How To Use Your iPhone As a Microphone On a Mac

How To Use Your iPhone As a Microphone On a Mac.

Your Mac comes with a microphone that lets you record audio and talk to people over FaceTime. This is sufficient for such basic tasks. However, if you want to record professional audio or something like that, you should consider using an external microphone as the built-in Mac microphone is not the best of the best.

The good thing is, if you have an iPhone, you don’t need an external microphone. You can use your iPhone as a microphone on a Mac. Since the iPhone is actually the phone that people talk on, you can rely on its microphone for most, if not all, audio recording tasks.

However, connecting an iPhone to a Mac as a microphone isn’t easy. You will need to do a few tweaks and install the app before you can record audio from iPhone to your computer.

Use your iPhone as an audio input on Mac

The first thing you need to do is set up your Mac to treat the connected iPhone as an audio input device. This doesn’t happen by default, but you can enable this option and then your iPhone can be used as an audio device.

Connect iPhone to Mac using the original cable that came with your phone. Close the iTunes app if it opens automatically when you connect your iPhone.
Click Launchpad in the Dock, find the application named Audio MIDI Setup and click it to launch the application.

When the application opens, your iPhone will appear in the list in the left sidebar. You will also see a button under your iPhone. Click the Enable button to turn on your iPhone and use it as an audio device on your Mac.

A new entry for your iPhone appears in the list. The button should now say Disable, which means the feature is currently enabled.

Exit the Audio MIDI Setup application on your Mac.

Your Mac now sees your iPhone as an audio device, and you can do whatever you would normally do with an audio device, such as headphones, with it.

Install and configure a microphone app on your iPhone

Although your Mac considers your iPhone to be a microphone, you still can’t use it for audio recording. This is because your iPhone won’t send microphone signals right away unless you turn on the microphone first.

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In fact, there is a free app on the official iOS app store that should help you with that. It will activate the microphone function on your iPhone and allow your Mac to pick up audio signals.

Make sure your iPhone is still connected to your Mac with a cable.

Launch the iOS App Store on your iPhone.
Search for an app named Microphone Live and install it on your device when you find it.

Launch the application when it is installed. There are not many features in the app and you are unlikely to see two options in the main interface. Click on the one that says Front iPhone Mic to use your iPhone’s front mic.

Then click on the No Output option to choose where to send audio from your iPhone. Select Dock Connector from the pop-up menu on the screen. This will ensure that audio from your microphone is sent to the dock connector connected to your Mac.

Don’t close the iPhone app.

Set iPhone as the primary audio input device on the Mac

Your iPhone is the audio device for your Mac, but not the main audio device. Your Mac still uses its own microphone as the audio input, which you need to change to your iPhone. Once this is done, your iPhone’s microphone will become the primary microphone for your device.

Click on the Apple logo in the upper left corner of the screen and select “System Preferences.”

Select “Sound” on the next screen to open the sound settings menu.

On the Sound Settings screen, click the Input tab at the top. This will allow you to select your Mac audio input device.
Your iPhone should appear in the list of audio devices. Click on it and it will become the main audio input device on your computer.

You don’t need to save your changes manually, your Mac will do it automatically.

Use iPhone as Microphone on Mac

Your iPhone is now connected to your Mac as a microphone and you are ready to use to record audio.

You can use any app on your Mac to record sound from iPhone as a microphone. Here, we’ll show you how you can use the built-in and free third-party iPhone audio recording app on your computer.