Why Wispr Flow doesn't pause background audio on iPhone (iOS)
Last updated: October 3, 2026
Available on: iPhone (iOS).
On iPhone, Flow records alongside music, podcasts, and videos rather than pausing or lowering their volume. Audio from your speaker can appear in your transcript.
Keep background audio out of dictation
Warning: Connect or disconnect headphones before dictating. Changing the audio route ends an active dictation without an interrupted-dictation notification. Reselecting the already-selected built-in mic is the exception.
Pause playback before dictating, or route it to wired or Bluetooth headphones instead of the iPhone speaker.
Dictate as usual. If no background audio appears in your transcript, you're set.
What the iPhone audio settings change
The iPhone app has no audio-ducking or mute-music setting. In Flow, Settings → Audio contains only these two toggles. There is no microphone picker on iOS.
Setting | What it changes |
Built-in mic | Uses your iPhone's microphone for all dictations; on by default. |
Interaction sounds | Turns Flow's dictation start/stop sounds on or off, not other apps' audio. |
Built-in mic excludes Bluetooth headset microphone input but leaves Bluetooth and AirPlay playback available. Changes take effect immediately and do not pause or lower background audio. Even with it off, Flow can fall back to the iPhone mic if another input is unusable.
System sounds and haptics can also continue while recording.
If Flow cannot start recording
Another app or call can prevent microphone access. A Flow meeting that is recording or preparing to record can also block dictation; finish dictation before starting a meeting recording.
End the call, close the app using the microphone, or pause Flow's meeting recording.
Tap the mic to try again.
Quit and reopen Flow if audio capture still cannot start.
After retrying or reopening Flow, dictate a short phrase.
If a Microphone Error sheet appears
The sheet covers the keyboard area, not the full screen, and says “Please check if the microphone is being used by another application.” It does not identify the app or call using the mic.
Its single Retry button closes the sheet and restarts recording in place or opens Flow to record, depending on how recording was started. Close it without retrying using the “x” button or a downward drag.
If there is no Retry button
The inline keyboard error “Couldn't start audio capture. Tap the mic to try again, or quit and reopen the Flow app if it keeps happening.” has no Retry button; use the steps above.
If this happens during setup
A microphone-busy or audio-capture failure during setup shows “Your mic is being used by another app. Close other apps and try again!”
Recover an interrupted dictation
Calls and Siri stop recording immediately. An active iPhone dictation also ends at a fixed 5-minute limit that cannot be changed.
For regular dictation, Flow finalizes what it captured and saves the transcript to Home history regardless of notification permission. It pastes only if the Flow keyboard is on screen.
If the keyboard is not on screen and you've already allowed Flow notifications, the notification title is:
“Your dictation was interrupted”: after a call or Siri interruption.
“Your dictation reached the time limit”: when the cap ends dictation, unless you ended it yourself at that moment.
Both say “Tap to view your transcript” and are suppressed for command-mode queries.
Tap the notification to open Home and automatically copy that transcript to your clipboard.
Paste the copied transcript where you were writing.
“Transcript copied to clipboard” confirms the copy. If notifications are off, open Home to find your saved dictation.
Background microphone activity and automatic resumption
Flow can keep recording while backgrounded or with the screen locked. It can also keep the microphone active between dictations without capturing a dictation.
The background-recording setting in Settings defaults to 5 minutes. It stops only an idle microphone session while Flow is backgrounded and the keyboard is inactive; it never ends an active dictation. You can instead configure it to stop after a transcription or never stop automatically.
After a call or Siri interruption ends, Flow can reactivate the microphone if background recording is set never to stop, or the interruption was shorter than your configured time window. Otherwise, the dictation Live Activity ends.
If dictation fails instead of being interrupted
For a failed dictation with no keyboard on screen, an allowed notification says “Your dictation is saved” (including its duration when known) and “Tap to retry.” Tapping it opens Home and retries the saved dictation instead of copying it. This notification is not sent if your local-data setting never stores transcripts, because retry requires the saved record.
Still stuck?
Contact support with your iPhone model, iOS version, and what you tried if:
Background audio still lands in your transcript after you pause playback — include the app playing audio.
Flow still shows a no-audio message after the recovery steps — note which app or call was using the microphone, if known.