Call quality — what to check

Most bad calls come from the microphone or the connection on this side, and each takes about a minute to rule out. Work down the list, then dial again.

They can't hear you

  1. Allow microphone access. The browser asks the first time you call; if it was refused once, the browser remembers — reopen the permission for this site and allow it.
  2. Close whatever else on this computer is holding the microphone: a call in another tab, a meeting app, a voice recorder, a second browser. Only one of them can use it at a time.
  3. Check which input is selected. A headset that is connected but not chosen sends your laptop's built-in microphone instead — and on a Mac, a nearby iPhone can be offered as the input, which sends the microphone in your pocket.

You can't hear them

  1. Check the output device and the volume. Audio can be going to a headset you took off, or to a monitor with its own speakers turned down.

If you use a Bluetooth headset or a second device

  1. A headset paired to both this computer and your phone can hand the call over to the phone the moment the phone does anything — a notification is enough. Disconnect it from the phone for the call.
  2. The call runs on the device you dialled from. heyphone open on your phone does not join it, and that phone's microphone is not part of the call — dial on the device you are going to talk into.
  3. A Bluetooth headset switches to its hands-free profile when a call starts, and that profile carries a narrower band than music does. If the voices sound muffled, a wired headset or the built-in microphone tells you whether that is the cause.

The audio breaks up, echoes or sounds robotic

  1. Get closer to the router, or switch between Wi-Fi and mobile data. A weak or moving connection is the usual cause, and it affects only your side of the call.
  2. Pause large downloads, video streams and screen sharing on the same connection. A call needs very little bandwidth but wants it steadily.
  3. Turn a VPN off for the call. It routes your audio the long way round, which arrives as delay and as the echo that comes with it.

Still wrong?

Report the call in Settings → Refunds and tell us what happened. When the fault was on our side or our carrier's, we credit the call back to your balance.