Something is wrong
Nobody can hear me
The maddening version of this problem is when the microphone clearly works — the meter moves, the recording plays back — and the call still cannot hear you. That is because a call does not use the microphone your system selected, and it is the first thing to check rather than the last.
The run, in order
Confirm the microphone works at all, and record yourself
Splits the problem in half immediately. If the meter moves and the playback sounds right, the hardware is fine and everything below applies. If it does not, the fault is local and the microphone test page covers it.
Open the audio settings inside the calling application
The single most common cause once the hardware is confirmed. Zoom, Teams, Discord and Meet each keep their own input selection, separate from the operating system. If you have more than one microphone — a webcam has one, a headset has one, the laptop has one — the application may be listening to a different one than the one you are speaking into.
Check the application has microphone permission
Windows: Settings, Privacy and security, Microphone, where desktop apps are listed separately from the master switch. macOS: System Settings, Privacy and Security, Microphone. A browser call needs permission twice — once for the browser and once for the site.
Measure how far your voice sits above the room
When the far end says you are faint or cutting out rather than silent, this is usually why. Noise suppression removes what it thinks is not speech, and the smaller the gap, the more of your voice it takes with it — which sounds like dropping out.
Check you are not muted somewhere you forgot
There are up to four mute switches in play: the application, the operating system mixer, a hardware button on the headset, and a physical switch on the microphone itself. Headsets in particular mute on the cable where a sleeve can press the button.
If people hear you but complain about the sound, check for echo
A strong path from your speakers into your microphone makes the echo canceller suppress your microphone whenever the other person speaks. That is heard as you cutting out mid-sentence, and it is regularly reported as nobody being able to hear.
Split the problem first
Everything here depends on one question: does the microphone work outside the call? Answer that first, because it decides which half of the list applies.
If the microphone test shows a moving meter and plays your voice back clearly, the microphone is not the problem and nothing you change about it will help. The fault is in what the call is listening to, or in what it does to the signal afterwards.
Where each application keeps its setting
| Application | Where the input is chosen |
|---|---|
| Zoom | Settings, Audio, Microphone |
| Teams | Settings, Devices, Microphone |
| Discord | User Settings, Voice and Video, Input Device |
| Google Meet | The gear icon during a call, Audio |
| A browser call | The padlock or camera icon in the address bar |
None of these follow the system default reliably once they have been set, which is why changing the Windows or macOS default often appears to do nothing.
The three things that are not the microphone
The wrong device is selected. By a wide margin the most common cause once the hardware is confirmed working.
Permission is missing at one of two levels. A browser call needs the browser to have permission from the system, and the site to have permission from the browser. Either alone is not enough.
Something is muted that you are not looking at. Count the mute controls in your setup before assuming the software is at fault; four is normal.
Common questions
The test page works but the call does not. How is that possible?
Because they are not using the same microphone. The operating system has a default input; each application has its own selection which does not have to match it. This page uses the system default, so a working test with a silent call is close to proof that the application is listening to something else.
Which microphone should I choose in the application?
The one you are actually speaking into, which is not always the obvious entry. A webcam contains a microphone and often becomes the default when it is plugged in, even though it is the furthest thing from your mouth in the room. Headset entries are usually named after the headset.
It worked yesterday and not today.
Something was plugged in or unplugged in between. Connecting a monitor with speakers, a webcam or a headset changes the default device on both Windows and macOS, and applications that follow the system default follow it silently.
People say I sound distant and echoing.
That is the room rather than the microphone: you are too far from it, so it picks up as much reflected sound as direct. Halving the distance is worth more than any setting. The background noise test measures how bad the ratio is.
People say I cut in and out.
Two candidates, both covered above. Either your voice is too close to the room noise and the suppression is chewing it up, or your speakers are feeding into your microphone and the echo canceller is muting you whenever the other person talks. The two tests linked above tell you which.