Microphone Test

Using the test

1. 1

   Press Start microphone and answer your browser's prompt. Nothing is listened to until you do.

2. 2

   Speak at your normal call volume. The meter should move clearly with your voice and fall back when you stop.

3. 3

   Watch the waveform. A flat line while you talk means no sound is arriving; a line that is constantly at the top means the input is too hot.

4. 4

   Check "Microphone" against the device you meant to use. A silent meter is usually the wrong device, not a broken one.

5. 5

   Press Stop when you are done.

What the numbers are, and are not

The level is a percentage of the loudest signal your browser can represent, not a volume in decibels. A browser cannot measure sound pressure: it has no idea how far away you are, what your microphone's sensitivity is, or how your system has set its gain. Use the meter to see whether sound is arriving and roughly how strong it is, not to compare one microphone with another in absolute terms.

"Loudest so far" keeps the highest peak since you pressed Start, which is useful for catching a single loud moment that the moving meter shows too briefly to read. Nothing is played back through your speakers, so this test cannot cause feedback.

When the meter stays flat

Check the input device your system is using, then its input volume, then any physical mute switch on a headset or interface. Many laptops also have a privacy setting that blocks microphone access for all browsers, which looks exactly like a broken microphone from here. If your browser refused the request, that can only be undone in the browser itself, usually from the icon at the left of the address bar.

For the picture instead of the sound, use the Webcam Test. What this site does and does not collect is set out on the Privacy Policy.