mic was covered.

A bit more googling suggested turning "Ok Google" off, which I've done and so far the problem's not happened again. Whilst it makes no sense that something like "Ok Google" could make a difference, neither did the thought that Sony would knowlingly release phones with this problem, so it does seem to make sense to me that it's a non-Sony-software related issue. I'll see how I get on!