Spatial audio issues
When proximity audio sounds too quiet, off-balance, or echoey.
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Why does spatial audio sound wrong in flat.social?
Most spatial audio issues are not bugs. They are the system working as designed: voices fade with distance, pan left or right based on position, and depend on your headphones. If audio sounds too quiet, off to one side, or echoey, the fix is usually to move closer, switch to stereo headphones, or change your audio setup. Here is how to tell which one you're hitting.
Put on stereo headphones and walk your avatar closer. That solves most spatial audio complaints at once. To understand the why, read how spatial audio works.
Voices are too quiet
If people sound faint, you're probably standing too far away. Flat.social fades voices with distance on purpose so several groups can talk in one room. A voice is at full volume within about 7.5 metres and fades to silence at about 22.5 metres. Walk your avatar toward the person and the volume comes back up. Picture this: Mia joins a busy networking room, hears almost nothing, and assumes her audio is broken. She's just parked at the edge. Two steps toward the group and the conversation is suddenly clear.
Left and right sound off
Flat.social pans voices left or right to match where people are on your screen. That directional effect only works in stereo. If you're on a single laptop speaker, a mono Bluetooth speaker, or one earbud, the panning collapses and voices can feel like they're coming from the wrong place or vanish when someone moves to one side. Use stereo headphones with both ears in, and the direction will line up with what you see. (On iPhone and iPad, voices aren't panned at all because of a Safari limitation.)
If you can see people but can't hear them, check the walls: people inside an isolated room, pod, or stage only hear each other, and you only hear and see them once you walk in. Also check for a "Muted only for you" tag under their avatar; click them and choose Unmute for me. See Audio isolated rooms.
Everyone sounds equally loud
If distance doesn't seem to change anything, you are probably in a game room (football, maze race, arena shooter, territory, or surf), where everyone is heard at full volume so teams can talk across the arena. Near an auditorium stage, whoever stands on the stage is heard by the whole hall. And a person using a megaphone carries ten times farther than usual.
Echo or feedback
Echo happens when your speakers play other people's voices and your mic picks them right back up, sending the loop back into the room. The fix is simple: use headphones instead of open speakers. With headphones, your mic can't hear the room audio, so the loop never forms. If you must use speakers, lower the volume and keep your mic farther from them.
When a Bluetooth headset uses its mic, many switch to a low-quality "call" mode that makes everyone sound muffled and tinny. If audio quality drops the moment you unmute, try wired headphones, or use your laptop mic with Bluetooth headphones for output only.