How To Listen To Stereo Music And Podcasts In One Earbud

Sometimes you want to play music, podcasts, or audiobooks, but you need one ear open to the world, so you only put one earbud in. But if the song, podcast, or binaural ASMR dub of Steamed Hams is in stereo, then some sounds are only coming out through the earbud that you’re not using. To hear everything, you can flip a switch in your phone or computer’s accessibility settings.

On iOS

1. Open the Settings app

2. Tap Accessibility (in the third block of options)

3. Under Hearing, tap Audio/Visual

4. Toggle Mono Audio on

On Android

1. Open the Settings app

2. Tap Accessibility

3. Under Audio & on-screen text, toggle Mono audio on

On Mac

1. Open System Preferences

2. Click Accessibility

3. Under Hearing on the left, click Audio

4. Click Play stereo audio as mono

On Windows

1. Open Settings

2. Click Ease of Access

3. Click Other options

4. Toggle Mono audio on

Now both channels of audio will play in both earbuds. So you can hear every clink and ting of Pink Floyd’s “Money,” or both sides of the conversation on a slick scripted podcast, even if you’ve got one earbud dangling from your head.