If the inbuilt microphone of MacBook is no longer working correctly, and you need to use the microphone to do something on your Mac computer, you can use this trick to use iPhone as a microphone for Mac. No matter whether you have a MacBook or iMac, you can certainly use this technique to use the iPhone as a wired microphone of your Mac computer. Obviously, you need to take the help of a third-party app. The good news is the app is available for free and you can download it on almost all the iPhones that are running today.
If the inbuilt microphone of MacBook is no longer working correctly, and you need to use the microphone to do something on your Mac computer, you can use this trick to use iPhone as a microphone for Mac. No matter whether you have a MacBook or iMac, you can certainly use this technique to use the iPhone as a wired microphone of your Mac computer. In the FaceTime app on your Mac, choose one of the following from the Video menu. Choose Use System Setting for your microphone or output device. If you select this, FaceTime uses the audio devices set in the Output or Input pane of Sound preferences.
Mac computers are priced comparatively higher than a similarly configured Windows computer. However, the performance of an Apple computer is much better than other computers. The hardware and software are much better than similar Windows computer. No matter whether you assemble a desktop computer or buy a laptop, you may not get the same performance as you can expect it from an Apple computer. The longevity of Apple hardware is more than other manufacturers. This is very rare when a new Apple computer has stopped working correctly. Obviously, this is an electric machine and problems may occur but the chance is infrequent. That is why people often prefer Apple over other computers.
If you are using a Mac computer and your microphone is not working correctly. Obviously, you can take the Apple Diagnostics to detect the faulty hardware. If Apple Diagnostics is showing some error regarding the microphone of your Mac computer, this article will help you bypass that problem. You may not be able to fix the faulty hardware, but you can temporarily solve that issue by using your iOS device as a wired third-party microphone to get the job done.
Sometimes we need to use the microphone for various jobs. For example, you want to record your voice, or you want to record a voiceover for your video, or you want to use Siri using voice command. As your inbuilt microphone is not working correctly, you need to take the help of third-party tools so that you can get the job done for now. Therefore, follow the following tutorial to use your iPhone and iPad as a microphone for your Mac.
How To Use iPhone As Microphone For Mac
As mentioned earlier, you need to install a third-party application on your iOS device. The good news is you can download this app on the iPhone as well as iPad. This application is named Microphone Live. You can download it for free, but you need iOS 10.0 or later version. Even if you are using the BETA version of iOS, you can install it without any problem from the App Store.
The user interface of this app is neat and clean. There is no complex option that can waste your time. Some simple options will let you do the job perfectly.
On your Mac, there is no need to install any third-party software since the inbuilt apps can do the job with ease. You need to use Audio MIDI Setup and the Sound apps on your Mac. As mentioned above, there is no need to install anything since both apps are already available in your system.
To get started, download the Microphone Live app on your iPhone or iPad. After that, connect your iOS device to MacBook using USB/Lighting cable.
Then, on your Mac computer, open Applications > Utilities. Here you can find an app called Audio MIDI Setup. Double-click on this option to open the corresponding settings.
As your iPhone/iPad is already connected to your Mac computer, you can find that device on your screen. You need to click the corresponding Enable button to allow this device to be used as an inter-device audio and MIDI mode.
Now, on your iPhone/iPad, open the Microphone Live application. On the screen, you should get an option called Bottom iPhone Mic. Most of the iOS devices will show this option. However, if you have an iPhone with stereo audio functionality, you may find another option called Front iPhone Mic. You can choose the mic that you want to use.
After that, a popup will appear on your screen, where you need to select the Dock Connector. If other devices are appearing, you need to choose this option only.
Then, on your Mac, open System Preferences and go to Sound. After that, switch from the current tab to the Input tab.
Here you should get iPhone/iPad as an input device. If you can find it, that means you can start using your iPhone/iPad as a microphone for your Mac computer.
That’s it! As a temporary solution, it is a great workaround. Hope it will help you a lot.
Your Macbook has an internal mic, but it isn’t that good. Off course you can buy those external USB mics from Amazon, but they are quite expensive as well. Turns out, you can use your iPhone’s mic as an audio input for your Mac. The trick here is simple. All you need is an app that transmits audio from your iPhone to your Mac and set up your Mac, to make it receive audio input. Let’s see how to do this.
Read: Best Audio Recording Software for Mac
You Will Need
- A free app – Microphone Live
- Apple’s Lightning to USB cable
- And of course, iPhone and MacBook.
Use iPhone as External Mic Input in MacBook
Step 1
Once you have downloaded the Microphone Live app on your iPhone, connect your iPhone and MacBook through the lightning to USB cable. Placing your iPhone on a tripod or hold it in your hand, to make the best use of the microphones placed at the bottom.
Step 2
Now, go to your Mac and open a new Finder window by pressing ‘cmd + N’. Click on ‘Applications’ under the head favorites, in the left navigation menu.
Step 3
Scroll down to find the ‘Utilities’ folder. You can also access the same in your Launchpad or even in the Spotlight search.
Step 4
Look for ‘Audio MIDI Setup’. This app is a macOS utility that manages audio and MIDI devices.
Step 4
Open the Audio MIDI Setup and look for your iPhone’s name on the left menu. Click on ‘Enable‘ right under your iPhone’s name. This allows your iPhone to appear as an audio input device on your MacBook.
Step 5
Now, go back to your iPhone and open Microphone lite app. You’ll see the input and output options at the bottom of the screen. Although initially, the app shows the input device as iPhone Bottom Mic. But in some devices, you’ll notice that as soon as you enable the device on your Mac, the audio input changes to Front iPhone Mic.
This is because your device has another microphone that you were probably not aware of. It is placed right on top along with the stereo speakers.
Step 6
Use Iphone As Bluetooth Microphone For Mac
On the bottom right of the app, you’ll see the output device menu. Tap on it once and select ‘Dock Connector’ if not already selected.
Step 7
Open System Preferences either through launchpad or Spotlight and look for Sounds.
Here you’ll see that iPhone is now available as an input device for your Mac. Select iPhone and you are good to go. You can check if the device is working right from this menu itself. As you speak the sound bar shows input.
Step 8
Similarly, if you use Audacity to record audio, you can now see iPhone in the input device drop-down menu.
Step 9
Now go back to your iPhone, open the microphone lite if it’s not already open and press the power button to activate iPhone mic.
Step 10
And that’s it, hit the record button on Audacity and start recording audio on your Mac from your iPhone’s mic. You might have to do some noise removal and audio compression with Audacity, here is our step by step article on how to improve your voice over with Audacity
Recording Audio on Your MacBook
Use Iphone As Microphone For Mac Wireless
Although there are other ways to record audio on your iPhone and then transfer it to your MacBook, for better audio quality. In fact, you can even record audio on the native Voice Memo app which is common across your Apple devices and hence you can access it on your Mac as well. But then again there’s a hassle of importing the audio file into the editing software. Microphone Live and other similar apps let you record audio in apps like audacity in real-time. So make your choice and let me know your experience in the comments below.