Hearing myself during calls

[phila]

I got my Droid 2 two weeks ago but didn't start noticing this problem until making more and more phone calls. I hear myself during every call. It doesn't matter if its to a landline, another Verizon customer, or someone on a different network.

Its not echoing, but it sends everything I say right through the speaker as if I was the person on the other end.

Anyone else have this problem? Is there anything I can do fix this, or do I have to take it to Verizon to sort out?

 

[Rev2010]

Everyone has this problem. It's called side tone and it's annoying for sure. You'll get the usual gamut of joe shmoe's saying, "I don't hear it" but it's because they're used to it. I came from an iPhone so I noticed it immediately. Good news is you do get used to it. Bad news is it really gets to be a problem in noisier environments cause the sound gets passed through to what you're trying to hear. I truly hope they resolve this in a future update. It IS a software issue and other developers have hacked the phone to resolve this. From what I've read though it only lasts till a reboot.


Rev.

 

[phila]

Thanks for the information. I can't believe this software issue gets by Verizon's "rigorous" OS testing. Im coming from a Blackberry Tour that had a few terrible OS releases from Verizon, and now this.

I guess taking it to Verizon wont solve anything then..

 

[Rev2010]

Probably not because you're just going to be talking to the usual "read off the screen" rep who's going to give you the, "We haven't had any reports of this, try exchanging your phone" response. You can try though, see if you get a more experience rep and explain side tone to them and see if they know of any way to reduce it. There was a way for other phones, I believe the incredible, where you can dial in with a few numeric commands and it would lower it. Those commands don't work however for my Droid 2. I might do some more detailed searching into this. If I ever do find any form of solution I will certainly post it up.


Rev.

 

[Rev2010]

So I just called and spoke with both Verizon technical support and Motorola technical support. Verizon was useless of course, though I don't blame them as this is a Motorola design issue and it's very well known that Motorola in particular has louder than average sidetone percentages.

Motorola just told me there's no way we can adjust it (knew I'd get that response anyway) and then told me they're aware of the complaint and will look into it for a future update. The thing that bothered me is the Tech guy kept calling it "Slide tone" so I felt a bit like he might not even know what I'm really talking about lol. Guess we can only wait for an update or for some super coding genius to figure it out and find a way to make it feasible for average users to do. The update is probably our only real hope. They just need to lower it about half of what it is. They don't need to make it dead silent, then you get the "cell yell" people talking way louder than necessary. Maybe more of us should call into Motorola just so they realize it's something we do want addressed.


Rev.

 

[phila]

Yeah absolutely. They need to know that there's a ton of people out there who want this taken care of.

Honestly though, I've never had a phone that has done anything like this. I've never heard myself during a phone call on anyone else's phones either. I honestly can't understand how companies do research and find that this is actually preferable to not hearing yourself at all.

If you think the line is dead just because you can't hear yourself then maybe you shouldn't be handling a cell phone on your own.

 

[Rev2010]

Actually you have, you just didn't notice it cause it wasn't so loud like on the Motorola Droids. Sidetone is even on landline phones, just at a lower pass through percentage. Even my Razr had it but it was much lower. You can easily test for it by closing your other ear and seeing if you still hear yourself talking in the earpiece. It's designed in for a more natural experience that doesn't sound dead and also to prevent people from talking unnecessarily loud.


Rev.