Is Your Apple Watch Series 10 Not Loud Enough? It’s Not Just You
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Although the slimmer aesthetic, Jet Black finish, and larger and brighter screen are the most visible selling points of the Apple Watch Series 10, there’s another hardware enhancement that’s flown below radar for many folks: a re-engineered speaker design with improved acoustic performance.
That may not sound like much on the surface, but it actually powers a new feature that’s unique to the Series 10: the ability to play music and podcasts directly through the Apple Watch speaker. Older models still require you to connect a set of AirPods or other Bluetooth headphones like they always have.
Of course, don’t expect to get incredible audio quality out of the Apple Watch, but the speaker is certainly clear enough and loud enough to let you listen to your favorite podcasts while you’re working around the house, saving you the trouble of reaching for your AirPods and having to keep them in when you’d rather not.
Or, at least, the speaker should be clear and loud enough for this. Sadly, it hasn’t worked out as expected for many Apple Watch Series 10 owners.
A spate of complaints on the Apple Support Community, Reddit, and social media all seem to point to something amiss with at least some Apple Watch Series 10 models. As highlighted by MacRumors, many folks seem to have had no problems when their Apple Watches were new, but report that the quality diminishes over time for no reason they can determine.
Once an Apple Watch Series 10 goes down this road, there appears to be no way to restore it to its former volume, which some say drops to levels that are even lower than on previous models. While older Apple Watches can’t play media through their built-in speaker, it’s always been possible to make handsfree phone and FaceTime Audio calls from any Apple Watch.
Several replies in an Apple Support Community thread come from people who have owned multiple Apple Watches over the years and never had problems with calls before the Apple Watch Series 10. One person notes that they were able to get a replacement “after a bout with tech support,” and while that worked fine at first, the problem recurred with the new Apple Watch after about a month, with the speaker too quiet to hear even when the volume was cranked to maximum.
I have an Apple Watch 7, and an Apple Watch 10. Until I saw an article about the bad speaker possibility on the 10 I never would have noticed I had something wrong, but it appears I do! I recorded voice memos on both watches at the same time and playing them back, the 7 is loud and clear at max volume, while the 10 (also set to max volume) is quiet and sounds like it has a blown speaker. Looks like I need to take a trip to the Apple Store.
CIAVT, Apple Support Community forums
One user reported experiencing the same problem even with the siren on their Apple Watch Ultra 2, although that could be an unrelated issue, while another says they’ve had three Series 10 replacements of the same issue, each of which failed after about a month.
I have had an Apple Watch for YEARS and have had NO problems. Then I got a new Apple Watch Series 10 in November 2024 and by December the sound was so low you couldn’t hear it when it was on full volume. I turned it in on a warranty and they sent me a new one – then the new one started doing it too!
Littlelamb117, Apple Support Community Forums
Someone in another Apple discussions thread reported that cleaning their Apple Watch seemed to improve things. The “different construction of [the] speaker vent” make sit more susceptible to becoming dirty or “filled by sweat and skin,” the person theorized. A similar cause and solution is described in a thread on Reddit that suggests that it could be related to “sweat and skin gunk jammed into the speaker” during certain types of workouts.
Still, that fix hasn’t worked for everyone, though, and we’d certainly hope that Apple Store technicians would know enough to try cleaning an Apple Watch before swapping it out with a new one.
This problem doesn’t affect every Apple Watch model (I regularly listen to podcasts on my Series 10, and it’s working fine), but those who are experiencing it have had it across all versions of watchOS 11, and it’s commonly fixed, at least temporarily, by a replacement unit. This points to a hardware problem that could be related to Apple’s new speaker design, which the company said it shrunk by 30% in to reduce the overall thickness of the Apple Watch Series 10.
If the problem is widespread enough, Apple may launch a service program to fix it. We’ll keep you posted if we hear anything.
