Use your phone as a mic for a Linux PC

1. Create a virtual audio device

Other apps can't directly use AudioRelay as a source. We'll have to create a virtual audio device.

AudioRelay will send sound to this virtual audio device and other apps will listen to it as if it was a real microphone.

Create a temporary virtual audio device

After a restart, the virtual device will disappear. You can follow these instructions to test AudioRelay.

• Open a terminal window

• Copy-paste this command

It creates a device where AudioRelay can stream audio into.

pactl load-module module-null-sink \
	sink_name=audiorelay-virtual-mic-sink \
	sink_properties=device.description=Virtual-Mic-Sink

• Then copy-paste this other one

It creates a device usable by communications apps (e.g: skype). (It simply renames the Monitor of the previous device)

pactl load-module module-remap-source \
	master=audiorelay-virtual-mic-sink.monitor \
	source_name=audiorelay-virtual-mic-sink \
	source_properties=device.description=Virtual-Mic

What it should look like

Typing pulseaudio -k reloads PulseAudio and remove the temporary devices.

Create a permanent virtual audio device (recommended)

These are the same instructions as above but, the virtual audio device will persist between reboots.

• Open the file /etc/pulse/default.pa

• Add these lines at the end

# Creates a device where AudioRelay can stream audio into
load-module module-null-sink sink_name=audiorelay-virtual-mic-sink sink_properties=device.description=Virtual-Mic-Sink
# Creates a device usable by communications apps (e.g: skype)
load-module module-remap-source master=audiorelay-virtual-mic-sink.monitor source_name=audiorelay-virtual-mic-sink source_properties=device.description=Virtual-Mic

• Open a terminal window

• Type pulseaudio -k to make PulseAudio reload the file.

Result in Volume control

What the result should look like in Volume control / pavucontrol

(Installed via sudo apt install pavucontrol

2. Start AudioRelay on your phone

• Go to the server tab

• Click on the microphone source

3. Start AudioRelay on your PC

• Go to the player tab

• Select Virtual-Mic-Sink as the audio device

• Click on your phone in the server list

4. Start your communications app (Discord, Skype...)

• Find the microphone settings

• Select Virtual-Mic as an input device

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