How to test your microphone
Press Start microphone and allow access when your browser asks. Speak the way you would on a call — a normal voice from a normal distance. The bar should rise as you talk and drop back when you stop.
If you have more than one microphone, a list appears above the meter. Laptops often have a built-in microphone, a headset adds a second one, and a webcam adds a third. Pick each in turn and say a few words; the one that moves the bar is the one that works.
Then press Record 8 seconds, talk, and play the recording back. The level meter tells you whether sound arrives; the recording tells you what it sounds like. A microphone can move the bar and still sound muffled, distant or full of hiss, and you only hear that on playback.
What a working microphone looks like
A healthy microphone has three clear states:
- Silence — the bar sits almost at zero. A small flicker is normal: rooms are never completely quiet.
- Normal speech — the bar moves through the middle of the scale and follows each word.
- Loud sounds — a clap or a laugh briefly pushes it towards the top, then it falls back.
The thin mark that stays behind is the peak: the loudest moment of the last second. It helps you see short spikes that the bar itself moves past too quickly.
On playback, your voice should be clear and at a similar distance to how you spoke. Some thinness is normal for laptop and webcam microphones, which are built to be small rather than to sound rich. A USB or headset microphone close to your mouth will usually sound fuller and pick up less of the room.
Common problems and what they mean
The bar does not move at all
If access was granted but nothing moves, the browser is listening to a microphone that hears nothing. Most often that is the wrong device: a disconnected headset still listed as default, a virtual device installed by conferencing software, or a webcam microphone on a camera that is not plugged in. Choose another entry from the list. If none of them react, look for a hardware mute switch — many headsets have one on the cable or the ear cup, and some laptops have a mute key with its own light.
It works here but not in your call app
Then the microphone itself is fine. Call apps choose their input device on their own, and they often ignore what the system has set as default. Open the audio settings inside the app and select the same microphone that moved the bar here.
The level is very low
Move closer first — distance matters more than any setting. If that does not help, raise the input volume in your system sound settings. Some microphones also have a gain knob of their own. Automatic volume in the browser can hide a low level by boosting it, so switch it off to see what the microphone delivers on its own.
The sound is harsh or crackles on loud words
That is clipping: the signal is louder than the recording can hold, so the tops of the sound wave are cut off. Lower the input volume or move back a little. Crackling that happens even when you speak quietly is different — it usually points to a loose cable, a worn socket or a USB port that does not supply enough power.
A steady hiss or hum in the background
A hiss that does not change is electrical noise, common in cheap microphones and in sockets on the front of desktop computers. Try a socket on the back, or a USB microphone instead of an analogue one. A low hum that appears when the laptop charger is plugged in usually comes from the power supply; unplug the charger for a moment and listen again. Turning noise suppression on removes a lot of both.
People hear an echo of themselves
Your microphone is picking up your own speakers. Wear headphones, turn the speakers down, or keep echo cancellation switched on.
When you are happy with the microphone, check what the other side of the call will see with the webcam test and what you will hear with the headphone and speaker test. If you are checking a second-hand laptop or phone, the used device check walks through the microphone together with everything else and gives you a report at the end.