Apple culls iPhone XR, five iPads from list of devices that support Spatial Audio with built-in speakers

Apple has shed some light on which specific devices will support the Apple Music Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, and some older iPhone and iPad models aren't making the cut.

The company on Thursday updated a support document to say that the built-in speakers of the iPhone XR, iPad mini 5, iPad Air 3, and the sixth- to eighth-generation iPads won't support the 3D audio format.

"The built-in speakers on an iPhone XS or later (except iPhone SE), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation or later), iPad Pro 11-inch, or iPad Air (4th generation)," the updated page reads.

Apple's recent changes make for a confusing situation, since the support document previously stated that the iPhone XR or later would support Dolby Atmos using built-in speakers. It said the same thing for the iPad mini 5 and the entry-level iPads.

Despite the lack of speaker support, users with devices that aren't compatible can still listen to Dolby Atmos Spatial Audio using headphones like AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, and a number of Beats by Dre products.

The change to the Apple support document was first spotted by writer and editor Holger Eilhard.

Apple now mentions Android devices as supported for Dolby Atoms in Apple Music. At the same time: bad news for built-in speakers on older iPads and iPhones. See https://t.co/c3K4hfwGWE pic.twitter.com/FscffqpA3H
— Holger Eilhard (@holgr) July 22, 2021

Apple on Thursday also released an updated version of Apple Music for Android with Spatial Audio and lossless streaming. However, although Spatial Audio will work on "compatible" Android devices, it isn't currently clear which models those are.

6 Comments

mr lizard 354 comments · 15 Years

About 3 years ago

“Apple has shed some light on which specific devices will support the Apple Music Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos, and some older iPhone and iPad models aren't making the cut.”

Using the future tense “will support” is a weird way to put it. Spatial Audio with Dolby Atmos has been available for a month.

What Apple has done is changed what devices do support it, not will support it. This isn’t “shedding light”, this is retroactively changing which devices are already supported.

“Apple's recent changes make for a confusing situation, since the support document previously stated that the iPhone XR or later would support Dolby Atmos using built-in speakers.”

Again with the future tense! Does support, nor would support.

The question is: did Apple make a mistake and have they inadvertently been claiming for the past month that devices were playing Spatial Audio when in fact they weren’t?

Or were those devices in fact playing Spatial Audio and now Apple’s pushed out an update that removes that functionality?

elijahg 2823 comments · 18 Years

About 3 years ago

Pretty odd they'd mention the XR as supporting Atmos when the X which was released at the same time as the cheaper XR apparently did not. Also seems that no one has noticed it's not working on the XR... Which means it either was working until now, or it isn't noticeable enough for anyone to actually realise it wasn't working.

mknelson 1146 comments · 9 Years

About 3 years ago

elijahg said:

Pretty odd they'd mention the XR as supporting Atmos when the X which was released at the same time as the cheaper XR apparently did not. Also seems that no one has noticed it's not working on the XR... Which means it either was working until now, or it isn't noticeable enough for anyone to actually realise it wasn't working.

The X (and 8) were released in 2017.

The XR was released alongside the XS a year later.Is Spatial Audio very noticeable on a closely spaced set of external speakers? I can understand on the iPad pros with 4 speakers, but… time to experiment!

elijahg 2823 comments · 18 Years

About 3 years ago

mknelson said:

elijahg said:

Pretty odd they'd mention the XR as supporting Atmos when the X which was released at the same time as the cheaper XR apparently did not. Also seems that no one has noticed it's not working on the XR... Which means it either was working until now, or it isn't noticeable enough for anyone to actually realise it wasn't working.

The X (and 8) were released in 2017.

The XR was released alongside the XS a year later.Is Spatial Audio very noticeable on a closely spaced set of external speakers? I can understand on the iPad pros with 4 speakers, but… time to experiment!

Oh my bad, didn't realise that. And I was questioning that myself. Any results?!

canucklehead 401 comments · 18 Years

About 3 years ago

I believe there is confusion regarding Dolby Atmos versus spatial audio. They are two different things. Dolby Atmos is the way recordings are produced that allows for a surround sound. Spatial audio is an Apple-specific feature that interprets that recording in a way that simulates surround without surround speakers. Just because a speaker system supports Atmos doesn’t mean it’s spatial audio.