Welcome to Evil Week, our annual dive into all the slightly sketchy hacks we’d usually refrain from recommending. Want to weasel your way into free drinks, play elaborate mind games, or, er, launder some money? We’ve got all the info you need to be successfully unsavory.
If you have reason to eavesdrop on conversations you have no business listening to, you don’t need to go out and buy fancy surveillance gear. You probably already own everything you need to spy on someone from another room. All it takes is an iPhone and a compatible pair of wireless headphones, and you’ll be gathering intel like a pro in no time.
Apple’s Live Listen feature is perfect for spying
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When Apple introduced its “Live Listen” feature to iPhones back in 2014, it didn’t intend for it to be used to spy on people. In fact, it’s an accessibility feature: It uses the microphone on the iPhone to pick up sounds in the room and feed them to MFi (Made for iPhone) listening devices to help people hear better. You might use it to better follow a conversation, whether it’s happening in front of you or across the room.
Of course, there’s no “I’m not using this to spy on people” waiver you need to sign when using Live Listen, which means you can use the underlying tech in any way you’d like. Since the feature requires a connected listening device, such as AirPods or MFi hearing aids, you can put your iPhone anywhere within Bluetooth range (about 30 feet) and follow along with whatever it picks up.
It works well, too. I left a video playing on my laptop in one room, placed my iPhone incognito on a shelf, then moved to the opposite corner of the adjacent room. I could hear the dialogue of the video crystal clear, whereas when I took off my AirPods, I could hardly hear a thing.
Plus, the feature works on your iPad, which might work even better. An iPhone is smaller, yes, but it also is more likely to raise alarms. Someone might wonder why you left your iPhone in the room they’re in, while iPads get left around the house all the time.
How to enable Live Listen on your iPhone to spy on people
In order to use Live Listen, you need an iPhone or iPad running at least iOS/iPadOS 14.3, as well as AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, Powerbeats Pro, Beats Fit Pro, Beats Studio Pro, or an MFi listening device.
From here, you’ll need to add Live Listen to Control Center, since Apple doesn’t make it a default tile. Go to Settings > Control Center, then scroll down and hit the (+) next to Hearing. Now, connect your headphones to your iPhone, open Control Center, tap the Hearing icon, and tap Live Listen. (In my experience, it can be a bit glitchy. If Live Listen is grayed out and unresponsive, try tapping Background Sounds first.)
Once Live Listen is up and running, you’ll hear everything your iPhone hears through your headphones. If you want, you can connect a wired microphone to your iPhone through either its main port or, if available, headphone jack. However, I think people would start to get pretty suspicious at that point.
Ideally, you’d want people speaking directly into your iPhone’s mic for the clearest sound, but if you’re using this feature to listen in when you shouldn’t be, that won’t always be possible. Try to point the microphone (which is in the bottom left corner of your iPhone) toward where you think people are going to be speaking. You might be surprised how well it picks up sound.