Why Does Messages Randomly Start Recording Audio? Here’s What’s Happening
Have you ever sent a text in Messages, only to see your iPhone suddenly start recording an audio message—without you tapping anything? It’s happened to me more than once, but since it wasn’t frequent, I never paid much attention to it. That changed when it happened again yesterday. Curious, I searched online, and to my surprise, many others had experienced the same thing.
At first, it seemed like a bug, but it turns out this is actually a feature—one that uses the iPhone’s proximity sensor and motion detection to start recording audio when you lift your phone in a certain way. While it’s designed to make sending voice messages easier, it can also activate unexpectedly, leading to confusion. We previously explained what you can do to fix this feature if it is not working.
Why Does Messages Start Recording on Its Own?
This feature is called Raise to Listen, and it works by detecting when you lift your phone to your ear. If you perform a specific twisting motion while bringing the phone close to your face, Messages assumes you want to record an audio message and starts capturing audio automatically. Lowering the phone stops the recording, and you can then choose to send it.
It’s not just about proximity—the motion matters too. Simply holding the phone near your face won’t trigger recording. However, if you lift the phone with the right movement, even if you bring it close to your hand or another object (like a coffee cup), the proximity sensor can still be triggered, making it seem like Messages is recording on its own.
How to Test This Yourself
If you’re curious, you can try it out:
- Open a conversation in Messages.
- Lift your iPhone to your ear as if making a call.
- You’ll hear a soft chime, indicating that recording has started.
- Move the phone away, and the recording will stop automatically.
Why Does This Happen After Sending a Text?
One of the more confusing aspects of this feature is that sometimes, Messages starts recording right after sending a text—even though you never tapped anything.
Starting with the iOS 17 update, Apple moved the audio message option from the text box to the plus (+) button, where you now find features like Photos and Camera. But despite this change, Raise to Listen is still active, and if you accidentally perform the right motion after sending a message, the feature kicks in and starts recording, even though the button isn’t visible anymore.
How to Stop Messages from Recording on Its Own
If you find this feature more annoying than helpful, you can disable it easily:
- Open Settings on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap Apps and then Messages.
- Scroll down and find Raise to Listen and toggle it off.
We also described these steps in more detail in this article: How to Turn Off or On Automatic Playing or Recording Audio Messages on iPhone
This setting has been around for years, but many people (myself included) never realized it was responsible for those unexpected recordings. Now that I understand what’s happening, I find it fascinating—but at least I won’t be caught off guard anymore!