Your Mac comes equipped with a microphone to let you record audio and talk to people over FaceTime. It’s good enough for basic tasks like these. However, if you want to record professional audio or anything like that, you’ll want to consider using an external microphone as the built-in Mac microphone isn’t the best of the best.

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

Connecting an iPhone to a Mac as a microphone isn’t too straightforward, though. You’ll need to go through a few settings option and install an app before you can record audio with your iPhone on your machine.

Use Your iPhone As An Audio Input On Mac

The first thing you’ll want to do is configure your Mac in such a way that it considers your connected iPhone as an audio input device. It doesn’t do so by default but you can enable an option and your iPhone can then be used as an audio device.

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

• When the app opens, you’ll find your iPhone listed in the left sidebar. You’ll also see a button beneath your iPhone. Click on this Enable button to enable and use your iPhone as an audio device on your Mac.

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• You’ll see a new entry of your iPhone in the list. The button should now say Disable which means the feature is currently enabled.

• Exit out of the Audio MIDI Setup app on your Mac.

Your Mac now thinks your iPhone is an audio device and you can perform any action on it that you’d normally perform on an audio device such as a headphone.

Install & Configure a Microphone App On An iPhone

Although your Mac considers your iPhone as a microphone, you still can’t use it for audio recordings. It’s because your iPhone won’t send any microphone signals straightaway without you first triggering the mic.

There’s actually a free app on the official iOS App Store that should help you do it. It’ll trigger the microphone function on your iPhone and let your Mac catch the audio signals.

Ensure your iPhone is still connected to your Mac over a cable connection.

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

• Launch the app when it’s installed. There aren’t many functions in the app and you’ll hardly see two options on the main interface. Tap on the one that says Front iPhone Mic to use the front microphone of your iPhone.

• Then tap on the option that says No Output to select where to send the audio signals from your iPhone. Choose Dock Connector from the menu that pops-up on your screen. This ensures your microphone audio is sent to Dock connector which is connected to your Mac.

• Keep the app open on your iPhone.

Set An iPhone As The Primary Audio Input Device On a Mac

Microsoft Microphone App

Your iPhone is an audio device for your Mac but it’s still not the primary one. Your Mac still uses its own microphone as an audio input, which you need to change to your iPhone. Once that’s done, your iPhone microphone will be the primary microphone for your machine.

• Click on the Apple logo at the top-left corner of your screen and select System Preferences.

• Choose Sound on the following screen to open your sound settings menu.

• On the sound settings screen, click on the Input tab at the top. It’ll let you select an audio input device for your Mac.
• Your iPhone should appear in the list of audio devices. Click on it and it’ll become the primary audio input device on your machine.

You don’t need to save the changes manually as your Mac will do it automatically for you.

Use An iPhone As a Microphone On a Mac

Your iPhone is now connected to your Mac as a microphone and it’s all ready to be used for your audio recording tasks.

You can use any of the apps on your Mac to record audio with your iPhone as a microphone. Here we show how you can use a built-in and a free third-party app to record audio from an iPhone on your machine.

Record iPhone Audio Using QuickTime

QuickTime is the easiest way to record your iPhone screen as well as your iPhone audio. It’s free and comes preloaded on all the Macs.

• Click on Launchpad in the Dock, search for QuickTime Player, and open the app.

• Click on the File menu at the top and select New Audio Recording.

Adding Microphone To The Computer

• Click on the dropdown menu next to the record button and select iPhone from it.

• Hit the red record button to start recording with your iPhone microphone.
  
• Select the File menu followed by Save to save your audio file.

Record iPhone Audio Using Audacity

Audacity is a free and open-source app that helps record audios and tweak your existing sound files.

• Launch the Audacity app from Launchpad on your Mac.

• Select iPhone from the microphone dropdown menu so it uses your iPhone as a microphone.

• Click on the red record button to start the recording.

In macOS 10.14 Mojave, Apple introduced new security settings that allow to control what apps can access your camera and microphone. Previous macOS versions allowed you to control only access to your location, contacts, photos, calendar, and reminders.

The first time the application will try to get access to your microphone, you’ll see a prompt from your system:

Note:

You won’t receive notifications from Apple apps like Safari or FaceTime. You can limit access to your microphone only for third-party programs.

Even if you’ve clicked “Don’t Allow,” you can change that later on your Mac. We’ll show you how to see what apps or websites can use your microphone to record audio and how you can adjust the settings.

How to allow microphone access on Mac

Follow these steps to allow the apps to access your microphone:

Free Microphone App For Pc

1. On your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences.
2. Click Security & Privacy.
3. Choose the Privacy tab.
4. Select Microphone.
5. Check the box next to the app to allow it to access your microphone.

Please note that if you allow the apps to use your microphone, any information they receive and collect is governed by their privacy policy. We recommend you to learn it to make sure that your personal data will be secure.

How to deny access to your microphone

If you want to block access to your microphone for some apps, you should follow similar steps:

1. Go to the Apple menu.
2. Click System Preferences.
3. Choose Security & Privacy.
4. Select Microphone.
5. Deselect the checkbox to turn off access for that app.

You might be asked to quit the app to limit its access to your microphone. You can click “Quit Now” and the program won’t be able to use your mic anymore.

Note:

Some apps won’t work properly if you limit their access to your microphone. For example, if you’re using video chatting in Skype, you’ll have to give the app access to your camera and microphone.

How to control all permissions easily

External Microphone For Mac

You would be happy to learn about a cool way of managing all your apps permissions — with the help of an app CleanMyMac X. It has a great new feature, “Application Permissions,” that allows to check what data is used by different applications. In just a few clicks, you can see what programs have access to your camera, microphone, and other resources, and make changes.

Here’s how to try this amazing feature:

1. Download and install CleanMyMac X first (free trial version is available).
2. Launch the app.
3. Choose the Privacy tab.
4. Click Scan.
5. Choose “Application Permissions.”
6. Check the current permissions and make changes.

That’s it! All permissions are in one place, easy to view and manage.

Please note that you can control app permissions only on macOS Catalina.

Once you’ve checked your permissions, feel free to try other CleanMyMac’s features. It has a lot to offer: tools for speeding up the system, verifying your Mac for viruses and malware, finding space hoggers, and much more.

Tip:

Run a Smart Scan to clean, speed up, and check your Mac for malware in just a click.

We hope this article will be useful, and you’ll keep your private data safe and untouched.

Stay tuned!