Camera & setup
How to Stop Echo on Video Calls
Here's how to stop echo on video calls: put on headphones, or turn your speaker volume down and keep the speakers away from your microphone. Echo happens when the other person's voice comes out of your speakers, goes back into your mic and returns to them, so the person who hears the echo is almost never the one causing it.
Below you'll find how to tell whose side the echo is on, fixes in order from most to least effective, and a 60-second test you can run with a friend or on your next chat.
Why echo happens on video calls
Every video call is a loop. Their voice travels to your device and plays through your speakers. If your microphone picks that sound up, it's sent straight back to them a fraction of a second later. They hear their own words repeated, and that's echo.
Browsers and calling apps fight this with acoustic echo cancellation, which subtracts the sound your device just played from what the mic hears. It works well most of the time, but it struggles when:
- The speakers are loud and close to the mic, as on most laptops and on phones in speaker mode
- Sound bounces around a bare, hard room before reaching the mic
- Audio plays through a device or app the echo canceller can't follow, such as a separate Bluetooth speaker or audio-routing software
- Two devices in the same room are on the same call and hear each other
That's also the answer to "Why do people hear themselves on my call?" Your speakers are feeding their voice back into your microphone.
Whose side is the echo on?
This is the step most people skip. Echo is created on one side of the call and heard on the other.
| What's happening | Where the problem is | Who can fix it |
|---|---|---|
| You hear your own voice come back a moment later | The other person's speakers and mic | Them: headphones or lower volume |
| They say they hear themselves | Your speakers and mic | You: start with the fixes below |
| You hear yourself instantly, with no delay, even when nobody's talking back | Mic monitoring or sidetone on your own device | You: turn monitoring off (fix 5) |
| Voices sound hollow, like a bathroom | Room reverb on the speaker's side, not true echo | Whoever is in the bare room |
| A rising squeal or howl | Feedback from a mic and speakers very close together, often two devices in one room | Mute one device or move them apart |
If you hear yourself echo on a random video chat, the kindest fix is a friendly heads-up: "I'm hearing a bit of echo on my end. Do you have headphones handy?"
Echo on video call fix: what to try, in order
- Use headphones. Any wired earbuds, headphones or headset stop the other person's voice from reaching your mic. This fixes echo almost every time, and it doesn't depend on any settings.
- Lower your speaker volume. If you can't use headphones, turn the volume down until you can just hear comfortably. Echo cancellation copes much better with quieter output.
- Separate the speakers from the mic. Move external speakers away from your microphone and point them away from it. On a laptop, where you can't move them, lower the volume instead.
- One audio source per room. Don't play a video, a TV or a second call near your mic, and don't join the same call from two devices in the same room.
- Turn off mic monitoring. On Windows, open the classic Sound control panel (Settings → System → Sound → More sound settings), go to the Recording tab, open your microphone's Properties and, on the Listen tab, untick "Listen to this device." Some headset apps also have a sidetone or mic monitoring option. Names may differ slightly by version.
- Keep echo cancellation on. Omlet asks your browser to turn on its echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic volume control, so there's nothing to switch on in the site. Avoid routing call audio through mixer or virtual audio software, which can stop the browser matching what it plays to what it hears.
- Soften the room. Hard walls and floors make the echo canceller's job harder. A rug, curtains or a sofa nearby helps; there's more on room setup in how to reduce background noise.
Muting your mic while the other person talks stops them hearing echo instantly. It's a handy stopgap while you find your headphones.
Reduce mic echo on laptops, phones and Bluetooth
Laptops
Laptop speakers sit a few inches from the built-in mic, which makes laptops the most common source of echo. Keep the volume around half or lower, avoid pushing the laptop into a hard corner where sound bounces straight back, and plug in any earbuds you have. There are more laptop setup tips in random video chat on a laptop.
Phones
Phones handle echo well when you hold them normally, but speaker mode at full volume on a hard table can overwhelm them. Turn the volume down a notch or use earbuds.
Bluetooth speakers and headsets
A separate Bluetooth speaker adds delay and plays sound from somewhere the echo canceller doesn't expect, so headphones are a better choice. Bluetooth headsets rarely cause echo, but when their mic is on, many switch to a lower-quality hands-free mode, which can make voices sound thin.
The 60-second echo test
You can't hear your own echo, because it happens on the other end. So you need a second person: a friend on another device in a different room, or your next match on Omlet.
- Set up the way you normally chat, without headphones.
- Ask: "Quick sound check: do you hear your own voice coming back?"
- Stay silent while they talk for about 10 seconds. If they hear echo, it's on your side.
- Put on headphones and have them talk again. If the echo is gone, your speakers were the cause.
- If you'd rather not use headphones, take them off, lower the volume by half and test once more.
Testing with a friend? Make sure you're in separate rooms, or the two devices will hear each other and produce feedback that has nothing to do with your setup. When the line is clean, start a random video chat and enjoy it.
When it isn't echo
Some sound problems feel like echo but have different causes:
- You can't hear the other person at all, or they can't hear you: that's a device or permission issue. See can't hear the other person on a video call.
- Your voice cuts in and out: often several noise suppressors stacked on top of each other, or a weak connection.
- A steady hum or hiss: that's background noise from fans or electronics, not echo.
- Sound and picture out of step: a timing problem; see audio out of sync on video calls.
Once your sound is clean, give your picture the same attention: how to improve webcam quality for free and how to look good on webcam cover the visual side.