Apple Podcasts is one of the best podcast apps on the iPhone, packing unique features like automatic transcripts. However, until now, I’ve never used it as my primary podcast player. That’s because it lacked two features I desperately need—automatic adjustments for playback speed, and higher volume for voices. Luckily, Apple’s adding one of those two features in iOS 26.
The Podcasts app is getting a new feature called Enhance Dialogue, which makes it easier to hear your podcasts hosts (and any guests they might have on). This feature is great for when you’re listening to podcasts that aren’t recorded in professional studios. Quite often, guests on a show don’t have a great mic, or parts of the podcast might have been recorded outdoors, where it’s a little tough to hear people’s voices clearly. This is where features like Enhance Dialogue come into play. Popular podcast apps such as Overcast, Pocket Casts, and Castro have had this feature for years, and it’s great to see Apple finally catching up with the competition. Here’s how to try this Enhance Dialogue in Apple Podcasts, and how it stacks up to similar features in competing apps.
How to enable Enhance Dialogue in Apple Podcasts
Enabling Enhance Dialogue is quite simple, but the feature is located in an unexpected place. Start playing any podcast episode, then tap the mini player near the bottom of the screen to expand it. In the full-screen podcast player view, you’ll see the playback speed button (it says 1x by default) on the left edge of the screen, above the volume slider. Tap the playback speed button, and in the popover menu, select Enhance Dialogue. Don’t ask me why you’re controlling volume from the speed section.
Once enabled, the feature will work across all podcasts on Apple Podcasts. If you disable it in any one podcast, it’ll also be disabled in all other podcasts. At the time of writing, there’s no way to enable it for specific podcasts only, so be sure to set it how you want it on your next podcast before you stop listening to your current one.
As for how it works, I tried it with a few of my favorite podcasts and only noticed a very subtle difference. In comparison, Overcast’s Voice Boost feature does a much better job ensuring that everyone is equally audible.
What do you think so far?
One of the podcasts I tried Enhance Dialogue with—The Brazilian Shirt Name Podcast—has multiple episodes where the host and the guests have different audio levels, which can make it harder to follow what some people are saying. When I played an episode in Overcast, I barely noticed the audio level differences, but even with Enhance Dialogue enabled, episodes I listened to through Apple Podcasts were harder to follow.
Still, some of this can be excused because I tested it with iOS 26 Developer Beta 6, which is pre-release software and is still a few weeks away from final release. A lot could change between now and iOS 26’s release date some time in September, and I hope this feature improves between now and then.
In the meantime, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that a “trim silences” feature is coming next.