Managing your communication app microphone and speaker on Windows

This article will explain how to understand which microphone/speaker is an application working with on your Windows machine.

Specific devices selected in the audio settings of an app

Many communication applications have dedicated audio/sound settings where you can select the microphone and/or speaker you want to use it with.

If you choose a specific device from those settings, the app will work with that device no matter what other microphones/speakers are connected to your device at that moment.

Let's look at the Zoom example. Here, in Zoom it will be the AirPods microphone you talk with during the calls and listening to the call participants through AirPods headphones.

System default devices selected in the audio settings of an app

Windows 10 Windows 11

When you install and use a communication app without changing its audio settings, it will work with the default system devices selected from the Sound settings of your machine. You can surely select the system devices anytime in the future as well.

When you install and use a communication app without changing its audio settings, it will work with the default system devices selected from the System Sound settings of your machine. You can surely select the system devices anytime in the future as well.

Below is an example of the Zoom audio settings. The "Same as System" option indicates that the system default mic and speaker will be working in the app during your Zoom calls. If you change the system default devices, the mic and/or speaker working in Zoom will automatically adapt to that.

Krisp Microphone as the system default microphone

In Windows, it is possible to select Krisp Microphone as your system default device. In that case, all the apps that have the default microphone working with them or don't have dedicated audio settings will use the Krisp Microphone.