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.
- Use Iphone As Microphone For Mac
- Use Iphone As Microphone For Mac
- Use Iphone Apps On Mac
- Use Iphone As External Microphone For Mac
- Iphone As A Microphone
#1 Using WebCamera. WebCamera is one of the best iOS apps that can be used to turn an iPhone.
- PocketAudio lets you use your iOS device as a wireless soundcard of your computer.PocketAudio automatically forwards audio captured or played on your computer to your iOS device. You can use PocketAudio as a wireless headphones and/or wireless microphone for your computer. PocketAudio (Headphones) can be used to play sound from any Windows or Mac applications.
- With iPhone headphones in line-in port, if I set prefs to use line-in input, then the Left earbud is the input (i can tell by scratching it with the sensitivity turned right up and watching the input level meter), if I set prefs to use internal mic then it just uses the mic in the body of the MBP instead (again, scratching where the mic is located vs scratching the earbuds).
- It may be the best way yet to use your iPhone as a Mac webcam, though the full version is not cheap. There are a few different apps you can use, but we recommend Kinoni’s EpocCam Webcam.
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.
Use Iphone As Microphone For Mac
Step 6
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.
Use Iphone As Microphone For Mac
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.
Use Iphone Apps On Mac
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
Use Iphone As External Microphone For Mac
Recording Audio on Your MacBook
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.
Iphone As A Microphone
FaceTime User Guide
If your Mac is connected to multiple cameras, microphones, or output devices, you can choose which one to use for your FaceTime audio and video calls.
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. For more details, see Change the sound output settings or Change the sound input settings.
Choose a specific camera, microphone, or output device to use.
If there aren’t any devices listed in the Video menu, FaceTime uses the built-in camera, microphone, and speakers. See Use the built-in camera.