Use your phone as a Discord mic
Updated July 11, 2026 · 3 min read
Headset mics are a lottery, and laptop mics pick up the room, the fan, and every keystroke. Your phone's microphone is better than both — and since Micstream presents it to Windows as a standard input device, Discord doesn't need anything special to use it.
This assumes Micstream is already running: Windows client installed, app on the phone, the two connected over USB or Wi-Fi. If not, the setup walkthrough covers it — come back when "Micstream" shows up in Windows Sound settings.
Select the input device
- 1
Open User Settings
The gear icon next to your username, bottom left.
- 2
Go to Voice & Video
It's under App Settings in the left sidebar.
- 3
Set the Input Device to Micstream
Top of the page, left dropdown.
- 4
Run Mic Test
Speak — the meter should move, and playback lets you hear what everyone else will.
Settings worth changing
Noise suppression
Discord's noise suppression exists to rescue bad mics in noisy rooms. Run a clean signal through it and it can add artifacts instead — voices turn pumpy and underwater. Toggle it off and compare with Mic Test: in a quiet room, off usually wins. In a loud one, keep it.
Echo cancellation
On headphones there's no echo to cancel — turn it off and remove one processing stage. On speakers, leave it on.
Input sensitivity
Turn off automatic detection and set the threshold yourself: speak normally and put the slider just under where the meter peaks. Too low transmits room noise; too high clips the front of your sentences. Push-to-talk sidesteps the tuning entirely — worth it on crowded channels.
Input volume
Set gain at the source. Micstream follows the phone's volume setting, so that's your gain control before the signal ever reaches Discord — keep Discord's own input volume somewhere sensible in the middle.
Troubleshooting
Micstream isn't in Discord's device list
Discord scans audio devices at startup. If you installed Micstream while Discord was open, quit it fully — right-click the tray icon and choose Quit — and reopen. Still missing? Check Windows Sound settings; if it's not there either, re-run the installer.
You sound choppy or robotic
Over Wi-Fi that's congestion between the phone and the PC, not Discord. Switch to USB — the phone-to-PC link stops depending on your network entirely.
Discord uses the wrong microphone
If the meter jumps when you tap the laptop but not when you talk into the phone, the input is still on another device. Pick Micstream explicitly and confirm the phone is connected in the app.
Voice activity clips your first words
Lower the sensitivity threshold or raise the phone's volume. If your voice sits right at the threshold, sentence openings get cut — leave a few dB of headroom.
Friends hear themselves echo
Your speakers are feeding their voices back into the mic. Headphones fix it completely; if you have to use speakers, keep echo cancellation on and put the phone as far from them as you can.
Streaming too? The OBS guide covers filters and monitoring. And if you're still choosing an app, here's how Micstream compares to AudioRelay and WO Mic.
Not installed yet? Both downloads are free: