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Broadcast — one speaker, many listeners (up to a few hundred with relay rooms). Great for presentations, lectures, live interpretation, or announcements to a larger group.

Walkie-⁠Talkie — up to 20 people in one conversation. Anyone can hold a button and say something to the whole group. Great for coordinating a team or short back-and-forth conversations where everyone should be able to speak up.

If you have a link, just open it. If you only have a room code, go to the SpeakMic home page, choose the "Join" tab, paste the link or code, and tap "Join". You can also tap "Scan" and point your camera at the room's QR code. If the room needs a PIN, the app will ask for it.

Android – download the native app from speakmic.com/dl/android (a banner at the bottom of the site will link you there automatically when you're on an Android device). The native app keeps audio and connections alive even with your screen locked, thanks to a background service — this typically uses less battery than keeping the browser open and the screen on. To install the APK, you may need to allow installation from unknown sources in your Android settings (Settings → Security → Install unknown apps).

iPhone / iPad – tap the Share icon in Safari, then choose "Add to Home Screen". This installs SpeakMic as a web app with its own icon and lets it keep playing audio in the background.

Other devices – when you visit the site you may see an "Install SpeakMic" prompt. Accepting it gives the app its own icon on your home screen or desktop and lets it keep playing audio when not in the foreground.

No. Just open the page. If you create a room, this browser automatically remembers that you manage it. An optional PIN (described below) lets you recover that role on a different device if you ever need to.

On the home page, choose the "Broadcast" tab, optionally type a room name (visible to everyone who joins — leave it empty and one is made up for you), and tap "Create room". The room opens right away with the "Start broadcasting" button and, below it, a link and QR code you can share.

Before you go live, the room's link and QR code are right under the "Start broadcasting" button; once you're live, tap "Invite listeners" (or open the "Invite" tab). Send the link (by message or email) or show someone the QR code so they can scan it with their phone. Listeners who join before you start simply wait for the broadcast to begin.

Expanding them lets you set up front:

• a PIN required to join as a listener,
• an admin PIN you can use to recover access on another device,
• whether the room should be temporary (by default it keeps its link — see below),
• roughly how many listeners you expect — the app then picks a sensible limit and connection type (see "Connection type" below) for you.

All of these can also be changed later, in the settings of the room you already created.

Open your room (the app recognizes you as the speaker) and tap "Start broadcasting". Your browser will ask for microphone access — allow it, and your voice immediately starts reaching every connected listener.

Before you start, you can tap "Test microphone" — say something and the bars show whether the mic picks you up. While you're live, the same bars sit above the mute button, and the "Live" badge next to the room name confirms you're on air.

By default the speaker's microphone stays on for the whole broadcast. You can instead turn on push-to-talk mode in the broadcasting panel — then the microphone is only active while you hold down a large button. Useful if you don't want listeners to hear everything around you between things you say.

Tap the mute button in the broadcasting panel. Listeners will see that the microphone is muted and hear silence until you unmute it.

Yes. The "Chat" tab lets you send a text announcement visible to every listener. You can also turn on "Allow listener replies to you" — listeners can then reply to you privately, and only you see those replies (other listeners don't). Messages support emoji and almost any character; the newest message always appears at the bottom, and a "Load more" button at the top of the list reveals older history.

Yes, if you enable it. In the broadcasting panel, expand "More options" and check "Allow emoji reactions". Listeners will then see a 😊 button in the bottom right corner. Tapping it opens a panel with five emoji (👍 ❤️ 😂 😮 👏) — tapping one sends it to everyone in the room as a floating animation rising up the right edge of the screen. You can turn this off at any time from the same checkbox.

Yes — turn on "Monitor my microphone" in the broadcasting panel to hear your own voice played back live. Since the app can't tell whether you're wearing headphones, turning this on always asks you to confirm first: without headphones, hearing yourself through a speaker causes a feedback loop (a loud screech) as the microphone picks up its own playback.

Open Settings (the gear icon) and choose "Microphone settings". These settings apply to your device in every room — see App settings below for a full description of each option.

Yes. "Start recording" in the broadcasting panel records your microphone to a file saved on your own device (named after the room and the time recording started) — it's never uploaded anywhere. You can stop and start a new recording as many times as you like during one broadcast. Stopping the broadcast, or leaving the room, automatically stops and saves whatever recording is in progress.

Yes. In a broadcast room, audio only flows one way — from the speaker to listeners. Listeners can at most text you in chat (if you allow replies), but there is no two-way audio.

In the broadcasting panel, tap More options and check "Allow emoji reactions". Reactions are disabled by default and can be turned off again at any time. While enabled, a 😊 button appears in the bottom right corner of every listener's screen. The speaker themselves sees the reactions but cannot send them.

Everyone. Reactions are always available in Walkie-⁠Talkie rooms — there is no toggle and no one needs to enable them. Every participant sees the 😊 button and can send a reaction at any time, regardless of who currently holds the floor.

Tap the 😊 button (bottom right). A panel opens with five emoji: 👍 ❤️ 😂 😮 👏. Tap one — it sends immediately and the panel closes. After sending, the button dims for 2 seconds before you can send again.

Everyone in the room. Each reaction appears as a floating emoji rising along the right edge of the screen and fades out after a few seconds.

No. Like audio and chat messages, reactions are ephemeral — they exist only while the session is live and are never stored on any server.

"Change room name" lets you give the room a different name that everyone joining sees, e.g. an event name. You can also just tap the room's name at the top of the room — while it still has the name given to it automatically, a pencil next to it reminds you.

It's a secret 6-digit code you can use to recover the speaker role if you open the same room on another device, or clear your browser data. Without a PIN set beforehand, if you lose access on your device, no one can manage this room anymore. Set or change it under "Manage PINs".

This is a separate 6-digit code that (if you set one) listeners must enter just to join the room. Worth setting when you don't want the plain link alone to be enough for anyone who sees it. Leave the new PIN field blank to remove it — the room becomes open to anyone with the link again.

Open the room's link on the new device, choose "Recover access", and enter the admin PIN. Note: this won't work while a broadcast is actively running from the previous device — stop it there first.

Sets how many people can listen to your broadcast at the same time. You can raise or lower it anytime under "Listener limit".

• Automatic (recommended) — quality adjusts itself to the number of listeners, only dropping for a large audience so the broadcast keeps running smoothly.
• High quality — always the best possible sound, but needs a stable, fast internet connection — with many listeners the broadcast may stutter.
• Balanced — a good middle ground between sound quality and connection stability. A safe choice in most situations.
• Data saver — the lowest data and battery use, at the cost of noticeably lower sound quality. A good option on weak internet or an older phone.

Direct connections — every listener connects straight to your device. The simplest mode, but with many listeners it puts a heavy load on your phone or computer and your internet connection. Recommended only for a small audience.

Relay tree — the first listeners connect straight to you; as more join, some listeners (chosen automatically by the app) forward the audio on to a few other listeners. This takes load off your device and lets you reach a larger audience. It happens automatically in the background, without a separate consent prompt for those people, and uses a small amount of their data and battery, only while they're listening.

Relay server (SFU) — audio is routed through a server. The broadcaster publishes audio once to the server, which then forwards it to all listeners. This reduces load on the broadcaster's connection and improves stability for large audiences. Audio is never decoded or stored on the server.

You usually don't need to choose anything manually — if you set an expected listener count when creating the room, the app picks the right type by itself. You can still change this setting anytime, right here.

A new room is permanent: its link and QR code keep working until it has gone 3 months without a broadcast, so you can use the same room for every session. If you only need it once, tick "Temporary room" under "More options" when creating it — it then disappears after 1 day with nobody in it. A temporary room can still be made permanent later, in the room settings ("Change to permanent room").

In the "Danger zone" you can permanently delete the room and all its settings. This cannot be undone, and everyone connected is disconnected immediately.

When you expect more than about 100 listeners at once. You can add up to 5 relay rooms, each adding its own listener limit, so the broadcast's total reach can grow to roughly 600 people.

In your main room's settings, choose "Add relay room". Give it a name and a listener limit, set its admin PIN (required when creating it), and optionally a PIN for its own listeners. Once created, you'll see its link, QR code, and admin PIN — save these, you'll need them in the next step.

Open the newly created relay room's link on the device that will run it (e.g. a spare phone, or a laptop plugged into power). Go into its settings and choose "Recover access", entering the relay's admin PIN from when you created it. From then on, that device automatically receives audio from the main room and rebroadcasts it to its own listeners — you don't need to broadcast anything manually there. The connection type (Direct connections or Relay tree) automatically follows the main room's setting — there's nothing to choose separately here.

"Manage relay rooms" shows a list of all your relay rooms along with how many listeners are currently connected to each. Pick one to change its name, listener limit, listener PIN, or admin PIN, see its link and QR code, or delete it permanently.

Its listeners will see a message that there's currently no audio in that room. Simply start the relay again on that device (e.g. reopen its link) — the broadcast in the main room is not interrupted in any way.

On the home page, choose the "Walkie-⁠Talkie" tab, optionally type a room name, and tap "Create room". The room opens with your nickname form (prefilled with the one you used last time) and, below it, the invite link and QR code, so you can invite people before joining; once you've joined, an "Invite others" button under the participant list shows them again while you're alone (they're always in the "Invite" tab too). Under "More options" you can set a participant limit, a room PIN or admin PIN, and whether the room should be temporary (see below).

Open the room's link or scan its QR code, pick a nickname (visible to other participants), and, if the room requires one, enter the room PIN.

Hold down the large "Hold to talk" button — everyone else in the room hears your voice. Releasing the button immediately ends your turn and hands the floor back to everyone else.

On a computer you can also hold the Space bar (when you're not typing in a text field) — it works just like holding the button.

The bars under the "who's speaking" line show the sound level: your microphone while you talk, the incoming audio while someone else does. Flat bars next to "Ola is speaking" mean her audio isn't reaching you (a muted mic or a connection problem).

Yes - the play/pause button on wired or Bluetooth headphones works like the talk button in tap mode: one click and you're talking, the next click stops. If the lock under the button was off, the click switches it on for that turn and it goes back off when the turn ends - by a click, a tap on the screen or the time limit. A lock you switched on yourself stays on. It also works with the screen off, in the Android app too. If someone else is speaking, you hear a short double tone instead. On Android, in a walkie-talkie room, a Bluetooth headset's button starts talking only with "For listening only" chosen in the microphone settings - see below.

During a private call the button mutes and unmutes your microphone. In a broadcast it mutes the speaker's microphone (in push-to-talk mode it starts and stops talking, like the walkie-talkie) and mutes the sound for a listener.

On an iPhone a headset's microphone is used by itself; on a computer, the one set in the system.

On Android the walkie-talkie keeps the phone in call mode from your first turn on - that's what lets a Bluetooth headset carry both the room and your voice. It changes two things:

• Volume: the phone's volume buttons set the call volume, but the room plays at the media volume. In the Android app the buttons set the room's volume themselves. In a browser, press a volume button, open all the sliders (the small icon by the slider) and turn up Media.
• A Bluetooth headset sounds like a phone call, and its button only stops talking - you start with the button on the screen.

Don't want that? Under Settings → Microphone settings → "Bluetooth headset", choose "For listening only": no call mode, the room in full quality (in a headset too), the volume buttons work as usual, the headset's button talks, and you talk into the phone.

Usually the phone puts the walkie-talkie on the headset by itself. If it doesn't, allow "Nearby devices": the Android app asks for it when you first start it, and you can allow it later under Settings → Microphone settings → "Bluetooth headset" → "Sound or your voice not going through the headset?". Then close the app (or Chrome) completely and open it again - it only takes the permission when it starts.

Only one person can speak at a time. If someone else is already holding the button, your press is rejected — wait a moment and try again, or join the queue (see below).

Yes, 15 seconds by default, but the room admin can change this limit (5-60 seconds) — after that the microphone is released automatically so no one can hold the floor forever. If you want to keep talking, just press the button again.

If someone is currently speaking, you can tap "Join queue". As soon as the floor is free, the app automatically hands it to the first person in the queue and starts transmitting their microphone — nothing extra needs to be pressed at that moment.

The room's host can speak to everyone at once with "All-call" — one tap starts, the next stops. If someone is speaking at that moment, their turn ends straight away (they hear a tone and see a message) and they aren't put in the queue; after the all-call the queue carries on as usual. People in a private call hear it too, with their call turned down meanwhile.

Yes, the "Chat" tab is a shared chat visible to everyone in the room, supporting emoji and almost any character. Messages disappear once everyone leaves the room.

Yes — in a Walkie-⁠Talkie room reactions are always available. Tap the 😊 button in the bottom right corner and choose one of five emoji (👍 ❤️ 😂 😮 👏). Everyone in the room sees it as a floating animation rising up the right edge of the screen. After sending, there is a short 2-second cooldown before you can send another.

Tap the phone icon next to a participant's name in the list — or tap the name and choose "Private call". They get a ringing prompt and must answer — nothing connects without their consent. Once they do, the two of you talk directly, like on a phone: both can speak at the same time, there is no button to hold. If you can't call someone, the reason is shown under the option (for example, they are already in a call, or you are speaking to the room). The option only appears when the room host has private calls turned on.

The room is muted for the two of you, and a line at the top of the call shows who is speaking there. Tap "Room in background" to listen to it quietly (10-50% — adjustable with the slider; not available on iPhones and iPads, where the browser doesn't allow it). The "Hang up" button brings you straight back to the room. The host can also speak to everyone at once with the "All-call" button (it cuts in on whoever is speaking in the room) — you will hear it during your call, with the call turned down meanwhile.

Everyone sees an "In a call" tag next to your name and the other person's, so they know not to wait for you on the radio. Who you are talking to, and what you say, is not shown. The call is a direct connection between your two devices, so — as in the full mesh mode — you can see each other's network address technically; the audio is not stored.

In the incoming call prompt tap "Don't take calls from …". That person won't be able to call you until you leave the room (and the room is closed for a while). The call can also be declined without blocking.

Same as in a broadcast room: "Change room name" in the settings, or tap the room's name.

The room PIN (if set) must be entered by everyone who wants to join the conversation. The admin PIN is only used to recover admin rights on another device and isn't needed just to join.

Sets how many people can be in the conversation at the same time (up to 20). Change it under "Participant limit".

Full mesh — every participant keeps a separate connection to every other participant. Works great in smaller groups.

Star — connections are created dynamically, as needed. Worth switching to this mode if full mesh starts causing connection problems in a larger group (the app usually already picks this for larger groups when the room is created). This can only be changed while you're alone in the room.

Relay server (SFU) — all participants connect through a server instead of directly to each other. More stable on weak networks. Audio is never decoded or stored on the server.

Tap the person's name in the participant list and choose "Mute in room" (they can't be heard until you unmute them) or "Remove from room" (removes them permanently — they won't be able to rejoin). The same two buttons also sit at the end of each row of the list — a microphone and a person with a cross. A muted person is marked with a crossed-out microphone.

Under "Private calls" in the room settings you decide whether participants may call each other privately. Switching them off hangs up all current calls. The option appears once private calls are available on the server.

In the room settings, choose "Recover access" and enter the admin PIN set when the room was created (or changed later).

A new room is permanent: its link keeps working until it has gone 3 months without anyone connecting, so a team can use the same room for every shift. If you only need it once, tick "Temporary room" under "More options" when creating it — it then disappears after 1 day with nobody in it. A temporary room can still be made permanent later, in the room settings ("Change to permanent room").

In the danger zone you can permanently delete the room — everyone is disconnected immediately, and this cannot be undone.

On the home page, tap the three-dot menu (⋮) at the top right and choose Video call. The app generates a unique link for your device and takes you to a waiting screen with a QR code. Share the QR code or copy the link and send it to the other person — the call starts automatically when they open it.

They simply open the link you shared (or scan the QR code). No account, no app installation. The call connects within a few seconds. Only one guest can join at a time.

They will see a "Connection unavailable" message. Only two devices can be in a video call simultaneously — the owner and one guest.

Yes. On the waiting screen (or via the QR button during a call), tap Generate new link. This invalidates the previous link and creates a fresh one. You can do this once every 24 hours.

Yes — tap the microphone button in the bottom bar. The other person will no longer hear you, but video continues. Tap again to unmute.

Tap the red hang-up button in the bottom bar. If you are the guest, you are redirected to the home page. If you are the owner, you return to the waiting screen with the QR code so you can share a new call.

No. The video and audio stream flows directly between the two devices (WebRTC peer-to-peer). The server only exchanges connection metadata (SDP/ICE) to set up the call — it never sees or stores the media. There is no server-side recording.

In Settings, choose English or Polski — your choice is remembered for next time.

In Settings, choose Light, Dark, or Auto — Auto matches whatever your phone or computer is set to.

On a phone or tablet, a room can switch to a black screen that shows only what you need: the connection status, who's speaking, the push-to-talk button and the room's round buttons. On most phones (OLED screens) black pixels are switched off, so this saves a lot of battery while you keep the room open.

In Settings, under "Standby screen in a room", choose when it comes on by itself: after 30 s or 1 min without touching the screen, or Off. In every mode you can turn it on straight away with the moon button next to Settings.

A single tap on the black doesn't wake it, so a touch in your pocket won't either — it only nudges the arrow above "Close standby screen" upwards. To leave it, slide your finger up from "Close standby screen" or use the back button. To just take a quick look, double-tap the black area or slide your finger up it (the screen lights up as you go — slide back down to change your mind): the room shows for 10 seconds and then the standby screen comes back by itself — unless you tap something in the meantime.

In the Android apps, a broadcast listener's screen is allowed to switch off 15 s after the standby screen comes on (or 30 s after the last touch when the standby screen is off and power saving is on) — the sound keeps playing. When it actually goes dark depends on your phone's own screen timeout.

"Microphone settings" appears in Settings when you're in a room as a broadcaster or walkie-talkie participant. These settings are global — they apply to your device in every room you use on this browser, and take effect immediately, even while broadcasting.

Background noise and sound reduction

Asks the browser to filter out ambient sounds from your microphone input. Useful in noisy surroundings or when listeners say they can hear background noise. Turning it off gives the most natural sound in a quiet room — aggressive suppression can sometimes mistake sharp consonants (like "s") for noise and smooth them away. Note: this feature is silently ignored on iPhone/iPad and some other platforms.

Automatic microphone volume leveling

Asks the browser to automatically even out your loudness over time. Helpful if your microphone tends to capture your voice at very different volumes. Has no effect on iPhone/iPad and some other platforms.

Additional microphone boost

An additional software gain stage applied by the app itself (independent of the browser options above). Three options:

• Off — no additional processing.
• Adaptive — continuously measures your voice level and adjusts the gain to bring it toward a target loudness. It only reacts to actual speech (not silence), so quiet gaps don't cause the gain to spike. A good choice when your mic capture is consistently quiet and the browser options above don't help — especially on Samsung Internet, where the browser's own gain control often has no effect.
• Manual — adds a fixed boost (in dB) set with the slider. Combined with a built-in limiter to prevent clipping. Use this when you always want the same amount of boost regardless of how loud you're currently talking.

It's easy to remember, say out loud over the phone, or print on a poster or flyer. The room's QR code and Share button then lead to the custom link, and the room's original link keeps working too.

When creating a room, open "More options", tick "Set a custom link" and type a name. You can also add or change the link later - in the room's settings (the gear icon) choose "Custom link". The ✓ button next to the field (or moving on to the next field) tells you whether the name is free.

If the room's name can be turned into a free link, the field is already filled in with it - keep it or type your own. And when you rename a room that has no custom link yet, the app offers the link made from the new name and shows how it will look; create it with one tap or say "No thanks".

Only permanent rooms can have a custom link - a temporary room disappears after a day, and a printed link should last longer. You can change a temporary room to permanent in its settings.

6 to 32 characters: lowercase letters a–z, digits, hyphen (-) and underscore (_), starting and ending with a letter or digit. Capitals, spaces and accented letters are converted for you. A hyphen and an underscore count as the same character, so "my-tour" and "my_tour" are one link. Some names can't be used (e.g. the SpeakMic name, or names that sound like official institutions).

The old custom link stops working - including on printed QR codes. For 90 days no one else can take it, so it can't start leading to someone else's room; during that time your room can switch back to it. After a room is deleted its name is blocked for 90 days too, then anyone may use it.

It's not required, but worth setting. Without it, after switching phones or clearing your browser you can't manage the room or change or remove its link. That's why the app reminds you about the PIN when you set a link and in the room itself.

No - links like this are easy to guess, and anyone can check whether a name is taken. If the room is private, set a PIN to join it ("Only people with the PIN can join" when creating, or "Manage PINs" in the settings). Don't put personal data in the link's name.

Not by the app itself — audio travels directly between participants' devices and SpeakMic never saves or stores it anywhere. The one exception is opt-in: a broadcaster can choose to record their own broadcast locally (see "Can I record my broadcast?" above) — that recording stays on the broadcaster's own device and is never uploaded anywhere either.

They only exist temporarily while the conversation is happening — they disappear once everyone leaves the room, and are never stored permanently.

A room deletes itself automatically after 3 months without activity — for a broadcast room, without a broadcast; for a Walkie-⁠Talkie room, without anyone connecting. A temporary room deletes itself after 1 day with nobody in it.

PINs are never stored as plain text, only as an encrypted hash — even the app's operator can't see them. Still, treat a room's PIN and link like a key: anyone who knows them can join the room, and with an admin PIN, take over managing it.

The number of new rooms you can create per hour and per day is limited. Once you reach the limit, the app tells you so — try again later, or reuse one of your existing rooms (rooms keep their link). Limits may change, and some features can be temporarily restricted.

First check that the broadcast is actually running (on the speaker's side) and that their microphone isn't muted. Ask the person who can't hear anything to refresh the page, make sure they haven't muted the room in the app, and check their phone's volume.

Check that you allowed the site to access your microphone. On iPhone/iPad: tap the "aA" icon in Safari's address bar → Website Settings → Microphone → Allow, then refresh the page.

Try switching "Audio quality" to Balanced or Data saver, and for a large audience also check "Connection type" — "Relay tree" takes load off the speaker's device and usually makes the broadcast more stable.

If you set an admin PIN earlier, use "Recover access" on any device with the room's link. If you never set a PIN, access can't be recovered anymore — you'll need to create a new room.

Every room page has a "Report abuse" link at the bottom, which prepares an email to the app's operator.