Check your microphone before the meeting. A live volume meter and waveform show it's working, and a quick playback test lets you hear how you sound to others.
Speak normally…
🔒 The audio is analysed live on your device and never leaves your browser.
If the meter never moves, the browser may be blocking access — click the mic/camera icon in the address bar and choose Allow.
Laptops often list 2–3 inputs. Pick your headset or USB mic in the dropdown and watch which one reacts.
Headset inline mutes, keyboard F-key mutes and OS input volume at zero are the most common "broken mic" causes.
The level display shows the signal your browser receives after the operating system's input gain, so it reflects the whole chain rather than the microphone alone. Speaking normally should produce clear movement without the meter pinning at the top — peaks around −12 to −6 dBFS on a calibrated scale, or roughly two thirds of the way up on a simple meter.
A meter that barely moves points at input gain set too low, a muted or wrong device selected, or a microphone that needs power it is not receiving. A meter constantly at maximum means gain too high, which produces clipping — and clipped digital audio is unrecoverable, so this is worth fixing before recording rather than afterwards.
Watch the level while not speaking, too. A meter that sits visibly above the floor in silence is showing you the room's noise, a noisy preamp, or interference — and whatever it is will be present under everything you record.
Browser microphone access requires an explicit permission grant and a secure context, so the page must be served over HTTPS. If no prompt appears, permission was probably denied previously and is now remembered — the site settings in the address bar are where to reset it.
Only one application can hold an exclusive input device on some systems, so a conferencing application running in the background can prevent the browser from capturing anything. Closing other applications that use the microphone is the first thing to try when a device appears available but produces no signal.
Where several inputs exist — a built-in microphone, a headset, an interface, a virtual device installed by conferencing software — the browser may default to one you did not intend. Selecting the device explicitly resolves a large share of "my microphone is not working" reports, since virtual devices in particular are often chosen automatically and capture nothing.
A steady hum, typically at 50 or 60 hertz depending on region, is usually electrical — a ground loop between devices on different circuits, or an unbalanced cable running near a power lead. Moving cables apart, using a different USB port, or powering devices from the same outlet often resolves it.
A hiss that rises when you increase gain is the noise floor of the microphone or preamp, and it is a property of the equipment. Getting closer to the microphone lets you use less gain and improves the ratio, which is a far more effective remedy than any processing.
Hollow, distant sound is room reflections rather than a microphone fault, and no processing removes it convincingly — reduce distance and add soft furnishings. Crackling and dropouts usually indicate a buffer or USB bandwidth problem rather than the microphone, and are worth testing on a different port or cable. Once the input is clean, the voice recorder captures it locally.
Yes — if the meter moves here, your mic works at the system level, so any meeting app can use it. If the meeting app is still silent, check that app's own input device setting.
Normal speech should bounce in the upper green/teal zone without pinning to the right edge. Constantly red means lower your input gain; barely moving means raise it or get closer.
The playback is the raw mic signal — what others actually hear. Echo or hiss in the clip means the issue is your mic or room, not the meeting app.
Either permission was denied earlier and is remembered — reset it in the site settings in the address bar — or the page is not on HTTPS, which browsers require for microphone access.
Another application may be holding the microphone exclusively, or the browser may have selected a virtual device installed by conferencing software. Close other apps and choose the input explicitly.